Overview
With wrestling, the WWE has various products to appeal to its fans. And ever since the Nintendo days, the WWE has been putting out quality wrestling games for its fans. I can still remember the days of Wrestlemania in its 8-bit glory. Sure the graphics weren't great, and you couldn't exactly tell what was going on, but it was the heart of wrestling to me. Then came the SNES titles, which were more fun than any other wrestling games out. You could make out players, and distinguishing features were there, and the gameplay was topnotch. And today, we going to look at the Dreamcasts turn to do a wrestling game.
Surely it would be an improvement over its predecessors. Surely it would turn out better and play better than any previous instalments of the WWE franchise. Well, it's possible, but not by much. The Dreamcast looks eerily similar to the N64 version of the game. The Dreamcast can punch several million polygons per second, but the graphics seem to be on par with that of the N64. You will have to get used to the controls. The sounds are an improvement, and the loading times are short, if at all. It's a great game, but it could have been so much more.
The Nintendo 64 had its problems with limb joints, and it is fixed in the Dreamcast version. The PlayStations clipping and load time were significant downfalls, and that has been fixed in the Dreamcast version, although it has some load time and minor problems with clipping. The crowd now is more active in the Dreamcast version. They don't seem to sit there and do nothing. The crowd is lively, holding up miscellaneous signs and shaking their fists. As always, they boo and cheer accordingly.
It's a step above the PSX and N64 versions, but it isn't a giant leap. There's nothing new in the Dreamcast version that wasn't in any of the previous ones. No new rosters, no new match types, nothing new.
Gameplay
The WWE has a confident "attitude" to it indeed. Even from the beginning, you know this isn't just an ordinary wrestling game. Heavy metal music, fast-paced action, only merely preparing you for the game that is to come. Once starting the game up, you are treated to an opening cinema featuring snippets from various house shows and showing off some WWE talent. It looks like the opening sequence to WWE Raw and even has the same background music.
From the opening cinema, you have several options. Create your wrestler, have a friendly exhibition match, enter the king of the ring, or start your career. When it comes to options, Acclaim left nothing out. There are plenty of match types to choose from, albeit one or two-player. Also, lumberjack match, 3 on 3, tag team, royal rumble, and even the ever-famous "Hardcore" match, where the player wins by beating your opponent with anything in sight. And after taking too much of a beating, wrestlers begin to bleed. While the blood may look fake in some instances (especially on the back), it still makes the matches look a little more "hardcore".
WWF Attitude has some of the best wrestler intros for any wrestling game out to date. Wrestlers come out to lighting effects, crowd cheers, sparks spraying here and there. Goldust comes out with gold spraying to his music. Acclaim captured what the WWE is all about in these intros.
Another significant aspect is the ability to create your player. Acclaim is known for one of the most extensive create-a-wrestler utility. You can create just about anyone imaginable with this. There are several uniforms, styles of clothing, and jewellery to choose from. You can change your wrestler's body form to be skinny as a rail or big as a train. You can also change their stats (although you are limited on points to spend), the wrestler's introduction, and moves list. There are so many variations in the create-a-wrestler utility it's fantastic. You may find yourself spending more time creating wrestlers than you did playing them.
Also is the ability to create your pay per view. You can customize everything from mat colour, the trim of the ring, and the lights on each section of the arena. You can also determine who fights who in the pay-per-view and what the main event will be. It's almost as if you have been given a chance to book the ultimate wrestling PPV.
Graphics & Sound
Graphically it's no giant gram. The graphics in Attitude are great, but they almost seem sub-par when compared to other Dreamcast titles. The polygon count isn't that high, and looking at the intros and comparing them to the other platforms Attitude is on, it makes you realize that graphically not much has changed. Although the apparent power of the Dreamcast provides it to be better graphically, it just isn't showing the true power of the Dreamcast in it. It makes you wonder what the game would be like if Acclaim had just taken a little more time and put a little more effort into the title, then possibly, it could have come out better - great graphics nonetheless, but not too much of an improvement.
The matches in WWE are pretty lifelike. There isn't the arcadey feel to it, but it remains. It's half arcade, half simulation. Each character has around twenty moves and can perform each of them at a whim, except for their finisher. All the finisher are present in WWF Attitude. Stone Cold serves his Stone Cold Stunner, the Rock does the Rock Bottom, and D-Lo Brown does his Sky High. Hell, even X-Pac does his famous "Bronco Buster"!
There's a significant number of playable characters in WWF Attitude, plus several hidden. With such a variation in characters and match styles, you will find that WWF Attitude has a great replay value. Win the Royal Rumble, then go after the title in career mode. Or possibly create your wrestler and take him to the top. The possibilities are endless in Attitude, which makes the game such a great wrestling title.
Sound-wise, the announcers are still there, and occasionally you may find yourself chuckling, but nothing to laugh about. The wrestlers talk trash to each other both before the match and even within the match. All the wrestler's introductions are there and in full quality audio. You can even go over them and listen to all your favourite wrestler's intro music. The sound quality is standard for Dreamcast. You can hear everything clearly, and the audio is crisp.
Conclusion
Despite several gripes and whines over the finished product's overall quality, WWF Attitude makes for a great wrestling game and shows that the WWE franchise is in full effect. The lack of an updated roster irks me, and the intros are pretty outdated as well. The controls are unavoidable, but you can get used to them. But aside from all of this, I think that hardcore WWE Fans would love the game, and even those that aren't would like it as well.
