I’ve already played all the WCW games I’m aware of. There are thirteen games across the NES, SNES, PS1, N64, and Game Boy. Some of these are among the worst games I’ve ever played, while others are very good.

I’m going to go over some of the reviews for these games that stood out. I also want to get a consensus on how these games were received at the time of their release. In retrospective reviews of these games, there are some clear favorites. Then there is WCW Mayhem, a game I like more than most.

It was interesting to see how the WCW games got worse as the years went on. It mirrors how the wrestling company was going, and how it ended in 2001. The games started off being good, got a little off track in the mid-1990s, got really good from 1996-1998, and finally fell apart in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Let’s get into the list, and I’ll save some of my thoughts for the end. As always, if you disagree with me, feel free to post it in the comments.

Bottom Line up Front: The WCW video games ranked from worst to first.

WCW Nitro (N64 Version)

Developer: Inland Productions

Genre: Wrestling Arcade

Review Score: 2/10 (My Score)

This is one of the worst games I’ve ever played. It is a combination of WCW Nitro and WCW/NWO Thunder. The outcome of this is a game that is almost unplayable.

The best part of this game is the roster. After that, it all falls apart. The controls are terrible, which severely hampers the game.

Nothing is worse than this game. Everything else on this list is at least playable. I would love to know more about Inland Productions and how they made these games. It feels like there should be a larger story behind how they did what they did.

WCW Backstage Assault (N64 Version)

Developer: Kodiak Interactive

Genre: Arcade Wrestling

Review Score: 48/100 (Metacritic)

I have no idea what WCW was doing when it came to video games from 1999 to 2001. You could say this about many things going on with WCW, but this is a list of the video games, so I’ll stick to that. Backstage Assault should have been a match type inside a bigger game.

Nothing about this game feels finished. The graphics and controls aren’t good, and it is very boring. The only thing you can do in this game is play a one-on-one hardcore match. There is no story, no other match types, and no reason to play it.

I only put this game ahead of Nitro on the N64 because it is playable. I have no idea why anyone would want to play it, but it is playable. It is just so strange that this game even exists, but I suppose it fits in with what was going on in WCW at the time.

WCW Backstage Assault (PS1 Version)

Developer: Kodiak Interactive

Genre: Wrestling Arcade

Review Score: 40/100 (Metacritic)

I did have fun with this game for about 20 minutes. Then WCW Backstage Assault got very boring. The PS1 version is better than the N64 version, but not by much. Both are bad games that should’ve been match options in a larger game.

This isn’t too different from the N64 version of the game. The controls aren’t great, the graphics are bad, and there isn’t much to do. The inclusion of TV footage is the only thing that I liked about this game. Both games have destructible environments, but that doesn’t make the game any better.

Both of these games should’ve been part of a larger game. WCW Backstage Assault is just a series of hardcore matches. It gets very boring and repetitive, even though there are a ton of things to unlock in this game.

Author’s Note: I could easily swap the previous games around. The only one I’m certain of is the N64 version of WCW Nitro. Nothing is worse than that game.

WCW/NWO Thunder

Developer: Inland Productions

Genre: Wrestling Arcade

Review Score: 58/100

This is a sequel to WCW Nitro. Inland Productions made the bold step of making everything worse instead of improving anything. The only good thing about this game would be the graphics. Aside from that, everything got worse.

Since this game is on the PS1, you get some nice video from the TV show, and the intros are good. The in-game graphics look pretty good. After that, the game totally falls apart. The controls are terrible, there are no lock-ups, and the game feels like an awful version of an arcade game.

Normally, I like the gameplay in arcade games. It is nice to kick back and play something that is easy to learn, but hard to master. The Inland Production games are different; they are annoying to learn and completely unsatisfying to master.

WCW Nitro (PS1 Version)

Developer: Inland Productions

Genre: Wrestling Arcade

Review Score: 6.5/10 (EGM)

You can play the PS1 version of WCW Nitro, but I’m not sure why anyone would want to, aside from making a list like this. Much like WCW/NWO Thunder, the only good thing about this game is the graphics. After that, the game falls apart.

There was one thing that I liked about this game. The intro, promos on the selection screen, and the other FMV from the TV show were nice to see. The controls and gameplay were awful. I’m not sure why the developers removed grapple moves from this game, but the did and it makes everything suck.

WCW The Main Event

Developer: Beam Software

Genre: Arcade Wrestling

Review Score: 6.3/10 (MobyGames)

This one wasn’t too bad. It is what I was expecting from a Game Boy game from the 1990s. For a Game Boy game, this isn’t too bad.

The controls and graphics are acceptable for the time. I wasn’t expecting much from a Game Boy game, and I think WCW The Main Event delivered on what I would want from something like this. I had more fun with this game than I did with the others lower on this list.

The first thing you might notice is a lack of Ric Flair in this game. He returned to WCW while this game was being finished. It was too late to add him, and it was too late to remove the Steiner Brothers, who had left the company around the same time.

WCW SuperBrawl

Developer: Beam Software

Genre: Arcade Wrestling

Review Score: 48/100 (Moby Games)

WCW SuperBrawl isn’t too bad. It has a lot of problems, but I enjoyed it. Is it something I would want to go back to? No, it isn’t, but it is better than many other WCW games, especially those made from 1999 to 2001.

The biggest issue with this game is the controls. The graphics are decent when you get to the ring, but the digitized photos of wrestlers and the short animations on the character select screen are not very good-looking. The sound is one of the better parts of the game.

I couldn’t find a reason to put the Game Boy game ahead of this one. Like many of the other games in the bottom half of this list, I most likely won’t come back to this game. 

WCW Wrestling

Developer: Nihon Bussan

Genre: Wrestling

Review Score: 5.9/10 (MobyGames)

WCW Wrestling is one of the better NES wrestling games. The customization options are an interesting twist on the gameplay. It also has some interesting quirks to its development that I find a little funny.

This was a fun little game. It was nice to play something other than the LJN or Acclaim wrestling games. The controls took some time to get used to, and the graphics were rather funny at times, but it was a very fun wrestling game on the NES.

This is a reskin of a Japanese wrestling game. Many of the wrestlers are based on Japanese and North American wrestlers who happened to be with the promotion. The Japanese game’s roster was a combination of All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling.

WCW Mayhem (N64 Version)

Developer: Kodiak Interactive

Genre: Wrestling Arcade

Review Score: 68/100 (GameRankings)

There isn’t much separating this version of Mayhem from the PS1 version. WCW Mayhem is an average wrestling game. It is better than Nitro, Thunder, and Backstage Assault. It gets a lot of things right, but it isn’t on par with the Smackdown games, No Mercy, or WrestleMania 2000.

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 Mayhem (PS1 Version)

Developer: Kodiak Interactive

Genre: Wrestling Arcade

Review Score: 73/100 (GameRankings

I like this game more than most people. It’s nothing special, but it is better than the other games on this list. This version of the game is one of the few that I owned as a kid.

Mayhem was a big improvement over Nitro and Thunder. I know that isn’t saying much, but this game has better graphics, controls, and gameplay is much better. This game just wasn’t as good as the WWF games released around this time.

This was one of the better WCW games released in the late 1990s. It was also the last good WCW game. If you were looking for a middle-of-the-road wrestling game, this would be it. I like it, but it isn’t anything special.

WCW vs. The World

Developer: The Man Breeze

Genre: Wrestling Arcade

Review Score: 74/100 (GameRankings)

WCW vs. The World is a fantastic game, and I wish I had known about it back in the 1990s. The game is a reskin or a port of a Japanese game. This was pretty common for the WCW games for some reason. It did make the WCW games a little better than the WWF games for a while.

The gameplay is terrific. The spirit meter was a little confusing early on, but it made sense after I looked it up in the manual. Still, I wouldn’t say I liked it, but at least it made sense. The graphics are the biggest issue I had with the game. It isn’t the game’s fault. WCW vs. The World is a product of the time it was made, and the graphics would’ve been acceptable for the time.

 This game and Power Move Pro Wrestling were fun to play. This game is a little better, but I like both of them. I love that there are a bunch of wrestling promotions included in the game that I don’t know about. It would’ve been awesome to have played this game in the 1990s, and I’m glad I went and played it for this list.

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 dated 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.

Reviews at the Time

I started going over the reviews for retro games about halfway through this little project. I went back and looked at the games I didn’t cover in this way for this list. Several reviews were strange, and I think I found the one person who liked WCW Backstage Assault.

I’ll start with Backstage Assault. A publication called GameZone gave both versions of the game a 9/10. I think this might be a mistake, because one review doesn’t exist anymore, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were also a 9/10.

This reviewer called the game “without a doubt one of the best wrestling games (she’s) seen in a long time,” which suggests she hadn’t played a wrestling game in about 10 years at that point. This is a short review, and it made me laugh quite a bit.

A few of the games that I liked had very low review scores, or there would be an outlier that dragged the score down. WCW vs. The World was one such game. NEXT Generation gave it a 2/5. The reviewer didn’t give many details on their score in a short review that should’ve been edited. The only thing I can find in here is that the wrestlers “move at a snail’s pace” and that the game needed “a little flash.”

The last review I’ll go over is for WCW/NWO: Revenge, because I find it so strange. N64 Magazine was a UK publication, and it had some bold takes. They’re weird, but bold nonetheless. They liked WWF Warzone more than WCW/NWO: Revenge. There isn’t too much more I can say about it.

As someone who likes WWF Warzone, I find it very strange to claim that it is better than WCW/NWO: Revenge. It is so strange to read a review that ends with “go and buy WWF Warzone instead, do you hear me?” This, and I’m sure many other things, make me glad this console-specific magazine is gone.

The WCW Mayhem reviews are spot on. It is an average game that manages to be fun, and it isn’t as good as the other wrestling games released at the time. The review from Game Revolution mentions “glitches” and the “poor hit detection,” which isn’t something I remember experiencing, but I’m more forgiving than others when it comes to this game.

The review scores for most of these games haven’t changed much over the years. It is fun to look at the outliers and have a good laugh. I wish I had looked at them for every game I’ve reviewed, and the only thing I can do now is check them out for every game I can going forward.

Conclusion

Going through all these games has been a lot of fun. Even going over the bad games has been fun in their own way. What I really enjoyed was playing the games I missed out on when I was younger, and reading the reviews of these games at the time of their release.

When I looked over the reviews of these games, I found a lot of bizarre opinions. The Backstage Assault reviews were mind-boggling. There were other strange reviews, and it is important to remember that these are just opinions.

There is a huge gap between the good and bad games on this list. Revenge, World Tour, and WCW vs. The World are so much better than Nitro, Thunder, and Backstage Assault. The Game Boy, NES, and SNES games are pretty average when compared to the other games from the early 1990s. Finally, I still like Mayhem even if it isn’t as good as the other wrestling games released in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Eventually, I’ll make a list for the WWF games on the NES, SNES, Game Boy, PS1, N64, and Dreamcast. It will be a while before I get around to that, mostly because I’m not done with the Game Boy games. I don’t have an idea of when that will happen.

If you liked this list, please check out my other ranking lists of the N64 and PS1 wrestling games.