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Old 24-08-2013, 12:55 AM   #1
SpiDoL
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Default WCW Nitro (WARNING: LONG AND DETAILED!)

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WCW Nitro
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Remember WCW (World Championship Wrestling)? I do. I grew up with them. I watched for two years as they gave the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) a major run for their money during the now-famous Monday Night Wars (September 4th 1995 to March 26th 2001). Although WCW would ultimately lose the war, they still had a lot of outstanding talent and personally left me with very fond memories (I even went to a WCW House Show in June 1999, very fun!).

Even in video games, WCW was kicking WWF's butt, thanks to the legendary N64 wrestling engine developed by AKI and utilized for WCW VS. nWo World Tour, and its sequel WCW/nWo Revenge (still one of the greatest wrestling games ever!). Unfortunately, shortly after the release of Revenge, WCW switched over to EA Games for their future WCW game titles, allowing THQ (and AKI) to jump ship to the WWF. One of the many bad decisions WCW made that lead to their death (For those that don't know, WWF bought WCW, which was the end of the Monday Night Wars.).

WCW Nitro (named after WCW's flagship Monday Night TV show) was originally made for the Sony PlayStation back in 1997. It was ported to the PC (as well as the Nintendo 64) in early 1999 with an updated roster (which is actually the same roster from WCW/nWo Thunder (named after WCW's Thursday Night TV show), the sequel to the PlayStation version.). Believe it or not, this is one of only THREE wrestling games THQ EVER made for PC (The other two being WWE RAW and the free-to-play WWF With Authority.). Now that all my rambling on about WCW is done, let's see if this game is good or bad:

This is a wrestling game, but the way it's played, it feels more like a fighting game. When you get into a match, the camera keeps both wrestlers on the left and right of each other like a 2D fighter (even though the game is 3D). The controls look simple, but like a typical fighting game, are very hard to master. You have to do certain button and/or key combinations in order to do traditional wrestling moves. Each wrestler also has two special moves only they can use, and one finisher (i.e. Hogan's Leg Drop or Bret Hart's Sharpshooter). Not every wrestler's move set is authentic to their real-life counterpart. A lot of wrestlers in the game can do moves they'd never do in real-life, and some wrestlers even have move sets copied from other wrestlers.

Like ordinary fighting games, both wrestlers (or all wrestlers in a Tag Team or Battle Royal) have a health bar that depletes when he/she takes damage (but replenishes slowly and faster when he/she taunts). When the wrestler's health bar is flashing red, that's the signal for the opponent to perform his finisher. The movement during a match is extremely stiff. You can move in different directions while running, but the arena you fight in is so cramped that there isn't much room to run. There are no weapons in this game (They were added to Thunder), however you can call in someone to help you gang up on your opponent (It's the HELP button in the Control Setup).

There are five game modes in WCW Nitro. 1-on-1 Exhibition (which I just explained), 1P Tournament where you go through 10 random opponents to win the World Heavyweight Title, Tag Team, Battle Royal, and Network. Yes, this game actually lets you play against other people over the network, although I never had the chance to try it. Battle Royal plays like a Royal Rumble, where you throw people over the top rope and someone immediately runs in replacing the eliminated wrestler (Actually in a Battle Royal, all participants (whether there's 20 or 40) start in the ring at the same time, and keep getting thrown out until only one is left. If you like that, try to find a WCW World War 3 Battle Royal on VHS or YouTube, where there's 60 wrestlers wrestling simultaneously in three connected rings!) What's interesting about the Battle Royal in this game though, is that you're allowed to leave the ring and fight outside at any time, which is allowed in a real Royal Rumble as long as a wrestler doesn't exit over the top rope. There aren't many wrestling games that allow you to do that.

The roster for WCW Nitro (PC) is based on WCW in the year 1998. This means you have undefeated Goldberg, two nWo factions (B&W Hollywood and Red Wolfpac), Bret Hart, and anyone else who even showed his/her face on the show during that year (even people who were staff, managers, or valets are in the roster). A unique feature of this game, is that on the Player Select screen, you can press the R key while highlighting a wrestler to watch the actual wrestler explain to you WHY you should play as him! There's a lot of wrestlers that need to be unlocked, but there's a code you can enter at the Title screen that immediately unlocks every hidden wrestler. All in all, there are 48 wrestlers in the game.

There are options that can be set, such as match time, ring-out time, interference, arenas (Based on real WCW arenas, but there's secret "silly" arenas unlocked by a code), volume, controls, and graphics (Please don't play this game with Hardware Acceleration turned off!). There's also a credits video, which is actually worth watching because of all the clips from WCW programming (which are also seen in the game's intro, and when you win or lose the 1P tournament).

Lastly, Graphics and Sound. The only thing I can say about them is that they're OK, given that they were made for a 32-bit gaming console. The graphics and sound for WCW-nWo Revenge weren't good either, but it was the gameplay featured in the aforementioned AKI engine that really made Revenge shine. Unfortunately, Nitro can't use this excuse because of it's terrible 2D fighter-esque gameplay. Once again, I strongly recommend you DO NOT play the game with Hardware Acceleration turned off. Not only will the game look really ugly, but it will run much slower than intended.

So in conclusion, as much as I love WCW, I have to agree with everyone else's who's played this game, and I have no choice but to give it a 2 out of 5. I won't force you to play or avoid the game. Whatever you do is up to you, but for this game, it mostly depends on if you're a die-hard WCW fan, or even a wrestling fan in general...

RATING: 2 OUT OF 5
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Old 24-08-2013, 12:57 AM   #2
SpiDoL
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I've got an archive for the game. I'll have to post it here because I no longer have access to Abandonia's FTP server. If someone can take my review and archive and add some screenshots, hopefully we'll be able to get the game on the main site soon...

EDIT:
Here's the archive.

Last edited by SpiDoL; 24-08-2013 at 01:22 AM.
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Old 24-08-2013, 02:32 PM   #3
Japo
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The FTP password was changed at some point; I can send you the new one.

We need screenshots to publish it.

PS it's approved:
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=27322
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Old 24-08-2013, 09:17 PM   #4
SpiDoL
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Just uploaded to the FTP server, along with the review, screenshots, and box art.
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Old 25-08-2013, 10:39 AM   #5
marko river
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Thx for new contributions
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Old 13-09-2013, 02:30 PM   #6
cucc
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Hi, somebody help please. i can't run the game, when i try to start just a window comes up with this message: Direct X could not be initialized Error 2.If anyone knows how to fix it tell me pls.
I want to play this game again after a long time. i hope i can run it on windows 7 somehow

Last edited by cucc; 13-09-2013 at 02:36 PM.
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Old 13-09-2013, 06:35 PM   #7
saibot216
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I had this game for PS1 and now PC. They got different rosters and one thing I noticed was there were more arenas and there was music during the brawls. It is nice that I get to play as Billy Kidman though.
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