By "Net.cop" Scott Keith

You know, I don't usually do video game rants (that phase of my life lasted exactly one game before I realized I sucked at video game reviews) but for you, my loyal readers, I thought I'd give an overview of WCW/nWo Revenge for Nintendo 64 and why it kicks Warzone's butt.

First off, I loved the World Tour engine when it was released, as it was much more intuitive to a wrestling game than the standard "tie up and punch the buttons" system used by the Acclaim WWF games (Wrestlemania, RAW, Royal Rumble) of past. So naturally I was even more delighted when the basic game design was left design, but some things were added. Namely...

- Better faces. Or rather, ANY faces. Last time it was like a bunch of manneqins. This time wrestlers are clearly recognizable by looking at the face. That's a big step forward. And guys like Rey Mysterio have *13* different masks to choose from.

- Attention to realism. Juventud Guerrera almost literally flies around the ring, he's by far the fastest character in the game. By contrast, Brian Adams of the nWo plays noticeably sluggish, requiring longer to pull off his moves. However, if Adams should hit Juvy, the damage is much greater than in the opposite case. And the cruiserweights can no longer throw around the heavyweights -- just try getting Eddy Guerrero to powerbomb the Giant and see what happens this time around.

- Attention to detail. Chris Jericho does his goosestep. The Guerreros wear "Cheat to Win" t-shirts. La Parka does his strut. Scott Hall pauses to look both ways before pulling off the Blockbuster suplex. This game was obviously written by wrestling fans, or at least they had a crack consultant from WCW to give them all the pertinent information.

- Neat stuff. Managers accompany certain wrestlers to the ring, like Dusty Rhodes for Scott Hall, Elizabeth for Randy Savage and Vincent for Brian Adams. And this is the neat stuff part...you can beat them up. See, that's the kind of demented genius that Warzone is lacking. And the ring entrances are great. And when you win the title with a wrestler, you actually get to see them wearing a digitized represention of the real belt. Now that's cool.

See, as a wrestling fan, I could give a shit about nonsense like the polygon count and the resolution and the limitations of the sound on the N64. What I care about is an authentic replica of Kimberly going "Bang" along with DDP when he makes his entrance. That shows me that someone is paying attention on the manufacturing end of things.

I think, and I don't think I'm alone in this, that video game companies are spending WAY too much time developing the "perfect" game engine. I don't want the perfect game engine, I want to book my own cards and have the wrestlers be able to pull off their finishers at my command. DDP for instance has *3* variations of the Diamond Cutter that I've been able to pull off. One standard, one off the top rope and a Bubba Cutter. I shit you not, he does the Bubba Cutter. You just do a strong grapple, whip the guy off the ropes, and toggle the joystick when in "special" mode.

See, the problem with most wrestling games is that it's making a legitimate competition out of a worked sport. Whereas in video game land Juvy might have a chance against the Giant, in the real world we all know that Giant would be booked to squash him in under a minute. That's why most ultimately leave us feeling hollow -- we're not looking for the competition, we're looking for the show. At least Revenge seems to understand this need to a certain degree.

Speaking of the competition, some of the finishers in this game are unreal. Someone actually gave La Parka the Tiger Driver '91 as his finisher! So if you're curious as to what that move looks like, here's your chance. Kidman does a beautiful shooting star press, Juvy does the 450, Bagwell does a breathtaking Buff Blockbuster...it's astounding how perfect the motion captures on the finishers are in most cases.

Of course, there's a lot of good, but there's also some real sticking points for this game...

- First of all, no Ric Flair due to the lawsuit. And to add insult to injury, Hulk Hogan gets Flair's special move (the sucker punch).

- Then, if possible, Eric Bischoff has actually become an even lamer character than before. Now he can't even grapple, he can only punch and kick ala Joe Bruiser from World Tour. I mean, why bother even putting him in there?

- Roddy Piper is WAY overdone in terms of his wrestling skills. Tornado DDTs? C'mon, that should have been Flair as the hidden champion.

- The run-in feature is horribly cheap. Nothing pisses me off more than being in the middle of a good cruiserweight tournament match and having a run-in occur, thus causing me my momentum. It's horribly unfair and disrupts the flow of the game. And it happens almost every match. Ugh.

- The sound is god-awful. The music is bad, there's no commentary, and the only voice sample is Randy Savage's "Oh yeah!". I'm sure the game was *so* big that they couldn't have worked some Tony Schiavone commentary in there. On second thought, maybe silence *is* golden...

- The costume swap feature is a valiant try, but it's no "create a wrestler". No reason why one shouldn't even been included, considering how popular a feature it is.

- The Flock is basically three other versions of Raven (Sick Boy, Riggs and Lodi all have exactly the same moves), with Kidman and Reese added on. The lower level guys deserve attention too, THQ.

- The added wrestlers are pretty lame. AKI man is a kind of Super Delphin-Jushin Liger hybrid and the Executioner is VERY effective as a power wrestler, but the rest or hit-and-miss at best with goofy gimmicks. Dr. Frank? Maya Inca Boy? Well, at least there's only 12.

Anyway, moreso than with the fickle crowd-pleasing move-mixing of Warzone, Revenge allows a good blend of styles, which makes it more fun. If you WANT to be a kick and punch brawler, go with Goldberg and spear to your heart's content. Hell, I used that method and won the TV title tournament with an average match time of about 1:30. Five spears and a jackhammer and it's over, every time out. Or if you want to fly around the ring, pick a cruiserweight and jump all over the place. People note that there's more moves in Warzone; well, everyone has essentially the same moveset in that game, which tends to get boring. The wrestler you pick doesn't really matter because the same strategy can generally work in any situation. With Revenge, your choice affects the strategy you have to use, and I think that makes for a more fun gaming experience.

Now if I could only figure out that fourth Diamond Cutter variation....

Overall Rating: **** (out of *****)

"WCW/nWo Revenge" is available in the Storefront section of Wrestlemaniacs.com and in video game and retail stores everywhere. But if you buy from WM, Mike and Rick will like you better.