The loooong awaited # 1…

#1: WCW vs. nWo World Tour/WCW Revenge/Wrestlemania 2000/Virtual Pro Wrestling 2/WWF No Mercy (N64 – 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2000)

Yes, five games at number one. “Cheating!” you decry. Well, maybe. But it’s my list. And the five games are so closely connected I couldn’t possibly separate them. Each sequel improved on the others, but each game in the series has its own unique charm that I frequently revisit them.

What they’re about: Wrestling. Two games covering WCW, 2 games covering WWF, and another covering every major Japanese promotion.

Why they’re here: The AKI engine. As I said in previous posts, coming up with a solid wrestling engine is hard – how do you adapt a fake sport to make it real. Given the landslide of shitty home wrestling games, it’s not an easy task. Most games revolved around “button mashing,” meaning control would go to whoever could pound the controls the most. But the Aki system – having to use weak grapples and building up to stronger moves, plus weak and strong striking and “special” moves – was not only the most “realistic” engine, it also involved a good amount of strategy.

Even the first game, WCW vs. nWo World Tour (by far the weakest entry in the series), was a quantum leap forward from any prior home wrestling game. That particular game introduced the engine that would largely remain unchanged for the duration of the series. Also, half the game was made up Japanese wrestlers with different names, which was odd. It’s like having a MLB game and leaving out the Milwaukee Brewers in favor of the Yomiuri Giants. No matter – I had a blast playing with anyone, even Ali Baba.

A year later, WCW/nWo Revenge hit the stores and was superior in its predecessor in every way. Much better graphics, actual entrances, replays, more moves, the ability to edit a wrestler’s outfit, a scary attention to detail, and a humongous roster. Seriously, everyone was in this game, even random folks like Stevie Ray, Yuji Nagata, and Larry Zybysko. There were a few Japanese wrestlers back as well, but due to copyright issues they changed everyone’s appearance in addition to their name. Needless to say, Maya Inca Boy and Hawk Hana did not get much use.

This was all well and good, but WCW was pretty stinky around this time, while the WWF was heating up. “If only THQ/AKI could make a WWF game,” we wondered – and then it happened! Thus came Wrestlemania 2000, which not only had a full WWF roster, but also added entrances and music, a solid season mode, and best of all, a Create-A-Wrestler function, allowing you to recreated all the WCW and ECW wrestlers who were no longer in the game.

While waiting for the next sequel I invested in Virtual Pro Wrestling 2, the Japanese version of the THQ/AKI series, with obviously wrestlers from the various Japanese companies. Best of all was adding a shoot fighting, which took me a while to appreciate, but added a whole new dimension to the game. If the game wasn’t in Japanese it may be my favorite of the bunch. Hell, it may be my favorite anyway.

Last but not least was WWF No Mercy in 2000, the last game in the series. Not a major leap forward, but they added am improved season mode with several different paths (where you had to lose certain matches in order to proceed) as well as the Smackdown mall, where you could use money won in the game to purchase different moves and items of clothing.

Sadly, that was it for THQ and AKI. THQ went on to produce the Smackdown games for the PS2 (which are decent but a bit too arcade-y for me), while AKI took its engine to such wacky games as Def Jam Vendetta.

Personal Memories: I’ll just leave you with this tidbit: before I played WCW vs. nWo World Tour I had no desire to buy a Nintendo 64 system. After I played it I was determined to buy one, and even worked on my Christmas Vacation at Blockbuster Video to do so (including New Year’s Eve, which may have been one of the crappiest days of my life). Didn’t matter – it was so very worth it. And if that’s not the number one game of all time, I don’t know what is.