Some Wrestling Games Are Better Than Others
Wrestling remains popular in spite of the changing times. As a result, it should come as no surprise to learn that wrestling games continue to be made on a regular basis, as shown by the WWE 2K series being co-developed by a team-up between the American-based Visual Concepts and the Japanese-based Yuke’s. With that said, some wrestling games are much more memorable than others, with an excellent example being WWF No Mercy on the Nintendo 64.
What Do You Need To Know About WWF No Mercy?
To understand WWF No Mercy, it is important to understand something about the people who created it. In short, WWF No Mercy was created by the AKI Corporation, which has since been renamed Syn Sophia. Suffice to say that AKI Corporation had a fair amount of expertise and experience at making wrestling games by the time that WWF No Mercy came out in 2000, as shown by the fact that it had released no fewer than seven wrestling games by that point in time. One of those seven wrestling games was WCW/nWo Revenge, which is often considered to be the single best WCW game as well as one of the best wrestling games ever made in its own right. As a result, it should be clear that WWF No Mercy wasn’t something that sprung out of nowhere but rather the product of a long process of continuous refinement.
Regardless, WWF No Mercy was a rare example of games that manage to strike a balance between simple to learn and difficult to master. As a result, it was accessible to interested individuals in a way that a lot of games aren’t while still remaining capable of putting up a challenge for people who have spent hours and hours upon it.
On top of this, WWF No Mercy stood out from a lot of other wrestling games in that it didn’t use a health meter but instead had a momentum-based mechanic. Due to this, players weren’t forced to beat their opponents into submission bit by bit but would instead build up momentum by connecting basic strikes and slams before using that built-up momentum to launch a wide range of finishers that would open up the opponent for the finishing pin. In effect, this meant that WWF No Mercy was better at emulating the flow of a wrestling match than something based on a health meter would’ve been, thus further endearing it to wrestling fans.
Finally, it should be mentioned that WWF No Mercy was packed full of features. In particular, it is worth mentioning that it had a robust create-a-wrestler mode, which enabled the customization of everything from entrances to special moves. In fact, it is interesting to note that WWF No Mercy‘s create-a-wrestler mode even came with the option to create female wrestler, thus allowing for even more possibilities.
Should You Consider Playing WWF No Mercy Or Not?
Summed up, it is no wonder that WWF No Mercy remains a respected name to a lot of fans of wrestling games out there in spite of the fact that it has been close to two decades since it came out. As a result, people who are interested in wrestling games might want to give some serious thought to giving it a play-through when the chance comes up.
Of course, there are some serious obstacles to this to say the least. For instance, the N64 is old enough that finding a functional system can come with its fair share of challenges. Even if interested individuals find one, they have to be prepared to pay hundreds of dollars, which most people would see as excessive for the sake of a single game. On top of that, there is the cost of a copy of WWF No Mercy, which will have seen a similar inflation in its price over the passage of so much time since its initial release. Simply put, playing WWF No Mercy can come with expensive and even time-consuming hurdles that must be jumped, which tends to deter most people.
Furthermore, there is the problem that WWF No Mercy is rather outdated. Speaking bluntly, it is a product that reflects the wrestling scene of the late 1990s, which can be seen in just about all of the aspects of the game. As a result, it might not be particularly interesting for people who remember nothing about those times because their fondness for wrestling comes from their fondness for later figures. Certainly, the create-a-wrestler mode is robust enough to accommodate the creation of a wide range of later wrestlers with some fudging of the details, but at the end of the day, there are limits to even its impressive capabilities. Moreover, it should be mentioned that close to two decades’ worth of time has brought about huge changes in graphical capabilities, meaning that WWF No Mercy‘s looks are very, very dated by modern standards.
With that said, there are some potential solutions to these particular problems. In short, WWF No Mercy remains popular enough that there is an active community of people who are interested in playing it in the present time. Furthermore, said community is active enough as well as talented enough that they have been producing a surprising range of mods, which are intended to do everything from making WWF No Mercy look better to putting in more content and putting in newer rosters of wrestlers. As a result, while making use of mods comes with its own challenges, this might be some help to people who are interested in WWF No Mercy but are put off by its age.
Further Considerations
There is no simple and straightforward answer to the question of whether someone should play WWF No Mercy or not. Instead, interested individuals should make a decision based on their own personal preferences as well as their own willingness to jump through hoops for the sake of playing through a single video game. However, if a person happens to be a fan of wrestling games as well as a fan of the late 1990s wrestling scene, they might want to give some serious thought to seeing what WWF No Mercy is like before proceeding further. Fortunately, the interest in the wrestling game means that there is no lack of footage that can be found out there on the Internet, meaning that they should be able to get a fairly good idea of what the game is like for guiding their decision-making process. Something that should enable them to make a right choice for themselves.
