xeno3998's Full Review: WCW Nitro for PlayStation 1
After the lukewarm success of THQ's WCW Vs. The World, the company realized that Xing Technology really couldn't be relied on to make a good wrestler. Not about to drop the license (not yet anyway), they enlisted the help of Inland Productions to create WCW Nitro. Released about four years ago, more or less, they did manage to improve upon World, though Nitro still stunk of ambitionless, uninspired development. Especially when you consider the far, far, far superior WWF Warzone came out at roughly the same time, Nitro looks rather pathetic in comparison.
For starters, the 'rassler lineup is severely limited. The highlights are Hollywood Hogan, Sting, the early '97 era Outsiders, the Harlem Heat, Macho, DDP and a few others. There are also a few Manager characters, some mascots, and the ol' yellow and red Hulkster. In all, there are about 18 fighters from the 1997 WCW (the best year for the company, ever) and about 18 useless 'skins' for the same character that use the same basic move set. That doesn't sound too bad, but consider that Warzone had about 35; at least, on top of the revolutionary Create A Wrestler, and you can see where Nitro lacks.
But it also lacks in the realm of maneuvers. For example, every powerbomb looks the same, as does every clothesline; ditto the top rope efforts. Heck, some character moves are so totally off from the real thing it's laughable. There's a DDT in Nitro that looks like a suplex, if I remember correctly. How pathetic is that? About the only well animated move in this game is Sting's infamous Stinger Splash, the rest look either sloppy or just barely decent.
If you're looking for replay value, you might as well focus your eyes on the sequel to this, WCW Thunder, which has more modes of play and characters but uses the same basic engine. Anyway, you get Exhibition, two player, and Championship as modes of play, and that's about it. The Championship is where you'll spend most of your time, as you vye for new levels and characters. But when everything has been unlocked, the other modes are useless if you're playing alone. With a friend, it's somewhat more fun, yet still struggles to achieve even average multiplayer entertainment-fare.
The actual wrestling engine, though, is kinda cool. Kinda. It isn't nearly as sophisticated as the brilliant Revenge engine, nor does it have the realism and depth of the Warzone engine, but it holds it's own for the most part. The moves are simple to perofrm, and the engine doesn't have any major gameplay flaws, aside from the fact that it bogs down to slow-motion rasslin' when a third character enters the ring.
Overall, the gameplay is generic and boring after a short while. Most matches are ridiculously easy, even on the hardest difficulty setting. If your timing is right, you could probably win a match in half a minute with only a single piledriver, which becomes repetitive after the fourth or so match in a Championship ladder. There are no weapons here, no interesting match styles, or anything else that Warzone has. The basic wrestling gameplay is enjoyable for a little bit, but that's not enough these days (nor was it enough in early 1998, when both this and Warzone were released).
Controls are simple, never using more than 3 button presses to perform a move after engaging in a grapple with the opponent. The controls sometimes degenerate into mindless button mashing, if all you have to press is square for a move to be performed, for example. It's also somewhat randomized whether you'll succeed in performing that move, or not. Guiding the character around the ring is also rather lethargic, unless you double-press the directional button in which case your character would run too fast.
Visually, Nitro sports decent player models and competently animated arenas. Of course, competence is a far call from excellence, and that proves especially true with Nitro. The arenas, the ring, the crowd, the wrestlers....all of it, BLAND. Nothing exceeds expectations with Nitro - everything seems to be animated with 'achieving the bare minimum' in mind. Wrestler models animate with few hitches, but it could have looked nicer if their movements weren't robotic. The rings are pretty cool, or at least the logos on the ring mat. Some of the size differences between characters are absurd as well. The Giant is a pretty tall individual of 7'2 or so, but come on, he is NOT 3 feet taller than Macho Man or DDP.
As for the sound, Bobby Heenan and some other idiot provide sporaidic quips throughout the match. The commentary, if you can even call it that, adds NOTHING to the gameplay but an occasional laugh at how pathetic it sounds. The music in the game, though, is nice. Rock fits wrestling damn well, and Nitro is a good testament to that.
Overall, WCW Nitro isn't as bad as most people would tell you, at least not in my opinion. But it still sucks in a lot of key areas. Considering the competition at the time, Acclaim's far superior WWF Warzone, Nitro wasn't even worth renting unless you were an avid WCW supporter. And if you're not a collector of WCW memorabilia, don't even bother with this one. If you are, I still say don't bother, but if you do, make sure it's for no more than ten dollars.
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