WWF Warzone Review

Warzone features nearly 20 official wrestlers plus hidden bonus

characters. The game's weapon mode enables players the ability to

beat each other with various objects. Warzone's graphics are

unsurpassed, boasting wonderful animation. Players can create their

own wrestlers, (30 to a memory pak), using Warzone's

create-a-wrestler feature

Although WCW/NWO is a good game, it can't compare to WWF

Warzone, the main reason being Warzone has more features. (Create

a wrestler, motion captured wrestlers, over 300 moves & signature

moves, two man commentary, wrestler taunts, biographies, and high

score listings.) It also has a weapons mode & a royal rumble mode.

Overall, the best feature of the game is the create-a-player mode.

All the Warzone features:

-Nearly 20 official WWF wrestlers playable plus bonus hidden

characters.

-Polygonal 3D engine.

-Motion-captured wrestlers.

-Game runs in medium-resolution mode.

-Over 300 moves plus signature moves.

-Finishing moves and taunts for each wrestler.

-Two-man commentary featuring Vince McMahon and Jim Ross.

-MIDI renditions of wrestlers' theme music.

-Nine gameplay modes including WWF Challenge, Versus, Tag

Team, Cage, Weapons, Royal Rumble, and exclusive to N64,

Gauntlet.

-Grudge Matches.

-Hands-on Training Mode.

-Detailed Create-a-wrestler feature.

-Wrestler biographies.

-High Scores listing.

-Four-player multiplayer mode.

-Rumble Pak support.

-Memory Pak support.

The Wrestlers

The game features nearly 20 wrestlers from the WWF. Bret Hart,

Shawn Michaels and British Bulldog, are still included in Warzone

despite the fact that they defected to the WCW. Wrestlers featured

include Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Mosh, Thrasher,

Kane, Shamrock, The Undertaker, Owen Hart, Bret Hart, Ahmed,

The Rock, Mankind, Triple H, Goldust, Faarooq, British Bulldog, as

well as hidden characters Dude Love and Cactus Jack. And then, of

course, there's the create-a-wrestler feature. Overall, not a bad

selection, but Warzone will still be very hard-pressed to compete with

the likes of THQ's upcoming WCW/NWO Revenge in sheer amount

of athletes, which boasts more than 80 official wrestlers.

The Game

Warzone features seven gameplay modes. There's the standard

challenge in which players must choose a wrestler and advance

through the federation, eventually securing themselves a belt. The

challenge comes complete with grudge matches and all. This mode

also unlocks the game's secret characters and codes. In Versus

mode, players can go a single match with a wrestler without the

hassle of the WWF Challenge. Tag Team mode enables two-on-two

matches. Steel Cage mode is somewhat self-explanatory. Players duel

inside a giant steel cage and the first man to make it out is the winner.

In weapons mode, wrestlers use a variety of different painful objects

to their advantage, including chairs, tables, televisions and bells. The

game's Royal Rumble pits two players in a ring and throws new

wrestlers their way every 90 seconds or so. And exclusive to the

Nintendo 64 version of Warzone, Gauntlet mode. With all of these

modes of gameplay we do have one big gripe: players cannot select

their computer-controlled opponent. For example, let's say that players

wanted to pit Stone Cold against The Undertaker in a single-player

game. There's no option to make it a reality.

Once players choose a wrestler and gameplay mode the match

begins. Nintendo 64 owners will quickly notice that Warzone plays

nothing like THQ's WCW/NWO. The touch-and-go grappling system

of World Tour is not present. Instead, Warzone relies on set

button-sequence moves that must be learned to be performed. I think

this is better, because button mashing will eventually wear out your

controller faster. Many wrestling fans may be turned off by Warzone's

system, but I prefer it. Button-sequence moves, once mastered,

reward the skilled player. While wrestlers control precisely and move

at a moderate pace, there are a few glitches that can be frustrating.

The game's collision detection engine could have done better with a

little more fine-tuning before release; depending on what direction

wrestlers are facing they will punch through an opponent into another.

To correct the problem, players must reposition their wrestler to face

their desired opponent via the camera buttons. Once learned the

problem just becomes a minor annoyance.

There are more than 300 moves including signatures. There's the

Stone Cold Stunner, the Tombstone, the Mandible Claw, so on and

so forth. And then there's an amazing selection of league moves

including DDTs, Suplexes, slams, chokes and reversals -- more than

40. Each move is detailed in the game's helpful practice mode.

Graphics

Warzone makes WCW/NWO World Tour look like a 16-bit classic in

comparison. This is achieved by motion-captured wrestlers, digitized

texture-maps, well constructed 3D polygon models and lots of time

perfecting animation routines all wrapped up under a detailed, flexible

soft-skinned package. Warzone also runs in medium-resolution mode.

While the graphics outshine the PlayStation version during gameplay,

cut-scenes are lacking animation and decidedly ugly. That said, this is

still the best looking wrestling game ever made. (Keeping in mind

THQ's new WCW game hasn't been released.When it is released, it

is expected to surpass Warzone.)

Sound

Commentary, wrestler taunts and crowd reactions set this game apart

from any other. Vince McMahon highlight the wrestling action with

comments like, "This is good old JR!" and "[wrestler] can't shake the

cob-webs off!" Steve Austin will shout catch phrases, "Oh hell yeah!"

and "Don't take this ass whoopin' personally son," at opponents.

Even the crowd gets into the action, calling out, "Oh hell yeah!" or

chanting, "Stone Cold!" repeatedly during a bout. If a player

"cheeses" an opponent by simply punching him repeatedly the crowd

will boo him and as a result his opponent will become stronger. I think

the best part of the sound is each wrestler has his own taunt. Stone

Cold will say "Oh hell yeah" while Faarooq will say "Don't make me

stick my foot up your ass!"

Create-a-Player Feature

Warzone's create-a-player feature is the game's best feature. Not only

does it enable players to keep adding more and more wrestlers to their

league (30 custom wrestlers can be saved to memory pak), but it

expands the game's life and replay value tenfold. All of the following

can be customized: name, attributed, personality, theme music,

gender, skin color, skin type, body type, head, upper body and lower

body. There are six different skin colors; three skin types including

plain, hairy and ripped; five different body builds including average,

skinny, muscle, heavyweight and super heavyweight; upper body

includes tanktops, shirts, jackets, gloves, armpads, accessories,

tattoos, and neck; lower body boasts shorts, long shorts, pants, belts,

shoes, boots, kneedpads, accessories and tattoos. Custom wrestlers

that can be tailored to look like friends and family, ultimately making

for great wrestling fun. One complaint: players can't assign

custom-tailored moves to their created wresters. Rather, they can only

choose an official wrestler's set move list. For example, players can't

compile a DDT, a neck breaker and the Stone Cold Stunner and

throw them all together in their own customized list. They can only

select the complete move list for Undertaker, StoneCold and so on.

Also, custom players can't choose other wrestler's taunts. Each

custom wrestler comes with the same taunt.

COMMENTS

I think this is the best wrestling game ever, so far. Visually, nothing

even comes close. Here's the only flaw: a sometimes messed up

collision detection system and the lacking ability to select

computer-controlled opponents in a single-player match. Some may

add a third complaint with Warzone's decidedly slim selection of

official wrestlers, but the create-a-player makes up for it. Highly

recommended for all the WWF fans out there. If there is a sequel, I

can't wait to buy it.

OVERALL, I'd Rate it: 9.5 / 10