WWE Day of Reckoning is a Great GameCube Game

I had a game that didn’t work, so I’m moving on to the next wrestling game on my list. This time, I’m going to be looking at WWE Day of Reckoning. This was THQ’s third wrestling game on the GameCube, and I’m looking forward to seeing how far they’ve come.

So far, the GameCube games have all been pretty good. They’ve had a few problems, and it’s clear that the developers were learning how to make games for the console and continually improving their series. At this point, I’ve yet to come across a bad game.

I was impressed with this game. It was a big upgrade from the previous wrestling game that I played. The more that I get into it, the more I’ve been impressed with the overall quality of this game.

TLDR: This is a good looking game, and I like the story mode.

Narrative

The story mode is very good! You take a generic wrestler or one you’ve created and try to turn them into a superstar.

The story mode works like an advanced tutorial mode. It reminds me of one of my favorite fighting games on the PS1, where you have specific tasks to complete to win each match. A few of the missions can be a little frustrating at times, but none of them are too hard to do.

This will be like:

• Use two finishers in a match
• Perform several aerial attacks
• Win in a specific amount of time
• Etc.

Having a few missions to complete in order to advance the story is a nice way of doing things. That was my feeling as I went through the story for as long as I did. It was a nice story that didn’t feel out of place in a wrestling storyline.

Overall, I like the way that this story mode is set up. It would’ve been better if the game let you use existing wrestlers instead of forcing you to create a wrestler. It would’ve been more fun for me, and I would be interested to know what others think about it.  

Gameplay

For the most part, I liked the gameplay in WWE Day of Reckoning. It is an easy game to learn how to play, I liked the grapple system with its weak and heavy attacks, and the story mode was decent.

I’ve already gone over the story mode, so I’ll not repeat it here. In short, I like the way it has you work your way up the ranks, but I don’t like that you can’t use your favorite wrestler. Overall, it is fun, but I think it could’ve been better.

The controls are mostly good. It can be a little annoying to get in and out of the ring and climb the turnbuckles at times. Once you get the hang of it, things get better.

The grapple system is quite good. It feels closer to what you might’ve experienced with the Aki wrestling games on the N64. While it isn’t exactly the same, I think it is quite good. It took me some time to get a handle on the GameGube controller and the reversal system.

This was a little hard for me. I kept messing up and pressing the Z button instead of the R button. Not really a fault with the game; it was more me screwing up.

There are plenty of match types to play in the exhibition mode. This game still feels like a party game that happens to have a story mode, which is an improvement over the last wrestling game I played.

Overall, I’m very happy with this game. WWE Day of Reckoning is a very fun wrestling game, and it is one of the better wrestling games I’ve played so far. The changes to the control scheme were excellent, and the story mode is decent enough. It will be nice to see what improvements have been made in the sequel.

Visuals

This is a very good looking game. The character models are well detailed, and everyone looks excellent. The ring entrances, crowd, and cutscenes are great.

The move animations are excellent. I didn’t see anything that looked awkward or strange. The only thing that was a little off was the top rope moves. Those were a little hard to do when I was trying to land these moves.

The crowd and ring look good, and the cutscenes are a nice addition to the game. In the story mode, there are cutscenes between each match where you get your mission and whatnot. The whole presentation of the game looks excellent.

There isn’t much else to say about all of this. WWE Day of Reckoning is a good looking wrestling game that still looks nice when compared to other games released at the same time. The graphics on the GameCube have aged quite well.

Reviews at the time

For the most part, the reviewers liked this game quite a bit. The only two reviews I saw that gave the game a score lower than an 8/10 were EGM and The New York Times. Reviews can show up in strange places.

GameInformer gave the game an 8.25/10, and their second look review was a 7.75/10. The first reviewer liked the game overall, but only had one complaint: the sound. The second reviewer was a little harsher and pointed out how the story mode is fairly shallow, as you don’t see what is happening with the rest of the matches.

GamePro has one of the more confusing scoring systems. They gave the game a 4.5/5, and the User Reviews gave it a 4.2/5. They liked the controls and the number of match types.

GameSpot gave the game an 8.2/10. The reviewer liked the game overall, but thought that the story mode was too linear. They added that it was “Yuke’s most successful effort to bring the action of the WWE to the GameCube.” This review was obviously done before the second game came out, and it will be interesting to see if they say the same thing about Day of Reckoning 2.

IGN gave the game an 8.3/10, and echoed much of what GameSpot said about the game. I didn’t notice anything drastically different between this and the other reviews. They did call the game a “worthy sequel to… WrestleMania XIX. I kind of wish my copy of that game worked so I could make the same comparison.

Just from going over these review scores, I can tell that Yuke’s was making improvements to their games and how they make them. It is fun to see a company do its best to improve on a series like this. It makes me excited to see what happens with Day of Reckoning 2.

8.5/10. If there were more variety to the story mode, then the score would’ve been higher. I love the controls, the graphics are good, and the gameplay is a big step up from the previous Yuke’s game I played on the GameCube.

Pros

• Great Controls
• Beautiful Graphics
• Story Mode
• Lots of Match types
• Great Roster

Cons

• Story Mode can be too linear

Conclusion

This game is a lot of fun! So far, it is my favorite wrestling game on the GameCube. I have two more to go, and there is a good chance that the sequel will surpass it. I’m just happy that I haven’t played a bad wrestling game on this system.

This is an odd series of wrestling games. I wonder why THQ decided to drop the WrestleMania branding and go with this. The only thing I can do is speculate on the reason, which isn’t really what I want to do here.

I’m looking forward to seeing what changes with Day of Reckoning 2, and if that game is better than this one. If the story mode is deeper and lets you use an existing wrestler, then I’ll be happy.

If you liked this post, please check out my other posts on wrestling games on the GameCube, such as WrestleMania X8 and Legends of Wrestling II.