More than a simple wrestling game, WWF Attitude puts you in control of the World Wrestling Federation. Over 40 wrestlers are at your command, including The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, D-Generation X, and Triple H. Fans of the WWF will recognize all the familiar match formats, everything from one-on-one, two-on-one, or three-on-one, to Royal Rumble, Tag Team, or Stable Match. You can even stage your own "pay-per-view" event. And for manager wannabes, there is a fun create-your-own-wrestler feature which lets you build and send your very own seven-foot , 450-pound giant dressed up in a black bikini out onto the mat.
Acclaim Sports has done a superb job with the graphics and running commentary, making the game extremely realistic and entertaining. Moreover, up to four people can get in on the action, whether they pair up in a tag team match or duke it out in a winner-take-all king of the ring extravaganza. Devout pro-wrestling fans will not be disappointed. --Hugh Arnold
Pros:
Create your own "pay-per-view" event or wrestler
Cool graphics and commentary
Multiplayer option
Cons:Steep learning curve
Need a memory card to save newly created "pay-per-view" events, wrestlers, and careers
The Nintendo 64 version of WWF War Zone differed a bit from its PlayStation counterpart. The sound wasn't nearly as good, but it contained one extra mode that the PlayStation couldn't handle. This time around, the games are virtually identical from a features standpoint. And the N64 version has the same music and speech as the PlayStation version. But the improved graphics definitely put this one over the top when you put the two versions side-by-side. Is this year's WWF game from Acclaim different enough from last year's? In the end, it all depends on how you look at the game.
The most obvious improvement to the game is the roster, which has been updated with the times to reflect the ever-changing faces of the World Wrestling Federation. That's not to say that the rosters are current, though. Much like War Zone, and well, most other licensed wrestling games, a few wrestlers have changed gimmicks since the game's development began. Of course, with development cycles as long as they are these days, you really can't fault Acclaim for this one bit. So the Headbangers are still in the game, as is Sable, and Triple H enters the ring to the original D-Generation X music, complete with X-shaped fireworks.
Speaking of ring entrances, they've come a long, long way since War Zone. Now you get to see the full ring intro from the game engine's perspective, complete with the real, digitized music, from Steve Austin's slow swagger to the ring to Ken Shamrock punching himself in the head. Once the wrestlers have all made it to the ring, they'll each bust off a little non sequitur before the match starts, like "DTA! Don't trust anyone!" or Kane mumbling something through his little voice-box thing. It would have been nice to see some end-of-match taunts, similar to the beginning-of-match speech, but instead the winning wrestler stands in the middle of the ring and lamely goes through his taunt animation over and over again. It would have been even nicer to see a few short FMV clips in the game, or at least audio clips of the wrestlers talking trash about each other to various announcers. A rendered announce table at ringside to facilitate a little prematch commentary also would have added another level of depth to the game's already thick atmosphere.
But enough about all this extra atmosphere stuff. As much as an installment of Raw has very little to do with actual wrestling and more to do with storylines and atmosphere, the game still needs to deliver in the gameplay department. Attitude plays extremely well, but it also plays nearly identically to War Zone. The most significant change to the gameplay is the addition of a more robust set of reversals. In War Zone, most people stayed away from the tie-up position, instead raining on an opponent's parade with tons of moves from the ready position. But Attitude's got more reversals for moves that come from the ready position, so varied attacks are more important than ever. Regardless of that, however, the game remains largely the same, so those of you who didn't like the War Zone rock-paper-scissors-style tie-up system will still be out in the cold. The tie-up system is a great idea, and it keeps you honest by preventing you from doing the same move over and over again, but too frequently you'll be trying to do a move from the ready position as your opponent grapples you. You'll still be hitting the button for your ready move just as the grapple takes effect, and the result is a match filled with arm bars and other weak moves. Also, even though lots of wrestling games feature tag team or other multiplayer matches, no one seems to have come up with a good way to control all that action. The result in Attitude is a button that cycles though and determines which wrestler you're facing for attacks, blocks, and even tags. Since there's no easy onscreen indication of which wrestler you're actually facing, it's very easy to get confused in fast multiplayer matches, resulting in you hopping out of the ring instead of tagging, blocking in the wrong direction, or just kind of spinning around in circles like a moron.
There are also a whole lot of modes in the game, most of which are slight variations on the same type of match. You can throw down in standard versus matches, two-on-one fights, three-on-one matches, tornado bouts, and tag team contests, among others. There are also modes based on some of the WWF's more famous Pay-Per-View matches, like the Royal Rumble and the Survivor Series. The Rumble pits you against 29 other wrestlers in an over-the-top-rope brawl. In the real thing, a new wrestler hits the ring at a set interval, though here the number of simultaneous wrestlers never gets higher than four. There's some occasional slowdown in the Royal Rumble as new wrestlers are loaded on the fly without stopping the action, but it's very minor and doesn't get in the way of the game at all. Add to that various match conditions, like hard-core matches, I quit matches, or first blood, and you have enough options to keep you creating your own pay-per-views for months. --Jeff Gerstmann
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