Ladies and Gentlemen of the Vizzed Community,

This will be my second game review that I will write
about. Based on my previous feedback, comments, and suggestions from others who
have reviewed on my first game review on Mario Party 2, I figured that I will
try my best to improve on my reviews each time.

This time, this game review will be focused on the count
of three, 1…..2…..3!

AND HERE IS YOUR WINNER, NINTENDO 64’S VERY OWN, WWF
WRESTLEMANIA 2000!

For those of you who didn’t know, The WWF (World Wrestling
Federation) was a pro wrestling company that was found and under ownership by
Vincent Kennedy McMahon created in the 1980s. The 1980s was known to be the
Golden Age era due its first years and creation of the WWF. Fast forward to the
late 1990s, The WWF was in its year known as the Attitude Era (supposed to be
an edgy version of pro wrestling in WWF’s creation) against WCW (World Champion
Wrestling), who was also known as a popular pro wrestling company that was
found on October 1988 by Eric Bischoff, for the highest amount of TV viewers
and fans, the highest ratings, the highest selling business, and most
importantly, for the most amount of money on their Monday Night Wars. That
explains why there were also WCW video games such as WCW Mayhem and WCW Nitro
and WWF video games such as this game, WWF Wrestlemania 2000 and WWF Attitude
selling around during this time. Eventually the WWF brought the WCW in
2001.       

As some people would know or not know, the WWF was known
to stand for World Wrestling Federation and they didn’t change their name
officially until in 2002 to World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE for short. The
name change was due to copyrights by World Wide Fund for Nature who had the
same name initial rights. The WWE is still now currently going strong and is
still airing at the moment but however, it is more focused on entertainment
(example: having guest celebrities involved in their shows) than pro wrestling
right now.

WWF Wrestlemania 2000 was released on November 16, 1999
created by a popular game publisher company, THQ. As stated before, it was in
competition with WCW around the late 1990s with their shows and products. Will
WWF Wrestlemania lose against me or will it conquer over me when it comes to
this game review? Continue to read this review to find out!

Now, if I were to be a fan of any sports game, I would
definitely check out the characters in the roster first before I plan to play a
sports game. Let’s check out on the roster list of this game.

Roster:

Males:

Stone Cold Steve Austin

The Rock

Triple H

Mankind

Undertaker

Kane

Big Show

Mr. Ass/Billy Gunn

Road Dogg

X-Pac

Chris Jericho

Ken Shamrock

Mr. McMahon

Shane McMahon

Test

Big Bossman (Rest in peace)

Farooq

Bradshaw

Val Venus

Godfather

Jeff Jarrett

D’Lo Brown

Mark Henry

Edge

Christian

Gangrel

Jeff Hardy

Matt Hardy

Al Snow

Hardcore Holly

Droz

Prince Albert

Steve Blackman

Thrasher

Chaz

Mideon

Viscera

The Blue Meanie

Meat

Brian Christopher

Scott Taylor

Pat Patterson

Gerald Brisco

Michael Hayes

Shawn Michaels

Cactus Jack

Dude Love

Jerry “The King” Lawler

Paul Bearer

Jim Ross

Females:

Chyna

Debra

Jacqueline

Terri Runnels

Tori

Ivory

Ho (One of the Godfather’s managers in case you were
wondering and the name is legit)

Stephanie McMahon

Total: 50 males, 8 females = 58 people in the roster

Each character has 4 different attires and you are able
to change a wrestler’s attire simply by pressing the C up arrow button during
the character selection. Not only that, each wrestler and character in this
game has their own unique moveset and taunts.

Overall Roster (9/10): This roster in this game is very
big in its size especially an old game. Nintendo 64 has done a great job to set
up the majority of the roster that was still wrestling just a couple of months
before this video game was created. Not lots of old games from the past
especially around the year 2000. If you check some of the previous WWF or any
other pro wrestling game from the past like WCW Nitro, WWF Raw, and WWF
Warzone, their rosters were small compared on what WWF Wrestlemania 2000 had to
offer. However, it feels like some of the characters from the roster should not
be on this list like some of the managers from the time like Ho, Paul Bearer,
Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Hayes, Pat Patterson. And Gerald Brisco
especially when managers don’t even wrestle or when they do, it’s like a once
in a lifetime or once in a full blue moon. They can be fun to play as when you
are bored but personally, I don’t think they last on the long run and they are
just a waste of space in the game.

Types of Matches:

-Singles Match = one vs one match

-Tag Team Match = two vs two match

-Triple Threat Match = 3 wrestlers in the ring against
each other

-Cage Match = one vs one matchup where two wrestlers are
fighting in a cage. The one who escapes, wins the match.

-Royal Rumble Match = involves with eliminating your
opponents by getting them out of the ring and letting their feet touch the
floor outside of the ring. The amount of wrestlers that can participate, have
their own ranges. 4 wrestlers at max are allowed in the ring at once. You are
able to choose 10, 20, 30, or 40 wrestlers to participate in a Royal Rumble.

-King of the Ring Match = involves a singles (1 vs 1) match
or a doubles (2 vs 2 ) tournament match to fight and win through a certain
amount of matches against others to be the king of the ring.

There can also be some changes in the stipulation of a
match depending on what you would like. There are options like ring out (if you
are out of the ring and your feet touch the floor, you are eliminated),
submission (a wrestling hold to weaken and hopefully make your opponent tap
out/forfeit the match), rope break (when one is in a submission hold and
touching the ropes will save you from any further damage), bloodshed (making
your opponent bleed), pin (when one has their shoulders on the mat and another
person covers the one to try to get a 3 count in order to win), TKO (when one
is unconscious and is unable to move which happens when one has suffered a
certain amount of damage), and time count (the time limit in a match). These
options can be changed and rearranged depending on the match stipulation.

Graphics (8.5/10): The graphics in this game are very
well done for a Nintendo 64 game. The wrestlers in this game are very life
sized and improved its three dimensional models. The creators actually made
life simulators wrestle like if it was like an actual wrestling match in the
WWF/WWE. Who wouldn’t want to play as a wrestler and wrestle a hated wrestler
that you despise and you don’t get harmed by him/her at the same time when this
game makes it all happen? I know I would do it especially when I liked beating
up Vince McMahon when I played this game. The ring looks like the actual
wrestling ring from WWF/WWE and the crowd looks awesome as well with their fan
signs. However, I do not like some of the faces of the wrestlers especially
when they either look really weird or bizarre to me with either creepy face
expressions, weird looking messed up eyebrow, or their eye sizes.

Gameplay (9.2/10): The gameplay in this game is pretty
awesome in general. Wrestlers have their own movesets including basic moves,
strong moves, and finishers (each wrestler has their own finisher and a
finisher is basically like a powerful final move that can do a lot of damage to
your opponent) and unique taunts, making each and every one of them different
and special from another. You can have the Undertaker doing the tombstone
finisher and doing the arm movement where he holds his fist and moves his fist
as he were threatening to slice someone’s neck or The Rock with his rock bottom
finisher and have him to stick his hand out to open and close it like he would
taunt and mock his opponent. Each wrestler can go from a basic punch or a basic
kick to a power slam to a finisher. The movesets of each wrestler are very
useful and plentiful especially when there is a wide range of moves instead of
having the same 3 moves to be used over and over again. The moves whether it
would be a basic punch, kick, suplex, or a finisher, look very good but a bit
slow in this game. I also like how you can grab weapons from the crowd to try
your best to gain an advantage over your match. The best part is that the
weapons don’t disappear after you use them so many times and that’s what most
of the newer WWE games lack in their weapon system. What I hate about the
gameplay of this game is that there is a move called low blow which is a move
that involves getting hit in the groin (yet this move works on females too for
some odd reason), causing you to not be able to control your wrestler for a few
seconds and this is a rather cheap move to me.

Other features:

Championships: You are able to make your own championships
depending on which ones you want. The choices are the WWF Championship,
Hardcore Championship, European Championship, Tag Team Championship,
Intercontinental Championship, and the Women’s Championship. You can name it
however you wish and wrestlers can fight for the gold to have a higher status
than others as a supreme championship holder.

Create-A-Wrestler: The name is basically what it says.
Luckily, you can make your own personalized wrestlers with their own move-sets
and taunts on what your heart desires. There is a lot of variety to choose from
in every section whether it would be attire, basic moves, finishers, top-rope
moves, fighting styles, taunts, and so much more to choose from. You can have a
wrestler who dresses like your average wrestler in tights, have a finisher like
the chokeslam or a pimp slap, and taunt like a typical female wrestler for
example. Creating my own wrestler in this game takes me at least 30 minutes to
create. Creations are pretty much limitless in this game so if you have a
creative mind, the creations are endless in this game! Sadly, there is a number
limit which I dislike about this feature.

Sound (9/10): The sound is pretty awesome for a Nintendo
64 game. Between the crowd cheering and booing in the background and the sounds
of wrestling maneuvers going on, they all flow awesome as they both help
increase the tension and excitement of a wrestling match. The punches and kicks
have their sound effects as if someone is getting hit for real. You are able to
hear suplexes going down on the mat when they are used. The cheers and boos are
timed perfectly when it comes to using a finisher or using the cheap low blow.
The crowd really knows what is up in a typical wrestling match. The winner of a
match also has their theme song played after winning a match which makes the
winner victorious and have all of the glory. Not to also mention that the
soundtrack during the matches are very upbeat to keep you on your toes. The
best of all, each wrestler has their own theme song that was their theme song
around during the time of this game which I am glad to hear when I play this
game. Ranging from The Undertaker’s theme song to Vince McMahon’s theme song,
every theme song that each wrestler possesses fits them well and matches their
gimmick and persona, making everyone special and unique in their own ways.

Addictiveness (8/10): Whether or not you are just angry
to get some rage out or you just want some friendly wrestling competition, this
game can be addictive. I recall having some memories playing this game with
some of my cousins and playing them was quite frustrating, fun, and other mixed
emotions. It is like you have your own adrenaline pumping as you play this game
like you are an actual wrestler focused into this game. Game mentality and the
urge to win while being in a wrestler’s shoes go hand in hand. Playing this game
gave me lots of fun by beating people up without having to use actual physical
harm to other people and having some competition with either computers or other
people. The urge to win can make this game interesting but however, it depends
if you are a sore winner or a sore loser in this case. If you are a sore winner
in this game, you may tend to be very cocky and conceited and love to win for
the heck of boosting your self-esteem. If you are a sore loser in this game,
you may rage and never want to play this game with others who play better than
you. The addictiveness of this game can go either way depending on the type of
gamer that you are.

Depth (6/10): The depth of this game has its good roles
in the game. There are lots of features in this game that can help create the
fun and creativeness in others. You are able to create your own personalized
wrestler to make your own dreams come true. You are able to make your own
matches based on your choices. Besides participating in several types of
matches and playing as certain wrestlers, this game doesn’t really go into that
much depth in general. The process can be very repetitive which may lead to
boredom at times.

Story (5/10): There isn’t much of a story mode in this
game since it doesn’t really have one. The closest to a story mode in this game
would be the Pay Per View feature. The Pay Per View feature involves a wrestler
basically fighting his way to the top to become the WWF Champion by fighting
his way to the top through regular show matches like Raw and Smackdown and pay
pay view matches like Summerslam and Wrestlemania. It really is the time to be
the best wrestler out of the entire roster.

Difficulty (7/10): The difficulty really depends on you.
You can set the difficulties of computer players to easy, normal, or hard
depending on your skills, tactics, timing, and challenging attitude, in general
when playing regular matches in exhibition mode. As for the Pay Per View
feature, difficulty increases as you proceed and accomplish more throughout the
game. Changing the difficulty to your level in this game is one of the pros in
this game instead of frustrating yourself through tough leveled computers. It
really saves you from unnecessary stress and gives you an accomplished and
rewarding feeling. Luckily, the controls are very easy to control and  you can easily adapt to the game.

Overall (9.2/10): If you are looking a great pro
wrestling game with a variety of moves, a good fighting system, and some good
competition, this is the game for you. This game covers many aspects and parts that
any pro wrestling fan, WWF fan, or a pro wrestling gamer would love. As a long
time current World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment fan and
old school gamer, I would recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a
good stress reliever or a good friendly competition with friends. I don’t
remember the last time when I played a game that covered a lot in terms of
gameplay, features, fighting system, and weapon system.

Whenever it is the time for you to get a hold of this
game, it will be your time to progress and rise to the top to become the best
wrestler out of the entire roster!

Why should you play this game? Because Ghostfishy said so
and it’s time to play the game!