WWF War Zone is a game that I approached with some
curiosity. I’d played the N64 version once and I was rubbish at it. But after
that I bought a Playstation and got hooked on to the Smackdown series that
later became the WW series that is released on a yearly basis even to this very
day, and never looked back. Having a different development team brought a very
different approach to 3D Wrestling games. War Zone’s controls were complex and
fiddly, Smackdown’s were fast and arcade-y. War Zone was more strategic,
Smackdown was more spectacular. Both developments created what were regarded at
their time to be great games – but as I went down the Smackdown route
originally, I was very interested to see what Acclaim’s development brought to
the table.
Unless they are deliberately designed to be otherwise,
Wrestling games are very much “of their time” in terms of their character
roster, and the available characters here would raise a smile for anyone old
enough to remember the start of the so-called ‘Attitude’ era. Stone Cold Steve
Austin was the poster boy for it, along with Triple H, The Rock (still Rocky
Mavia at this point,) Kane, The Undertaker and Mankind.
Oddly enough, Bret Hart was also a playable character in the
game. Presumably his involvement in the development (some live-action promos
from each wrestler were filmed for the Playstation version) occurred before the
Montreal Screwjob. But since the game was released almost a year later when he would
have been under contract with WCW, one might reasonably wonder just how long it
took Acclaim to make this game!
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| Stunner! Who hasn't tried this on a younger sibling at some point? |
The wrestling was interesting beyond the basic punches,
kicks and blocks. There were beat-em-up style input commands for some of the
basic throws, which isn’t surprising since Acclaim were also responsible for
the early Mortal Kombat games. You could pause the game to bring up your moves
list, and work to that. But getting your opponent in a tie-up was where things
got interesting, as your move was more likely to succeed or fail depending on
the circumstances. In essence, the player who did the weaker move would win the
tie-up against the player who did the stronger move, with the idea being that
the weaker move would be less damaging but easier to pull off against a
stronger move that would be more likely to be interrupted. But this would
change depending on how much momentum your wrestler had built up; if you went
into your grapple with full momentum or while your opponent was stunned, there
would be no stopping you no matter what move you were trying to do! This worked
great against the computer but I would imagine cause disparity between players
of differing levels of experience; if you know how to do all of one character’s
moves, it would put you at a distinct advantage against someone picking up the
game for the first time.
I chose Shawn Michaels for my playthrough. The Championship
mode was simple enough; defeat a succession of Wrestlers to become the World
Champion at the top of the ‘tree.’ I think there were some other stipulations;
you couldn’t lose more than three matches. Also, sometimes a
previously-defeated opponent would challenge you to a ‘grudge’ match, and if
you lost this one you’d drop a whole step off the ladder. Nothing a bit of
scum-saving doesn’t sort out!
You would think that it would be the finishing moves that
decided the outcome of the match, but they’re very tricky to do, requiring a
longer-than-usual input command. I managed Shawn Michaels’ Sweet Chin Music a
few times, but I often found that trying to do the move left me open to an
attack at a time when I couldn’t afford to lose health needlessly. I found it a
far more effective tactic to get the opponent’s health down to red and learn
the command for Crucifixion – a pin that can be done from the standing
position. That won me a lot more matches – and the Championship – than any
mount of faffing about with complicated finishers!
Having now won the World Championship and been rewarded with
a pretty standard cutscene, I’m ready to move on. I know the game has more to
offer but it’s basically an unlock-fest from this point, and while War Zone is
a good game, I don’t necessarily feel the need to play through it multiple
times to unlock all the costumes and wrestlers. I might think about coming back
to it later, though – there are wrestlers in this game that didn’t appear in
the later games, so War Zone might be the only opportunity I have to play as
Ahmed Johnson, or British Bulldog. Until then, I’ll move on to another game and
see what new challenges await…
