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Rating: Good
WWF Attitude is a huge improvement over WWF War Zone in almost every way.
First of all, the amount of options and features Attitude offers is far
greater than any other wrestling game on the market. There are literally
hundreds of different match set-ups that are possible, and hundreds of
variables in the expanded Create A Wrestler mode. The new Career Mode adds
the replay value that War Zone desperately needed, and it also allows you
to unlock hidden wrestlers and even more options.
Maybe I just love the WWF more than is probably healthy, but I enjoyed
watching computer-controlled simulation matches just about as much as I
enjoyed playing the game myself. It's fun to make dream matches like The
Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin and let the computer decide who's going to
win, just as long as the time limit isn't any higher than five minutes
(otherwise it does get a bit boring).
Some people say that Attitude's energy bar makes it feel too much like a
fighting game, but I like it. It lets you quickly see at any point in a
match who's on top. Other wrestling games like WCW/NWO Revenge also have
energy bars, the difference is that you can't see them in Revenge.
As much as there is to like about WWF Attitude, there are also a lot of
minor flaws in the game that detract from the overall experience. The
wrestler entrances are not in tune with what real wrestler entrances are
like. In the WWF, the crowd's reaction to a given wrestler is just as
vital as how that wrestler actually makes his way to the ring. In WWF
Attitude, the crowd doesn't react at all to any wrestler's music starting,
then they cheer or boo loudly when the wrestler comes out, and then they
revert back to silence while the wrestler makes his way to the ring. Also,
there is an awkward pause of anywhere between five and 15 seconds from the
time the wrestler's music starts to the time he or she actually comes out.
When the wrestlers finally do make their way down the ramp to the ring, the
animation for some of them is horrible. Simply put, some of the wrestlers
walk like apes. In addition, the lighting is screwed up in many of the
entrances (the lights stay on for Kane's entrance but go off for Shawn
Michaels' entrance, and there is no explosion for Kane's entrance).
There are a lot of other annoying little things that distance the game
from the real WWF product. Why is it that moves like an armbar often cause
more damage than big moves like a superplex? Why is it that when a
wrestler loses, he almost always kicks out and stands up right after the
three-count? Why is it that wrestlers can get up right away after just
about any move, no matter how devastating it is? Why is it that rather
than appearing to be flowing from a wrestler's face, the blood in the game
appears to be painted on and it appears on random body parts (arm, back,
chest, etc.)? Why bother to include the TitanTron in the game if there are
no entrance videos and it's not even visible during the matches? Why is it
that wrestlers get dazed for no reason after doing simple things like
whipping their opponent into a turnbuckle? These things may sound
insignificant, but they add up to be very annoying and eat away at the
game.
The game's tag team mode is nowhere near as fun as the other modes. You
have to have your "focus" on your tag team partner to make a tag, and which
one of your opponents you attack depends on which one of them your
attention is focused on. The problem is that the game frequently decides
to change your focus for you at its whim. For example, let's say you're in
a tag team match and your opponents are The Rock and Mankind. If The Rock
hip-tosses you onto the ground near the corner where Mankind is standing,
your focus might be on Mankind when you get up. By the time you switch
your focus back to the legal man in the ring (The Rock), he has probably
already tied you up from behind and executed another move on you. This
happens often enough to make you pull out your hair in frustration, and the
result is that most of your time spent in the tag team mode will not be
spent on actual wrestling, but on frantically trying to get your focus on
the right person.
The Head Bangers and Dr. Death Steve Williams are still in the game, and
yet The Big Show is not. The Big Show made his WWF debut in February, and
it was known he was going to sign with the WWF months before that. In
addition, people who have been heels ("bad guys") in real life for months
get cheered during their Attitude entrances, and vice-versa. WWF Attitude
feels like it was released in January, not August.
It takes a while to get used to the constant, exaggerated groan sound
effects, but they aren't that annoying once you're accustomed to them. The
unrealistic crowd chants also take a while to get used to, as the crowds
chant things they have never chanted in real life (like "Two Words!" and
"Ministry!"). The commentary by Shane McMahon and Jerry Lawler is a mixed
bag. Shane McMahon is nowhere near as annoying in Attitude as he was when
he was a commentator on Sunday Night Heat, and Jerry Lawler has some
classic one-liners in the game. However, it is very clear that the
comments are just randomly blurted out, one comment at a time. For example,
one minute Lawler will be laughing when somebody is getting beaten up, the
next minute he will yell "No! No!" when that same wrestler is getting
beaten up.
I expected Attitude's gameplay to suck, but I honestly had a lot of fun
with it. While WCW/NWO Revenge's move system is still much more intuitive
than Attitude's Mortal Kombat-like move system, the control set-up in
Attitude is somewhat bearable if you focus on a few wrestlers and memorize
all of their movies. The expanded list of wrestlers you can choose from is
one of the biggest reasons Attitude is so much better than War Zone.
Attitude has 30 initially playable wrestlers and many more hidden, while
War Zone didn't have half that many (and most of War Zone's wrestlers left
the WWF long before the game was released).
In the end, it is the combination of the WWF license, the replay value
added by the Career mode, and the actual gameplay that makes WWF Attitude
so fun. None of these three elements could stand up on their own without
the other two, but all three of them add up to a very enjoyable game. It
still gets old a little too quickly for me to recommend buying it, but it's
a great rental that will keep you occupied for a good weekend or two.
Send your thoughts on this review to ivan@mastergamer.com
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