LTTP: WCW vs. NWO: Revenge!

This story begins on a dark and stormy night. The place is Atlanta, Georgia and the year is 1998. A tractor trailer drives down a lonely, dusty road. Ahead, something goes up in flames! A man in dark clothes and a baseball bat stands in the middle of the road! The semi can do nothing but slam the breaks halting only inches from the face of...Sting (The wrestler, not the singer)! The driver is visibly distraught as a poorly voice-acted 'WUUUT?!' escapes his lips. Fade to black and cue the music.
This is the opening cinematic to THQ/AKI's WCW vs NWO: Revenge in 1998. This blew my mind the first time I saw it. It impressed me so much, in fact, that I called my father (A man who to this day disdains video games) into my room and said "Still think all video games are stupid? Well look at this!' My dad watched the cinematic, obviously unamused, looked at me, then to my Michael Jackson cardboard cut-out and my Theodore Rex movie poster, sighed with disappointment, simply said 'Yes, I do.' and left the room.
Now that my far too personal issues are out of the way we can talk about this amazing game. As you may remember it was a sequel to WCW vs. NWO: World Tour. It had only come out a year prior to  Revenge and introduced the best grappling system ever created. One major problem with World Tour; It looked like crap. Or perhaps the game was secretly sposered by Play-Doh, so therefore all the wrestlers had to look like they were made of it. I think THQ thought this game could use a major face-lift and put out Revenge.
And what an improvement it was. Everyone on the roster had a detailed model with characteristics that made each one different from the other. Except for Eric Bishoff's model, it was pure garbage.  So lets talk about this awesome looking roster. There were so many wrestlers to choose from.

NWO White/Red, WCW 1-4, Raven's Flock and a couple to made up factions to shove Japanese wrestlers in there. Some roster highlights: Eddy Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Hollywood Hulk, Bret Hart, Macho Man, Goldberg, DDP, British Bulldog ect, ect, ect. Roster Worsts: Eric Bischoff.
In addition to the grapple system, Revenge added the spirit meter. This meter showed you just how pumped your wrestler was. When your meter was full you could strong grapple into your wrestler's special move by wiggling the N64 toggle stick. If the meter was low, there was a good chance you would get pinned or tap out. Interesting note; Revenge was one of the few N64 games that had you hold the controler at the 9 and 3 postitions and not the more common 6 and 3. Also, just for fun, do  you know what wrestler could not make full use of the revolutionary grapple system? Eric Fucking Bischoff.
You could also pull weapons out of the crowd. Chairs, bats, trashcans (My favorite.), mallets and trashcan lids. There was a fine art to using the weapons however. If you used them sparingly your spirit meter would rise and the crowd would cheer. Relentlessly pummel someone and the crowd would turn on you causing your meter to fall. There were some wrestlers who had some special advantages when it came to weapons. LaParka always starts with a chair and Dake Kim would always pull a wooden mallet from the crowd.
There two things this game did not do well and I'm finding is a problem with most wrestling video games. First, look at that box.

No, YOU were supposed to bring the buns, Brother!

 Are they arguing in a sauna? No wait, they were Photo-shopped into one. Someday they'll figure out how to make a good looking box. Also, note Raven's Sandman shirt, Neil Gaiman must have loved the free advertising for his comic. Considering Revenge ultimately sold just under 2 million copies, that's a lot of eyes on your overrated comic. (Comic nerd rage)
Secondly, the music just sucks. Imagine the worst dub-a-wub-a butt rock you can, put it on infinite loop and then try not to go insane.
There is so much more to this game but I feel I've already rambled too long. All I'm going to say is you have the means, buy a N64 and play this game. Sure, later games have more features, modern wrestlers, no Eric Bischoff and create you own wrestler modes. None of them hold a candle to this game. Sadly, with developers more interested in better graphics over game-play and THQ barely able to keep its head above water, we may never seen one like it again.

This article was originally posted on www.hipsquaredcircle.com a site dedicated to the modern wrestling fan! Go check them out!