Retro Review: Wrestlemania 2000

<p>The Attitude Era was probably the best era in professional wrestling&period; Vince McMahon captured lightning in a bottle and turned that into complete ownership of professional wrestling after he purchased the <em>WCW<&sol;em> for a mere two million dollars&period; It was a difficult battle though&comma; for Vince&comma; he struggled some during the Monday Night Wars&comma; yet eventually became the biggest Heel in wrestling&comma; soon <em>WCW<&sol;em> had nothing that could top the feud between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon&period; <em>Wrestlemania 2000<&sol;em> was released on the N64 during the peak of professional wrestling&comma; and while not the BEST wrestling game ever developed&comma; &lpar;that would come a few years later on this very system&rpar; but still a fun romp through the squared circle&period; Unfortunately I didn&&num;8217&semi;t have an N64 during its heyday&comma; I purchased mine about a decade after it hit and I am a very latecomer to the system and this game&period; Nostalgia really won&&num;8217&semi;t affect this review other than some fond memories of playing some wrestling games &lpar;I can&&num;8217&semi;t remember which ones exactly&rpar; in my buddies dorm room&period; I cannot believe how much I love these imperfect graphics and just how much I truly miss this era in gaming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now I&&num;8217&semi;m going to come out an say it bluntly&comma; there is surprisingly a lot of content on this little black cartridge&period; I scrolled through the menu for what seemed like an eternity looking through all the matches and options I could enjoy with my funky N64 controller&period; I scanned through Exhibition&comma; King of the Ring&comma; Road to Wrestlemania&comma; Pay Per-View and Royal Rumble options&period; There were also the Edit&comma; Data and Options menu places as well&comma; which are self explanatory&period; They do hide create a wrestler in Edit&comma; so keep in mind that&&num;8217&semi;s where you can create yourself or tweek an Attitude Era Superstar&period; Everything but Road to Wrestlemania is for you and some buddies&comma; no matter how many Pay Per-View&&num;8217&semi;s I created&comma; they just weren&&num;8217&semi;t as fun without a real person to battle&period; Same goes for King of the Ring&comma; while it is nice to sit on that throne after sixteen grueling matches&comma; it would just be more satisfying to defeat a person instead of A&period;I&period;&period; I wrestled the most in Road to Wrestlemania&comma; this was the game&&num;8217&semi;s campaign and seeing as I had no one to battle with I decided to sink most of my time into becoming the best Superstar I could be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;128066" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-128066" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-128066" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;03000043&sol;maxresdefault1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-128066" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Wrestlemania 2000<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; THQ&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Seeing that the N64 controller is probably the poorest design of any Nintendo controller&comma; controlling your wrestler can be tough at moments&period; When you finally find yourself in the squared-circle you press A to grapple and B to punch and kick&period; If you find yourself getting pummeled by a Superstar Left Trigger will be your friend for that is block&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re the one doing the pummeling then by all means use the joystick&comma; that is taunt and raises your Attitude Meter&period; When you get the Attitude Meter full you can use your Finisher on your opponent to look even more bad-ass before pinning them&period; If you knock your foe out of the ring and want to keep beating them the Yellow Up button is your way out and into the ring&period; Once you decimate your opponent with punches&comma; grapples and moves you can finally pin them with Left Trigger&period; Once again always try to do the finisher by going up to your nemesis and hit B with the thumbstick&period; It doesn&&num;8217&semi;t unlock an achievement or anything&comma; but this is the closest you will ever be to being The Rock&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since this game is on the N64 it lacks some of the polish that PlayStation counterparts had&comma; yes the graphics were blocky and insanely 32-bit&comma; but the N64 lacks something very important&period; It lacks the full entrance to the wrestlers&comma; now this isn&&num;8217&semi;t a game breaking thing or stopped me from enjoying the game&comma; but the nice entrances from <em>WWF&colon; Smackdown&excl;<&sol;em> are not there&period; Instead you get what the cartridge could handle&comma; which are basically snippets of the entrances and some of the music&comma; like I said&comma; not game ruining&comma; but the entrances are some of the best part of the game&period; The 32-bit graphics are not terrible&comma; but it is funny seeing a flat version of a Superstar&&num;8217&semi;s face on a blocky body&period; You can only tell who they are when they face you head on&comma; other than that make sure you remember what color trunks your guy is wearing or you may lose the match&period; I know that a majority of gamers harp on these old graphics&comma; but this is what I grew up on and I love going back to them they remind me of some really great times in my life&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;128095" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-128095" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-128095" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;04010604&sol;d9GQIk7-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"413" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-128095" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Wrestlemania 2000<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; WWE&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>This is one of the best wrestling games of this era and should not be missed if you have a working N64&period; As I said earlier&comma; I miss this generation of consoles&semi; I don&&num;8217&semi;t really know why but when I see those lumbering&comma; blocky characters my heart swoons for when times were better&period; Now do not get me wrong&comma; I love the current wrestling games that are out there and am currently slowly playing my way through them&comma; but it is this time period that makes me smile the most&period; Attitude Era wrestling with 64 bit graphics shoots me right back to college&comma; and I jump back to that time period a lot with my N64 and Dreamcast&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s a dirty little pleasure of mine&period; If you can&&num;8217&semi;t get an N64 to enjoy this title&comma; the closet replacement I could think of would be <em>WWE 2K13<&sol;em>&semi; the whole campaign in that game is the history of the Attitude Era and I simply adore it&semi; even if it is super hard to unlock all the matches&period; The best way to play though would be on the N64&comma; with three other buddies rolling through a Royal Rumble or King of the Ring&semi; those are some nights well spent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;