Throwback Thursday: WWF No Mercy

[TheShizNo1]

Quote: Originally Posted by PeoplesChampGB

FPWR 1-a and No Mercy 1-b.

I can go with that.

[Turbojugend]

I've always preferred the Fire Pro series, but WWF No Mercy is a great game to this day. I still own all of the AKI N64 wrestling games, including the Japanese imports. I think Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 may be my favorite just because of the roster but they're all great.

[scottyp180]

Loving these throwback thursdays.

No Mercy was a masterpiece of a wreslting game. The only game in would put against it, maybe, is Here Comes the Pain (that is if we are excluding games like wrestlemania 2000 and we vs neo revenge). What made no mercy even more special for me was that I didn't own an n64 growing up. So going to a friend's or having a friend bring their n64 over in order to play no mercy was always exciting for me.

The gameplay was simply great. Fun yet difficult. Best of all you felt in control. I quickly get bored with the modern wreslting games because I feel like the pacing and flow is terrible. Too much time spent watching moves and animations play out.

The game had some great modes with a good variety of match types and an engaging story type mode. Best of all were the unlockables, which just isn't the same anymore. I remember my friends and me trying to earn as much money as possible in order to unlock characters. Finally saving up enough to purchase someone like Shawn Michaels was extremely rewarding, unlike the "perform these tasks" method of modern wreslting games (worse is purchasing the accelerator dlc to unlock everything.)

[scottyp180]

Quote: Originally Posted by scottyp180

Loving these throwback thursdays. No Mercy was a masterpiece of a wreslting game. The only game in would put against it, maybe, is Here Comes the Pain (that is if we are excluding games like wrestlemania 2000 and we vs neo revenge). What made no mercy even more special for me was that I didn't own an n64 growing up. So going to a friend's or having a friend bring their n64 over in order to play no mercy was always exciting for me. The gameplay was simply great. Fun yet difficult. Best of all you felt in control. I quickly get bored with the modern wreslting games because I feel like the pacing and flow is terrible. Too much time spent watching moves and animations play out. The game had some great modes with a good variety of match types and an engaging story type mode. Best of all were the unlockables, which just isn't the same anymore. I remember my friends and me trying to earn as much money as possible in order to unlock characters. Finally saving up enough to purchase someone like Shawn Michaels was extremely rewarding, unlike the "perform these tasks" method of modern wreslting games (worse is purchasing the accelerator dlc to unlock everything.)

Damn autocorrect WCW vs nwo revenge***

[Hooe]

I did not like No Mercy whatsoever and have never quite understood the appeal.

It always looked and felt clunky to me, the N64 controller was awful (not something in the game's control but a negative to my experience nevertheless), and the music sounded bad (another limitation of the N64 hardware). The creation suite was strong, absolutely - especially compared to the first WWF Smackdown game, which had a rather awful creation tool - but that wasn't nearly enough to keep me coming back.

At the time I preferred THQ's WWF Smackdown series by a large margin, especially Smackdown 2: Know Your Role which basically lived in my PSX as my friends and I vied for all the titles against each other (SD!2:KYR is what I would consider as a classic). Heck, I even liked Acclaim's WWF games with their right-right-down-right body slams over the AKI-style grapplers (be it WCW-nWo Revenge, WCW vs The World, or whatever else I tried back in the day).

Quote: Originally Posted by TheShizNo1

There's also bans awaiting those that disagree with this being the GOAT wrestling game.

You can't ban me, I'm also a mod!

[jcmreds]

I've played wrestling games since Pro Wrestling on NES, and this will always be in my top 2 or 3.

[Thrash13]

No Mercy was a great game no doubt, and I put MANY hours into it back it the day, but the main gripe I had with it and what kept it from being near perfect for its time was the choppiness when several wrestlers were on the screen at once. Nonetheless, it was still a GREAT game.

That being said, my choice for best wrestling video game is the very underrated Day of Reckoning 2. Such a great but forgotten wrestling game!

[SmashMan]

Feels bad to say I never even played it until a few years ago. I had a PlayStation and was never really a multiple console kid so I didn't have an N64. My friends with an N64 had WM2000 and my cousin with the N64 only had the WCW/nWo game.

So looking through the lens of playing this for the first time a few years ago...I don't know. Some stuff feels really dated (obviously) but the momentum swings in the matches feel better than what we have today, and that makes it really fun.