WCW vs. The World is A Great Game with Dated Graphics

I’ve been looking forward to playing the WCW games on the PS1 and the N64. I have memories of Mayhem because it was a Christmas present. I didn’t play the other WCW games and missed out on the N64 games.

I didn’t watch WCW until 1999. I know I missed out on the company’s good years, but thanks to the Internet, I can go back and find out what I missed. The games are a big part of finding out what I missed.

I decided to go back and play WCW vs The World. I’m unsure what I’m getting into, but I’m looking forward to it.

TLDR: WCW vs. The World is an excellent game!  

Gameplay

I like the gameplay. There is no story mode, but there are plenty of game modes. The roster is massive, and the controls are great.

The controls took some time to get used to. Thankfully, I have the manual, so I don’t have to stop to try and look up the controls. When you pause the match, you can’t see a move list. This is a double-edged sword.

Unlike WWF Attitude and Warzone, you don’t have a long list of moves. This makes WCW vs. The World less like a fighting game. While it might take some time for new players to learn, it is a lot of fun to learn how to play.

Game modes:

• League Challenge
• Best of Seven
• Exhibition Match
• Elimination Match
• Tournament
• League Match
• Double Title Match

There are 52 wrestlers in this game. It is a massive roster when I compare it to the other games that I’ve played. I don’t recognize all of them, but it is a very cool roster of WCW and International wrestlers.

There are six leagues you can compete in. Here is a list of them:

• WCW
• Empire Wrestling Federation
• Samurai Wrestling Federation
• Dead or Alive
• Independent Union
• Neo Strong Wrestling

There are two Spirit meters at the bottom of the screen. I’m unsure which one is mine and what they mean. They both start as red and change color over the course of the match.

The manual attempts to explain the Spirit meter. It reads like an exercise in creative writing, as the author attempts to make it sound more important than it is. Basically, you want to make your meter white and then make it flash. This is when you’re at your strongest.

I would’ve liked to have a health bar, but that doesn’t need to be explained in any way. The Spirit meter is strange and doesn’t explain much about when to try to pin opponents. Now that I know how the Spirit meter works, I prefer a health bar.

You can win matches by pinfall, submission, or countout. Something odd I’ve noticed about wrestling games is that they give you to the count of 20 to get back in the ring. I’m guessing this is how matches go in Japan because I always thought it was a 10 count that was occasionally enforced.

There is a phone number for a hint line. These were phone numbers that you could call and either get hints from a person or an automated system. You would be charged a dollar a minute for the phone call.

I’ve only known one person who called one of these numbers. It was in college, and the guy called into the Magic: The Gathering helpline. It was very stupid. The number given in the game case has been passed around several times. I didn’t call it; I just googled it to find out who owned it now.

This game feels more like a wrestling simulation. Several other games I’ve played recently felt more like fighting games. The controls take some time to get used to, and it feels a little repetitive until you learn the other moves. It is much better than WWF Attitude, In Your House, and Wrestlemania the arcade game.

Visuals

WCW vs. The World looks okay. It is what you should expect from a game released in 1997. The closest game I can compare it to is Power Move Pro Wrestling. WCW vs. The World looks better than that game, but the two are close.

The animations on the moves look good, but there are some odd moments. Like every wrestling game, there are moments where you punch or kick through the other wrestler. This happens in every wrestling game, so it isn’t a big deal.

The character models are blocky. This is a product of the time the game was made and not a criticism. They look good despite the graphics.

Some of the wrestlers look better than others. Each one uses a similar model, making for some unintentional comedy. I personally like the flabby Ultimo Dragon. I don’t know why I find it funny. I don’t know the international wrestlers, so I don’t know how close they are to their real-life counterparts.

There are some hilarious pictures of each wrestler on the character selection screen. I think they look funny and add charm to the game. You wouldn’t see these pictures that look hand-drawn. It is a little goofy, but it is a welcome addition to a game like this.

The crowd and the ring look fine. They aren’t all that special, but they get the job done. The bigger issue is the lack of ring entrances for the wrestlers.

When the match starts, both wrestlers are just standing there. While I would’ve liked to see what they could do with ring entrances, I don’t want to have to see the Mayhem or Attitude entrances. Saturday Night Slam Masters had great ring entrances; I’m not sure why these games couldn’t pull one off.

Overall, I like the graphics. They are dated by today’s standards, but I like them. WCW vs. The World isn’t going to look as good as Smackdown, but it does look better than In Your House and Power Move Pro Wrestling.

8.5/10. This is a wonderful game! The graphics are what you should expect from a 3-D game released in 1997. The controls are great, even though they take some time to get used to.

Conclusion

This is one of the games that is still fun to play today. It doesn’t look all that great, but it is a ton of fun to play. Discovering a good game while going through a stack of retro games is always fun. It happens quite a bit, but it is still a fun experience.

WCW vs The World is a wrestling game I would’ve loved back in the day. It might’ve got me into watching World Championship Wrestling. I was more of a WWF fan when I was a kid and only started watching WCW once the wheels had fallen off the company.

I’m not sure which game I’ll look at next. I still have a bunch of wrestling games on the PS1/PSX to play before I can rank them. I can say that WCW vs. The World is one of the better wrestling games I’ve played so far.