I thought the first ECW game was a little disappointing. It didn’t feel like an ECW game because it was just a re-skin of WWF Attitude. The second ECW game, Anarchy Rulz, uses the same engine as WWF Attitude but was modified to be closer to an ECW game.
This was made in the weird 1990s when the letter Z was added to words to make them cool. The word Extreme was used similarly, so this game got a double whammy of awkward 1990s marketing. At least they didn’t spell it Xtreme. That would’ve been the game’s death knell before it was released.
The game can be a bit of a slog to get through. Much like Hardcore Revolution and WWF Attitude, working your way up the ranks takes a while. I didn’t like this game as much as WWF Attitude. It is an okay game, but not one I would want to go back to.
TLDR: Anarchy Rulz feels like an ECW game but is hamstrung by the WWF Attitude engine.
Narrative
There is no story, but there are three career modes. You can play a singles career or a tag team, or you can create a stable of wrestlers. This last one has you create a team of four wrestlers. You’re not chasing after a specific championship, and the game ends with a battle royal.
Gameplay
Anarchy Rulz feels a little more like an ECW game. It is a modified version of WWF Attitude, so you still have to open a menu to see your move lists. The control scheme is awkward, but I could memorize a few of the button commands as I played.
This is something that seems to get ignored when people play it. The move list is situational, but it isn’t impossible to remember a handful of moves. If you can do it in a fighting game, then you should be able to do it here.
Unfortunately, I was struggling with the controls early on. It took a while to get used to them, and they felt a little worse than Hardcore Revolution and WWF Attitude. I could pull off some moves, but others wouldn’t work.
Everything got countered in this game, and it got ridiculous. I don’t remember having this much trouble with the other wrestling games, but my god, this got annoying.
There are a lot of game modes here. Here is a list of them:
- One-on-One
- Tag Team
- Tornado Match
- One-on-Two
- One-on-Three
- Lumberjack
- 3-way Dance
- 4-way Dance
- Battle Royal
- Hate Match
- Team Rumble
- Stable Match
Many of these modes get repeated in elimination style matches. The only new match for an elimination style is the 8-man Tag match. You can also play a career mode and a tournament.
The biggest issue I had was getting the moves to work. Often, the move that I tried to do wouldn’t come out, and one of the default moves would be performed, or I would get reversed. The computer seems to counter most of the moves. It got very frustrating to try and play the game.
I think the gameplay is okay. It is a little better than Attitude and Hardcore Revolution, but it feels like this game takes a little longer to adjust. There is a lot to do in the game, but it can be a slog to try and get through it.
Visuals
This is a decent-looking game. I can’t tell if it is an improvement over the graphics in WWF Attitude or ECW Hardcore Revolution. The game seems to have more blood, and it doesn’t look as bad as the first ECW game.
The cuts just appear on the wrestlers. Sometimes, they make sense, like when they’re on a wrestler’s head. However, you’ll also see them appear on your opponent’s stomach or back. This was odd because I don’t remember stabbing them.
The ring and crowd look decent, and the ring entrances also look good for the period. While the character models look okay, there are some odd moments because they lack facial expressions. Some of the wrestlers come to the ring with weapons, but the scale of those weapons confused me.
Justin Credible comes to the ring with a Kendo Stick, I think. It looks longer than his character model for some reason. It made me wonder if Justin Credible was only 5 feet tall or if the Kendo Stick was 8 feet long. The weapons also disappear when the match starts. Where did they go, and does it matter?
Some of the stipulation matches look really great, including the cage and barbwire rope matches. Granted, the ring ropes often look stiff, which is a recurring problem with the WWF Attitude, Warzone, and ECW Hardcore Revolution games. It is like you’re running into a wall when you hit the ropes.
This is a good-looking game for the late 1990s and early 2000s. The use of blood still looks awkward, but that is just how it was done at that time. The blood is the only thing I can complain about.
7.5/10. This is an improvement over ECW Hardcore Revolution, but it has the same issues as that game, and the game it is based on is WWF Attitude.
Pros
- Lots of Game Modes
- Large Roster
- Decent Graphics
Cons
- Repetitive
- Annoying controls
- Frustrating Gameplay
Conclusion
ECW Anarchy Rulz has the same strengths and weaknesses as the other games that use the WWF Warzone and WWF Attitude engines. It is better than Hardcore Revolution and feels like an ECW game. The developers still had limits but added enough to make the game closer to what ECW was like.
The roster is also held back by what ECW was like at this time. Several of the more prominent names, or the names that I would recognize, aren’t in the game. While I recognized some of the wrestlers from retrospectives, several I associate with the company aren’t here. If I were more of a fan of ECW, I would’ve known more about the roster.
It can be a fun game. Like the other games Acclaim released on the PS1, Anarchy Rulz has issues. I enjoyed the game once I got into it. However, I don’t think I missed anything by not playing this game when it came out.