WWF Attitude

WWF Attitude is a professional wrestling video game based on the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) released by Acclaim Entertainment in 1999 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. A slightly enhanced port of the game was later released for the Dreamcast, as well as a handheld version for the Game Boy Color. The game is named after the WWF's then-current "Attitude" marketing campaign, with the tagline "Get it" also being used on company programming during that period.

WWF Attitude
Cover art of WWF Attitude featuring (clockwise from top left) Triple H, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, The Rock, and Mankind
Developer(s)Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City
Publisher(s)Acclaim Sports
Platform(s)PlayStation, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast
ReleasePlayStation
Game Boy Color
  • NA: June 1999
  • EU: 1999
Nintendo 64
  • NA: July 31, 1999
  • EU: August 9, 1999
Dreamcast
  • EU: November 5, 1999
  • NA: November 9, 1999[2]
Genre(s)Sports (Fighting)
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The game is the sequel to WWF War Zone and is the last WWF game to be published by Acclaim. The WWF signed a deal with THQ later in 1999, ending a ten-year relationship with Acclaim that began with WWF WrestleMania. Acclaim then signed a deal with Extreme Championship Wrestling, producing two games using the same game engine, ECW Hardcore Revolution and ECW Anarchy Rulz.[3]

The game is dedicated to Owen Hart, who died at a WWF event on May 23, 1999.

Gameplay

D'Lo Brown, Kane, and Mankind face off in a Triple Threat match.

Gameplay from WWF War Zone was for the most part retained. Players execute wrestling maneuvers by grappling with an opponent then entering a sequence of motions and buttons presses. On-screen life meters indicate how close a wrestler is to defeat, with the meter turning red when a small amount of health is left. The previous edition's "Challenge Mode" was replaced by a Career Mode which allowed a player to wrestle as a WWF superstar. The player first starts wrestling on house shows winning matches to work their way up to RAW, then Pay-Per-View events and eventually getting opportunities to challenge for the European, Intercontinental and WWF championship titles. New match types were also added, including the First Blood and the I Quit Match.[4]

Features added since WWF War Zone include a Create-A-Stable mode and a Pay-Per-View mode, which allows players to set up their own wrestling event - a series of matches, the name of the event, and an arena. The game includes a customizable arena option, including the ability to edit the color of lights, ring ropes, turnbuckles, and logo on the side of the ring.[5] WWF Attitude also features the audio commentary, provided by Shane McMahon and Jerry Lawler.

Create-A-Wrestler mode was expanded with original entrance music, as well as superstar nicknames with unique commentary and crowd chants for each name.[6] Vocals for the original entrance themes were provided by Road Dogg of The New Age Outlaws, a popular wrestler at the time of the game's release who would frequently show off his mic skills during events.

The Game Boy Color version of the game is slightly different from its home console counterparts, using passwords as a way to save a player's progress.[7]

Development

Acclaim added full superstar entrances to the game, improving over the short entrances from War Zone. Match commentary was recorded by Jerry "The King" Lawler and Shane McMahon. Instead of the commentators talking about each of the wrestlers before the match like on War Zone, each wrestler now has a set of pre-match taunts.[8]

Originally, the game was to include fictional jobbers that players would face early on in the Career Mode. For unknown reasons, the fictional jobbers were removed from the game; however, their voices, ring attires, and entrance theme songs remain accessible in the Create-A-Wrestler mode.[9]

Though not playable in the game, The Hardy Boyz provided the motion capture for the moves. The intro included a dedication to Owen Hart, who died shortly before the game's release and was featured in the game as a playable character. Although Owen was a "heel" prior to his death, his playable character is a "face" in honor of him. His death delayed the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions from its initial release of June 1999, likely to remove his Blue Blazer outfits as seen in early screenshots. The dedication is absent in the Dreamcast version.[4] As of 2020, Attitude is the last WWF game to feature Owen as a playable character (several games since have featured deceased characters).

The Dreamcast version was released several months after the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 games, around the same time as THQ's first WWF game WWF WrestleMania 2000[10] and features improved graphics compared to its PlayStation and Nintendo 64 counterparts, with higher-resolution texture maps and a better animated, less pixelated crowd.[11]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
DreamcastGBCN64PS
AllGame[12]N/A[13][14]
EGM7/10[15]N/A8.25/10[16]8/10[17]
Game Informer8.5/10[18]N/A9.25/10[19]9/10[20]
GameFan40%[21]N/AN/AN/A
GamePro[22]N/A[23][24]
GameRevolutionB[25]N/AN/AA−[26]
GameSpot6.8/10[11]6.1/10[7]8/10[8]8.1/10[9]
GameSpy4.5/10[27]N/AN/AN/A
IGN8/10[4]N/A8.7/10[5]8.3/10[28]
Next Generation[29]N/A[30]N/A
Nintendo PowerN/A6.3/10[31]7.4/10[32]N/A
OPM (US)N/AN/AN/A[33]
Aggregate score
GameRankings58%[34]62%[35]74%[36]79%[37]

Daniel Erickson reviewed the Nintendo 64 version of the game for Next Generation, rating it two stars out of five, and stated that "Worth a rental for WWF fans, but everyone else should just wait for THQ and EA to take their shots."[30]

Daniel Erickson reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for Next Generation, rating it one star out of five, and stated that "A pathetic port - the only reason this game gets one star is that the jewel case was reusable."[29]

The PlayStation version received "favorable" reviews, while the rest of the console versions received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator GameRankings.[35][36][37][34] The PS version was also a bestseller in the UK.[38]

See also

References

  1. Cove, Glen (April 19, 1999). "WWF Attitude PSX Date". Archived from the original on August 26, 2004.
  2. Cove, Glen (November 9, 1999). "WWF Attitude DC Ships". Archived from the original on August 26, 2004.
  3. McLaughlin, Rus (November 12, 2008). "IGN Presents the History of Wrestling Games (Page 4)". IGN. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  4. Dunham, Jeremy (November 9, 1999). "WWF Attitude Review (DC)". IGN. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  5. Boulding, Aaron (September 1, 1999). "WWF Attitude (N64)". IGN. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  6. IGN staff (August 6, 1999). "Personalized Attitude". IGN. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  7. Gerstmann, Jeff (January 28, 2000). "WWF Attitude Review (GBC)". GameSpot. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  8. Gerstmann, Jeff (August 13, 1999). "WWF Attitude Review (N64)". GameSpot. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  9. Gerstmann, Jeff (August 4, 1999). "WWF Attitude Review (PS)". GameSpot. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  10. "WWF Wrestlemania 2000 - Nintendo 64". IGN.
  11. Gerstmann, Jeff (November 2, 1999). "WWF Attitude Review (DC)". GameSpot. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  12. Licata, Jonathan. "WWF Attitude (DC) - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  13. Baize, Anthony. "WWF Attitude (N64) - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  14. Williamson, Colin. "WWF Attitude (PS) - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  15. "WWF Attitude (DC)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. 2000.
  16. "WWF Attitude (N64)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. 1999.
  17. "WWF Attitude (PS)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. 1999.
  18. Fitzloff, Jay (January 31, 2000). "WWF Attitude (DC)". Game Informer. Archived from the original on April 9, 2000. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  19. McNamara, Andy; Fitzloff, Jay; Reiner, Andrew (September 1999). "WWF Attitude (N64)". Game Informer (77). Archived from the original on March 1, 2000. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  20. McNamara, Andy; Fitzloff, Jay; Reiner, Andrew (September 1999). "WWF Attitude (PS)". Game Informer (77). Archived from the original on May 20, 2000. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  21. Mosquera, Fernando "Lagi" (November 9, 1999). "REVIEW for WWF Attitude (DC)". GameFan. Archived from the original on March 4, 2000. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  22. Scary Larry (November 25, 1999). "WWF Attitude Review for Dreamcast on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on February 12, 2005. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  23. The Freshman (September 25, 1999). "WWF Attitude for N64 on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on November 6, 2004. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  24. The D-Pad Destroyer (1999). "WWF Attitude Review for PlayStation on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on February 18, 2005. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  25. G-Wok (February 2000). "WWF Attitude Review (DC)". Game Revolution. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  26. Bodzilla (August 1999). "WWF Attitude (PS)". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  27. Fragmaster (November 17, 1999). "WWF Attitude". PlanetDreamcast. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  28. Perry, Douglass C. (August 5, 1999). "WWF Attitude (PS)". IGN. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  29. Erickson, Daniel (February 2000). "Finals". Next Generation. Vol. 3 no. 2. Imagine Media. p. 92.
  30. Erickson, Daniel (November 1999). "Finals". Next Generation. Vol. 2 no. 3. Imagine Media. p. 117.
  31. "WWF Attitude (GBC)". Nintendo Power. 121: 113. June 1999.
  32. "WWF Attitude (N64)". Nintendo Power. 124. September 1999.
  33. "WWF Attitude". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. 1999.
  34. "WWF Attitude for Dreamcast". GameRankings. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  35. "WWF Attitude for Game Boy Color". GameRankings. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  36. "WWF Attitude for Nintendo 64". GameRankings. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  37. "WWF Attitude for PlayStation". GameRankings. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  38. "UK Playstation sales chart". Official UK PlayStation Magazine (51). November 1999.
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