I enjoyed playing most of these games. There are a few that I’m glad I don’t have to deal with on the next consoles. I got sick of playing the games that used the WWF Warzone engine.

Just like the PS1 games, the WCW games got worse as the years went on, and the WWF games got much better. It is like the games were mirroring the two companies. I’m sure they had nothing to do with it.

It was surprising only to see one ECW game on the N64. I’m guessing it was too close to the company going out of business, and the developer didn’t want to waste their time. It is something I might want to look into at some point.

This was a fun journey through the games on the N64 library. I’ve heard a lot about how bad the N64 was and how terrible the games are. This wasn’t the experience I had with most of the wrestling games. There was only one game that I thought was nearly unplayable.

Bottom Line up Front: I ranked the Wrestling games on the N64 from worst to first.

WCW Nitro

Developer: Inland Productions

Genre: Arcade Wrestling

Review Score: 2/10.

This is a terrible port of an awful game. I didn’t like the PS1 version, and the N64 version is significantly worse. All of the things I liked about the PS1 game are gone, and we’re left with a miserable experience that at least looks okay. I wasn’t expecting much, and somehow, it managed to underdeliver.

This is an arcade wrestling game. There is no grapple system, which is bizarre for a wrestling game. The graphics are decent for the time, and the developers at least updated the roster from the PS1 version of the game.

The N64 port was released a year after the PS1 game. Inland Productions updated it with part of WCW Thunder, but that did little to improve the game. If anything, they managed to make this version worse than the PS1 version. It is an awful game that is close to being unplayable.

WCW Backstage Assault

Developer: Kodiak Interactive

Genre: Arcade Wrestling

Review Score: 48/100 (Metacritic)

I like this game more than WCW Nitro. This game is playable. I’m not sure why anyone would want to go back and play it, but stranger things have happened, and someone might want to do what I’m doing and review all the wrestling games on a retro console.

This is a worse version of the PS1 game. Every match takes place in the backstage area, and all of the matches are hardcore matches. This game feels like the result of what Vince Russo wanted to turn WCW into. It’s a wrestling game devoid of creativity and taking place away from a wrestling ring.

The only thing that saves this game from being in the bottom slot is that I enjoyed it more than the WCW Nitro mess. Backstage Assault didn’t have the same issues as that game. I could play the game, but I didn’t have a great experience with it.

WWF Warzone

Developer: Iguana West

Genre: Arcade/Simulation Wrestling

Review Score: 85/100 (GameRankings)

This game is great. I like the PS1 version more than this one, but it is still a great game. This is one of the many games I feel like I’m the only person who likes. I’m sure that everyone has a game like this.

This is a bridge between arcade and simulation games. In some ways, it resembles a fighting game. The biggest criticism I see of this game, and the other games that use this engine, is the menu system. Once you learn the moves, you can ignore the menus in the game.

While the game has issues, it is much better than WCW Nitro and Backstage Assault. I don’t like this one as much as Mayhem, and it isn’t as good as the other games on this list. I do have a soft spot for WWF Warzone, as I played the game a lot when it was released.

ECW Hardcore Revolution

Developer: Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City

Genre: Simulation Wrestling

Review Score: 57/100 (GameRankings)

When I think about it, the ECW Hardcore Revolution is a little better than the WWF Warzone. It is very close as the two games share the same controls, graphics, and gameplay. The ECW game has a few more game modes, and even though I don’t like the career mode that much, it is a positive for the game.

Much like WWF Attitude, this game is a tedious career mode. There are other ways to play, and some of the other modes are closer to what you might expect from an ECW game. Unfortunately, the developers couldn’t replicate what you might’ve seen on ECW’s television program.

This is a decent game, but it isn’t much better than WWF Attitude and WWF Warzone. I could shuffle the order for these three games, which wouldn’t make much difference. This game is like the WWF’s version of an ECW game.  

WWF Attitude

Developer: Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City

Genre: Simulation Wrestling

Review Score: 74/100 (GameRankings)

This was one of my favorite games on the PS1 when it was released. The first time I played the N64 game was for this review. I’m getting a little sick of it after playing this game and the others that use the same engine.

This is the best of the bunch, but it is still a tedious game to play through. It has a decent career mode, but there is no storyline, and it takes a long time to get through. This game would be more fun to play with a friend, but it isn’t as fun as the other games on this list.

WWF Attitude made a bunch of strides toward what wrestling games would be. At the time, this game looked great, and the career mode was awesome! As wrestling games advanced, this game became obsolete. WCW/NWO: Revenge, WrestleMania 2000, and No Mercy are considerably better than this game.

WCW Mayhem

Developer: Kodiak Interactive

Genre: Arcade Wrestling

Review Score: 68/100 (GameRankings)

This is the last good WCW video game. After this one, things go downhill quickly. This version of the game is pretty good. I like the PS1 version better, but this could be put down to nostalgia.

The controls, graphics, and gameplay are pretty good. The gameplay has a lot of arcade elements, which wasn’t the direction wrestling games were taking at this time. It does have a bunch of features from the WWF games of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

This should’ve been the direction of the WCW games. Mayhem is much better than WCW Nitro and WCW Backstage Assault. It feels like a more complete game with good controls and a great roster of wrestlers.

WCW vs. NWO: World Tour

Developer: Aki Corporation

Genre: Arcade Wrestling

Review Score: 75/100 (GameRankings)

This was great! I played this game after suffering through WCW Nitro and Backstage Assault, and I was so glad I got to play one of the good WCW games. I like this one a little more than WCW Mayhem, so I’m ranking it ahead of that game.

While this game has dated graphics and lacks some of the features of the other games on this list, it is a very fun game! The controls and roster are great, and it is an easy game to learn to play. This is one of the more accessible games for new players.

This is one of the better wrestling games on the N64, and I think it would’ve been one of the better games on the PS1. It is a fun game that is easy to learn, and despite the date graphics, it is pretty good. I would’ve liked this game if I played it in 1997.

WCW/NWO: Revenge

Developer: Aki Corporation

Genre: Wrestling

Review Score: 83/100 (GameRankings)

This is a sequel to WCW vs. NWO: World Tour. It improves on what World Tour did. While the graphics are mostly the same as World Tour, the gameplay is a little better. The roster has been updated, and the game has more things to do.

WCW/NWO: Revenge is a spectacular game. The controls are great, the game has a great roster, and it is easy to learn how to play! I wish this had been the direction the other WCW games went in, but the license was given to other studios.

This was my favorite WCW wrestling game on every console. It was better than WCW vs. The World on the PS1 and WCW vs. NWO: World Tour on the N64. This is the game WCW should’ve gone out on because the other WCW games range from terrible to average.

WWF WrestleMania 2000

Developer: Aki Corporation

Genre: Simulation Wrestling

Review Score: 84/100 (GameRankings)

This was an awesome game to go back and play. I would’ve liked this game a lot when I was in high school, and it could’ve been my favorite wrestling game. It is as close to the Smackdown games as you can get.

The game that this compares to is the first Smackdown game. Both games have great rosters, controls, and graphics. WrestleMania is held back by being on the N64, but it is a spectacular wrestling game. I loved that this game had a career mode, even if it was rather simple.

WWF WrestleMania 2000 was a huge upgrade over the other WWF games on the N64. I like it more than WWF Attitude and Warzone. It is one of the many games I missed out on, and I was glad that I could go back and revisit the game.

WWF No Mercy

Developer: Aki Corporation

Genre: Simulation Wrestling

Review Score: 89/100 (Metacritic)

This is the best wrestling game on the N64. It was so much fun to play this for the first time, and I found it hard to put the game down so I could write a review. This is right up there with the Smackdown games on the PS1.

I had never played this game before starting this little project. WWF: No Mercy is one of the best games I’ve played for the N64. Its graphics, gameplay, and story mode are spectacular. It is a huge improvement on WrestleMania 2000. The career mode in this game is as good and maybe better than Smackdown 2.

If WWF: No Mercy was on the PS1, it would’ve been one of my favorite games on the console. I like it as much as Smackdown 2, and if the graphics were better, this game would’ve been better than that game. This is an awesome game that I loved playing.

The things I noticed

I started looking at the older reviews of these games. What I did was pick four reviews and looked over the verdicts of each game. I noticed a few interesting things by doing this.

The reviewers put an emphasis on graphics. At times, this led them to overlook the gameplay to a comical extent. This was very apparent when I read the reviews for WWF Attitude and compared them to WWF WrestleMania 2000.

Yes, the graphics are less blocky in WWF Attitude, but the gameplay is worse overall. The gameplay is not on the same level as WrestleMania 2000, No Mercy, Revenge, or World Tour. Those games have better controls and better gameplay.

It was strange to see how they ignored the improvements from those games and focused on the graphical differences. I wasn’t looking to bash these magazines and the authors. They probably didn’t anticipate some jerk reading their reviews 25-30 years after they were written.

It speaks more about the way video game media covers video games. The “traditional” media had a way they wanted to cover this stuff, and it is similar to how the “social media journalists” cover it now. I would have to do more research if I wanted to turn it into a project at some point.

The trajectory of the WWF and WCW games is oddly similar to how the two companies would go. The WCW games got progressively worse, and the WWF games got better. The WCW games regressed to more arcade gameplay, and the WWF games started to innovate and improve the gameplay.

Conclusion

It was a ton of fun to go back and play these games. Some were what I was expecting, and only one was considerably worse. I thought WCW Backstage Assault would be the worst, but what Inland Productions did with WCW Nitro was so bad. The WWF games were very good!

There were four games I hadn’t played before or don’t remember if I had played before this little project. All four games are as good as the Smackdown games on the PS1. If they had been ported to the PS1, they would’ve been some of the best games on the system.

I found myself getting burnt out on the Acclaim games. WWF Warzone, Attitude, and ECW Hardcore Revolution use the same or similar engines. I liked Warzone and Attitude when they were released on the PS1, but after playing a few versions, I started getting sick of them. Thankfully, I only have one more version of WWF Attitude and ECW Hardcore Revolution to play.

 I’m not sure what I’m going to do next. There are only four wrestling games on the Dreamcast, and I have some games on the Game Boy to play. At this time, I’m not planning to give them individual reviews, especially the Dreamcast games, as there is only one exclusive on that console.

If you liked this list, please check out my rankings of the SNES and Genesis wrestling games.

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