WCW vs NWO: World Tour on the N64

WCW vs. NWO: World Tour is one of the games I missed out on when I was younger. My friends and I didn’t watch WCW, and I don’t remember hearing about this game. I vaguely remember playing one of the WCW vs. NWO games before a pay-per-view party, but I’m not sure which one.

My friends and I mostly played wrestling games on the PS1, all of which were from the WWF. I remember seeing the WCW games but had no interest in playing them. The only WCW game I have clear memories of is WCW Mayhem.

I’m looking forward to this one because I’ve heard how good this game and WCW vs. NWO Revenge were. Hopefully, this game hasn’t been overhyped for me. Anyway, let’s check out the game and see what it offers.

Author’s Note: Whenever I try to write “NWO,” my computer corrects it to “NOW.” I’ve tried to correct it, but I’m not sure if I got all of them.

TLDR: A spectacular game to play.

Narrative

There isn’t a story or career mode in the game. There is a theme of WCW fighting the NWO, and you have two international wrestling rosters in the game. The NWO storyline from the television show is given a match type in the game, so they tried to include something close to a story.

Gameplay

Everything in this game is easy to do, and it feels great to play. After suffering through some of the bad WCW games, this one was like a breath of fresh air. The game feels good to play. That is the best way I can put it.

The gameplay is pretty good. It is much better than the other N64 games I’ve played so far. While there is no story or career mode, there are quite a few options in the game.

Here is a list of the game modes:

• WCW vs. NWO – This is like a Survivors Series match where you form a team of five wrestlers and try to eliminate the other team.
• Exhibition
• Round Robin
• League

Depending on the game mode, you can choose between a single or tag team match. This is nice and what you should expect from a game released in 1997. The game also lacks a create-a-wrestler option.

You can play in a handicap match or a battle royale. There are some weapons matches in the game. The game has a decent amount of variety, which is a plus. It is refreshing to play something like this after suffering through WCW Backstage Assault.

There are four groups of wrestlers you can choose from. Two are international, and the other two represent WCW and NWO. I’m not too familiar with wrestling promotions outside of WCW, WWF, and ECW, so I’m unsure who each of those wrestlers is.

The roster is pretty great. There are some wrestlers I would’ve liked to see in the game, but you can’t put everyone in there. It isn’t a big deal, though, as the wrestlers in the game represent the more prominent wrestlers employed by WCW. I have no idea how popular the international wrestlers were.

The controls are easy to learn. The game uses a pressure system to determine whether an attack is strong or weak. I looked up the controls before playing the game, and since I don’t own the manual, I had to find it online. Here is a link to the manual (Link).

This is a great game! I wish I had played this back in 1997, as I probably would have enjoyed it enough to want to get an N64. I missed out on so many games by staying with the PS1. It is great to come back and play these to see what I missed.

Visuals

The game looks a little better than WCW vs The World. WCW vs. NWO: World Tour was released a year after that game, even though their North American release dates are close together. There is probably a story behind this, but that is beyond the scope of this review.

World Tour is a little blocky, the faces don’t look great, and the audience is a bit of a mess. These are only problems as I look back at the game, and they wouldn’t have been issues in 1997. This game would’ve been great looking for the time.

The wrestler models look okay. In 1997, this would’ve been acceptable, if not great. They are smoother than other 3D games like WCW vs. The World.

The animations on the moves are great. I don’t have anything to complain about here. It is a good looking N64 game.

I have one minor issue with this game: There are no ring entrances for the wrestlers. It isn’t a big issue, but it is a problem. This is something that would’ve been nice to have, but it isn’t all that important.

The graphics are dated. I said this about WCW vs. The World, and it holds true here. WCW vs. NWO is a spectacular game with dated graphics, but the visuals don’t impact the game much.

8.5/10. The gameplay is spectacular! It is an easy game to learn and play. The only thing I can fault the game for would be the date graphics, which is only an issue in retrospect. The graphics would have been good to great for 1997 and don’t seriously impact the score.

Pros

• Excellent Controls
• Great Roster of Wrestlers
• Lots of Variety in the Gameplay
• Good Gameplay

Cons

• Dated Graphics
• No Create-a-wrestler mode
• No ring entrances for wrestlers.

Conclusion

This is one of the N64 exclusive games. It is a little strange playing this game for the first time, which is something I could say about all of the N64 wrestling games. It makes me wonder why my friends and I didn’t play the wrestling games on the N64. My friend Drew had the console, but we almost exclusively played wrestling games on the PS1.

Thanks to the Reliving the War series on YouTube, I’m up to date on what is happening with WCW during this time. I didn’t start watching WCW Nitro and Thunder until late 1999 and early 2000. This didn’t give me the best impression of WCW and why it was great.

I wish I had played this game back in the 1990s. It might have gotten me to check out WCW’s TV shows. I didn’t have an N64 at the time, and maybe this would have given me a reason to get one.

If you liked this post, check out my other wrestling content, such as my review of WCW vs. The World or my ranking list of the PS1 Wrestling Games.