WWF War Zone is a Great Retro Arcade Game

I get WWF War Zone confused with Attitude. I remember renting one of them, but I might have rented both. They’re similar games with the same strengths and weaknesses.

Both games were just placeholders for the Smackdown games. They were good at the time, but playing them now can be annoying. They’re both playable, but I would rather go back to the Smackdown games instead.

I remember playing this game in high school. It is closer to an arcade game, and Attitude is more like a simulation. They have similar control schemes, graphics, and issues. The problem is that the game has similar issues to what you saw in WWF Attitude.

TLDR: A bridge between arcade wrestling games and simulation games.

Narrative

This plays like an arcade game, similar to WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game and WWF In Your House. There is no story and no career mode. You play through a gauntlet match until you get the WWF Championship.

There are some stipulation matches, but nothing that adds to the story. This is basically an arcade game. That isn’t a bad thing. This is one of the last arcade-style Wrestling games that I’m aware of. I have more memories of the simulation games like Smackdown and Attitude.

It isn’t a problem that there is no story. It is an arcade game that tries to create some storylines around matches. You can also see changes in the order of wrestlers you have to fight.

Gameplay

I got War Zone confused with Attitude. This game has an arcade-style gameplay and easier controls, but it lacks the career mode in Attitude. The roster was pretty good, and you had a create-a-wrestler, which is always great.

There are a lot of match options in the game. The challenge mode was the one I played the most, but you can also play in a four-player mode. In the challenge mode, some stipulation matches are also thrown in.

This game has a pretty good roster. It reflects how good the WWF was in 1998, as opposed to the previous WWF games that were hamstrung by the “New Generation” era of the WWF. Here is the roster:

• Steve Austin
• British Bulldog
• Faarooq
• Goldust
• Triple H
• Mankind
• The Rock
• Ahmed
• Bret Hart
• Owen Hart
• Undertaker
• Ken Shamrock
• Kane
• Thrasher
• Mosh
• Shawn Michaels

The controls in War Zone are better than Attitude. At least I found it easier to play this game. You still have the move list you can bring up in the pause menu, but I found pulling off moves in Warzone easier. I still don’t like the move list concept, but back in the late 1990s, I probably wouldn’t have had an issue with it.

Some of the moves can be difficult to execute. I found it a little tricky to consistently do them. This could be due to a lot of things. I tend to blame myself when it comes to things like this.

There are a lot of game modes. The big draw for me was the Challenge mode, but there are others as well. Here is a list of them:

• Challenges
• Versus Mode
• Tag Team
• Cage
• Weapons Match
• Training

The user interface is pretty simple. You have the character name, the health bar, and the pain bar. The health bar is very straightforward. Green is good, and Red means you’re in danger. The health bar doubles as the hold, pain, stun, and pin meters. It is a nice interface that explains everything you need.

I do like the game, but it feels like you’re sometimes playing with training wheels. Some matches can be hard at first. I never felt like I was going to lose a match. This game is easier to play than WWF Attitude, and the learning curve wasn’t too bad.

Visuals

This is a product of its time. The graphics were good for 1998 or 1999, but they take a hit in retrospect, especially regarding the ring entrances. The cutscenes are also pretty cool. They set up some storylines for the game.  

The entrances for the wrestlers are pretty terrible. They are less elaborate than the WCW Mayhem entrances and have similar graphics. The presentation isn’t too bad, but those entrances are bad. I guess they are at least in the game.

The wrestlers in the game recorded some promos for it. It is pretty awesome! Occasionally, you see a promo from an opponent who challenges you to a match. I like it a lot, and it reminds me of other games from the 1990s with live-action cutscenes.

There are some CGI cutscenes as well. They try to advance a story, but it isn’t all that deep. The cutscenes look okay, but they don’t lead to anything.

It is a nice-looking PS1 game. It looks like WWF Attitude, mainly because it came out before that game. I like the way it looks, despite the disappointing ring entrances.

7/10. This is a good arcade-style wrestling game. It has some things that you might see in a simulation, but it isn’t that front and center.

Pros

• Decent Gameplay
• Good Roster
• Good Create-a-Wrestler mode

Cons

• Pausing to pull up the move list
• Unresponsive controls at times

Conclusion

I like this game, but it has plenty of flaws. It has the same control scheme as Attitude, but it feels easier to control in War Zone. It feels like a bridge between the arcade games of the early and mid-1990s and the simulations that the genre would morph into.

I got this game confused with Attitude. I have no idea why, but I flipped these two games when I was talking about them before. They came out close together, and I remember playing both of them with my friend Drew. I think we played a four-player game at some point with our friends Alex and Justin, but that could’ve been a different game.

War Zone is a fun game that is deeper than the other arcade games. It also has more of a story than some of the simulation games. It isn’t anything special, but at least the game tries. This game did get passed up by the Smackdown games, but it is still worth checking out.