If you're familiar with Revenge, then you know the story here. The game is basically Revenge with a WWF license, which isn't bad. We now have all the glitz and glamour of the WWF in a neat little cart, including recent stars such as Jericho and The Big Show, as well as a clout of midcard jabronis such as Meat and the Blue Meanie. Every wrestler comes to the ring with their own signature entrances and pyrotechnics, as well as their real life persona inside the ring. The Rock even climbs the turnbuckle to acknowledge the fans before he steps in to lay the smackdown on any jabronis who dare face him.

For the most part, the visuals have stayed the same as in Revenge. The wrestlers look great, although sometimes there's noticable clipping of the characters (especially evident during replays). On the whole though, there's not much to complain about. The hand drawn animation that THQ utilizes is vastly superior to Acclaim's clunky motion capture, and each wrestler has their own authentic intro which is true to the real (heh) thing. The hand drawn animation shows how much advantages it has when you view moves like D'Lo's Lo-Down, or The People's Elbow. Acclaim wasn't able to accurately mimic these moves in Attitude, but in WM2K, they're perfect right down to the last detail. One minor problem I have is with the introductions. Why did THQ choose to blow up pixelated still screens of every wrestler's intro video? The stills look GREAT on the Titantron, but they look horrible when they're forced into the entire area of your TV screen. Someone along the line of production should've said "stop, this is bad" or something along those lines, because it's a stark contrast to the rest of the game.

The sound is probably the worst aspect of WM2K, and that's mostly due to the N64's shoddy sound capabilities. THQ tried hard to implement as much of the WWF experience into the cart, and has graced us with every wrestler's theme music. Unfortunately, the music sounds like it was recorded underwater or something, because it sounds very distant and muddled. The music that's played while wrestling is alright, but you'd hardly notice it while you're playing. The sound effects are pretty much standard, nothing to get overly excited about.

As for the gameplay, THQ tweaked the Revenge engine a little bit, fixing one major glitch and adding some new features into the gameplay. One major glitch in the previous installments of THQ's wrestling games was that if you tapped the analog stick while in a submission hold, you'd actually remain in that hold longer, instead of being released (like you should've been). That little problem has been rectified in this game, and THQ also added the ability to leave your opponent in a sitting position, so you can apply even more moves and holds to him (nothing says good morning like a dropkick while sitting down). Like I've said before, WM2K is just like Revenge except for a few tweaks, not to mention that THQ made it possible that practically every move in the game is reversible. Although I haven't gotten the timing down as of yet, it might be possible to reverse finishing moves (anyone want to help me out on this? ^_^), but it is possible to reverse aerial moves, as well as the standard grappling moves. At one point in a match, me and my cpu opponent were reversing each other's reversals for about 4 or 5 times in a row. Sorta reminds me of a particular GI-fest I had in Soul Calibur one day.

All in all, this is the definitive wrestling game. You can't ask for a better quality wrestler than this... until Smackdown! comes out. Wrestling fanatics have probably picked up their copy of this fine title, but if you got an N64 and Donkey Kong 64 isn't up your alley, I suggest taking this for a spin and seeing if it's worth the purchase. If you're one of those poor souls who's been fed on WCW Nitro and Thunder on the Playstation, do what I did; buy an N64 and this game. That's all you'll need.

· · · Reno