ECW Hardcore Revolution
Reviewed by Greatest One
After Acclaim lost its WWF license, it turned to ECW to
hopefully continue its trend of bringing out quality
wrestling games. Its first product is ECW Hardcore Revolution.
When I played this game, I was looking forward to jumping of
the top rope into the crowd, or powerbombing my opponent
through flaming tables. I was disappointed. There is no real
'extreme' stuff in this game. Revolution plays just like
attitude. In fact, if you create the ECW characters on
Attitude, you have 80% of the game. This is not necessarily
a bad thing though. Attitude was and still is one of the
best wrestling games ever made. Hardcore Revolution, follows
a lot of the same successful formula, with some minor
changes. The most intriguing change to most gamers would
probably be the barbed wire match. This was the mode, I was
looking forward to the most. Unfortunately, this
disappointed me too. The only difference from a regular
match, is that when you whip your opponent to the ropes, he
doesn't come back. He just lies there and loses some power.
But, the rest of the match plays just like a regular match.
You can do every single move, regardless of whether the
barbed wire is interfering or not. The barbed wire, also,
shows no effect of damage, either. The rest of the modes are
all similar to attitude, except there is more bleeding than normal.
One of the things that made Attitude popular was the grat
Create A Wrestler mode. This is back and better than ever,
with more choices and limitless possibilities. This is
probably the strongest point in the game.
Graphics: 9.
The graphics are similar to Attitude, with every wrestler
perfectly distinguished from the other. If you follow ECW,
you will be able to instantly recognize their polygon
counterparts. The game runs pretty smoothly and the loading
time has been reduced.
Sound: 6. 5.
The poor ECW announcing team causes the relatively low
score. The announcing is boring and monotonous. The entrance
music of the wrestlers could have been better, but I guess
ECW is to blame.
Gameplay: 8.
Nothing's changed from attitude. You still have to execute
Mortal Kombat style button combinations, to pull off moves.
This is a good thing as it rewards skilled players, unlike
the easy grapple system of Revenge or Wrestlemania2000.
Replay: 9.
Just like Attitude, Revolution has a good career mode which
will have you playing for hours. Multiplayer makes the game
all the more fun.
Overall: 8 out of 10
If you don't have Attitude, get this game. Even though its
not really 'extreme', it still is the very first ECW game.
