N-Philes

WWE Day of Reckoning

Posted by Carlos.

Like most wrestling fans, I have a special place in my heart for No Mercy. Even now, four years since its release, most fans consider it the best wrestling game ever produced. Other fans of the genre consider the "Smackdown!" series to be head and shoulders above the crowd. Unfortunately, with the PS2 being the recognized leader this generation, "Smackdown!" fans are a little louder with each successive game having more features than the previous. I like to think of this as an old school argument over Ric Flair being better than Hulk Hogan. Sure Hogan was the more popular, but Flair was king for those who went past the flash.

So here we have something new to replace No Mercy in hearts of Nintendo owners: WWE Day of Reckoning. With promises of a real story mode, an in-depth create-a-wrestler, and good gameplay, it's supposed to be the be-all end-all GC fans have been waiting for since the disappointment of Wrestlemania X8 and X9. I'm probably taking my analogy a little too far, but I can almost imagine No Mercy making a vintage Ric Flair promo against Day of Reckoning much like when he initially feuded with Sting... "Wooooo..... N, by God, Philes. What you're looking at is excellence. What you're looking at is a jet-flyin', limousine ridin', no good son of a gun. What you're looking at is 16 time World Heavyweight Champion. So when you walk down that aisle, know you're going against No Mercy because like it or not, learn to love it because it's the best thing going today. Woooo!"

Okay, now that I've alienated whoever is reading this by reliving some Ric Flair memories, I can get back on track and talk about Day of Reckoning. The control system is quite similar to No Mercy with a strong/weak grapple dynamic allowing for matches to flow from hip tosses in the beginning to t-bone taz-plexes midway through to a battle of finishers by the end. The reversal system has a nice flow to it also with R blocking punches, L reversing grapples, and L & R reversing finishers. Timing is of course crucial to make any of these reversals possible. What messed me up initially (which I'm saying as a warning) is that a small picture will appear showing which button you need to press to reverse the move. For newbies, this is great since it's giving you a chance but also an unwelcome advantage as anything can be reversed at any time. Good or bad, the icons appearance can actually throw you off since you're watching a small L being moving up and down by your spirit meter instead of the action within the ring, losing your chance to reverse the move.

My favorite addition to the reversal isn't even really a reversal, it's a desperation move. Once your spirit meter reaches Danger levels, but your opponent's spirit is getting close to special you can hit A & B to steal your opponent's spirit and return the flow of the match in your favor. I thoroughly enjoyed this new feature since it means no matter what, you (or your opponent) always has a chance, making for a more competitive match. Finishers are also quite similar in that once your special meter is filled, hitting A + B activates them, and you'll have approximately 5 - 10 seconds to hit your finisher by also pressing A + B. A nice feature, which is quite unlike No Mercy, is that you do not become suddenly omnipotent and "hulk up". You're still the same wrestler from before with the same damage you've received; only now you can do your finisher.

Another new feature is the submission gauge. Just like the good old SNES days, a small meter appears when you are in or are putting your opponent through a submission move. A tug of war starts between tapping out or breaking out of the hold. The starting place of the icon is dependent upon how much damage the targeted area has received. Speaking of damage, location-specific damage is a lot more obvious in this game. A small outline of a body is on screen showing where you've been hit. Once the area is yellow, enough damage has been received to start to worry. If the area is highlighted red, get ready to start pounding the A button as you are more prone to submission moves targeting that body part.

I may have taken a lot of space describing how to play, but it's quite intuitive and you'll be doing all of sorts of moves, with most of them being hidden in the games create-a-wrestler mode (CAW). I can honestly say the CAW is amazing. I've never seen so much detail put into one of these modes, in regards to your wrestler's appearance. You can alter everything from the top of his or her head to the bottom of his or her feet. As an example, I tried to make myself and I have a slight overbite that I was able to add. As for the moves themselves, you have everything from basic moves to finishers straight out of Japan. If you aren't in the mood to customize your wrestler's moveset, you can copy the moveset's from every character in this game plus another 15 templates of wrestler's not in this game (for you JBL and Goldberg fans, their move sets are part of the 15).

Your CAW is important as it's the only way to access the story mode. It's fairly common knowledge that the story mode in Wrestlemania X9 was panned in every way for being what fans wanted, to feel as though they are a part of the WWE. Borrowing a page out of Tony Hawk's Underground, Day of Reckoning's story mode has your CAW starting out as a WWE developmental project trying to impress the management in order to promote you to Sunday Night Heat where you once again try to impress and work your way to the main roster of RAW or "Smackdown!". Unfortunately, the decision you make doesn't make any difference because it will be the same story of you as part of a faction (Evolution on RAW and the New Ministry on "Smackdown!") where you become the odd man out when you begin to have aspirations of becoming world champion. It would have been nice to see the story branch instead of doing the same thing with different characters.

Graphically, this game is a beauty to watch with each of the wrestlers looking amazingly like their real life counter-parts. What amazed me is how the characters also have little things to really add to the realism. Randy Orton comes out with the over-confident swagger you can see weekly on TV, as does each of the 40 wrestlers (including 4 legends and Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake).

In a nice change of pace, once again similar to THUG, songs by actual recording artists are featured in this game. While the selection isn't exactly large or great (with the exception of Bring The Noise by Anthrax & Public Enemy), it is a nice change of pace from the MIDI-like generic theme songs from before. The downside to having this music is the lack of in game voices, so you won't hear Triple H saying how he is the Game, or even the great Ric Flair's "WOOOO!!!!" or for that matter the announcers from RAW and "Smackdown!" (which might be a good thing now that I think about it).

This game gets an N-Philes score of B+.

Day of Reckoning is the best wrestling game you will find on the Gamecube. The roster might not be as big as other games, but the CAW more than makes up for it. Gameplay-wise, this is the closest I've played to No Mercy with enough new additions to make the matches more interesting. The story mode, the bread and butter for single player, is very good, although the lack of a branching story line does bring it down. All in all, this game is highly recommended to WWE fans who will appreciate all the added nuances.

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