Let's face it, consoles have dominated PC's in terms
of wrestling games. The only wrestling games ever to come to
the PC was the line of arcade style WWF games with
absolutely no real value. Anyone familiar with consoles knows
the N64 arguably has the best wrestling game available "WCW
Revenge", however one might argue "WWF Warzone" is
better, but I like them both. A little less than a year ago THQ
released its highly anticipated "WCW Nitro" on the Playstation,
admittedly I hurried out and bought it. Shortly thereafter I
returned it, praising my self for saving the receipt. The question
is brothers, ooooh yeahhh, will this port from THQ live up to its
console counterparts?
WCW Nitro features all the WCW players and the
N-W-O crew. Compete in events such as; singles, tag team,
battle royal, and multiplayer mode. Fight in all of WCW's
arenas such as Souled Out, Monday Nitro, and Halloween
Havoc. Over sixty wrestlers are included each with their own
taunt, clothing, and special finisher move.
One would assume that porting a PSX game to the
PC would improve the graphics. However the grainy, pixilated,
hideous graphics in WCW Nitro prove that the platform jump is
not always a smooth one. First off lets start with the backdrops,
they are a textbook definition of pixilation. If you're ever
wondering how jagged textures can be I suggest you take a
look at Nitro. Hell, I had a hard time figuring out if those
squarish shaking textures near the ring were actually Nitro
girls.
Next on to character animation's, great use of 1995
technology THQ! Nitro's creators even opted to leave in the
jagged edges all over the wrestlers skin to create that
"un-polished" rough look. The only thing I actually enjoyed
about Nitro's graphics was the occasional shot of a WCW
wrestler in the menus.
Control is fairly basic, it consists of a few buttons that
perform blocks, punches, kicks, and chops. Along with the
typical foot and fist moves you can also perform devastating
pro-wrestling moves. DDT's, pile drivers, suplexes, and maybe
four or five others. The only moves worth a damn are the
power moves like the ones I listed before, so basically that's all
a match consists of is doing the most combinations you can.
After playing the PSX version of this game I was fairly adapted
to the controls and expected more of the same. However, I was
mistaken and was constantly confused as to what the hell I was
doing.
Sound effects are a mixed bag; in a few aspects they
are decent and in others they lack severely. As the match
begins you hear WCW's premiere announcer, "Mean" Gene
Okerlund, announcing the match-up. Along with the
commentating, each wrestler has one or two unique sound
effects that vary from grunts to taunts and rants. For the most
part they are muffled and don't seem to really do the job. I
would have appreciated a lot more comments from the
wrestlers themselves, like Hulk Hogan's N-W-O for life bit.
For the standard wring effects like; the bell, the cheap noise
the mat makes, and the grunts and groans from the wrestlers,
the sound quality is mediocre at best and just doesn't compare in
today's PC game market.
Gameplay consists of your basic "pro wrestling"
havoc, that is beat the crap out of your opponent until you can
pin him for three seconds. Fights consist of 1 on 1 or tag team
matches with the occasional run in from a fellow N-W-O
member or some guy you pissed off last week. Left out on the
PSX version is the Battle Royal mode, which makes its
appearance on the PC port, and honestly it's not worth a damn
either. Most of the time I felt as though the match was moving
in slow motion and really didn't capture the whole atmosphere
of wrestling. It felt like I plopped down twenty-five cents for
another cheap arcade experience. Another annoying quirk of
the game is the lack or depth or moves for the bonus
characters. Most of the "secret" characters are nothing more
than the initial wrestlers but with different costumes on. True
there are a lot of characters, but they all have the almost the
same moves, which adds nothing to replay value. At least most
of WCW's top superstars are included, like Hollywood Hogan,
Macho Man, and the Stone Cold rip off Gold Berg.
Before I talk about fun factor I must admit I'm a WWF
fan and I think WCW is for white trash and rednecks, but that
still won't prevent me from fairly reviewing a WCW video
game. Fun Factor really should be called the fed up with crap
game factor, I absolutely hated playing this game, and it
should be avoided by all.
Multiplayer consists of TCP/IP, Modem, and IPX
Support. With a cable modem host the game papered to be
free of lag, but after the match we noticed a lot of
inconsistencies in what happened.
The worst part of this game is the fact that I know
what THQ is capable of, WCW Revenge on the Nintendo 64 is
one of my favorite games and I know just how well THQ pulled
that one off. Here is my advice for THQ: fire whoever is
responsible for this monstrosity. Die hard fans are the only
group of people I could see actually getting a thrill out of this
game if you can overcome the bad control, wretched graphics,
and cheap sound effects.