WCW vs. nWo: World Tour

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WCW vs. nWo: World Tour
The boxart for WCW vs. nWo World Tour
Developer(s) Asmik Ace Entertainment
Inland Productions
Publisher(s) THQ
Release date(s) November 28, 1997
Genre(s) Sports
Mode(s) Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: Everyone (E)
Platform(s) Nintendo 64
Media Cartridge

WCW vs nWo: World Tour is a video game released in 1997 on the Nintendo 64 game console. The game was THQ's first foray into the Nintendo 64 wrestling scene and is a semi sequel to the lesser known WCW vs. The World for the PlayStation.

Contents

[edit] The game

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Although in the past the WWF had been known as a marketing machine with wide appeal to children and families, its attempts to produce a successful video game that captured the feel of actual pro wrestling were rather unsuccessful. WCW's young president, Eric Bischoff, wanted WCW to not just compete with, but effectively beat the WWF in all aspects of multimedia and marketing. At the time, WWF games like the generally despised WWF In Your House and WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game were cartoony and somewhat hard to play; they also had little basis in actual wrestling.

WCW had one foray into the SNES with WCW Super Brawl Wrestling, a lackluster title that was inoffensive, and before that on the NES there was an NWA game simply called WCW Wrestling that was very sophisticated for its time, including many grapple holds, a weapon (a wrench), and specific finishing maneuvers for all characters, but was criticized for its difficulty.

Asmik Ace and AKI began producing a wrestling game that was similar to Puroresu and fighting games for WCW. The game was very well received due to its tight construction and ease of play, especially compared to Acclaim's comparatively more difficult and convoluted game WWF War Zone.

World Tour revolutionized wrestling games much like the nWo storyline did for wrestling. It was the first fully 3D wrestling game and introduced Asmik/AKI's critically acclaimed grappling system, in which all moves are started by holds initiated with a tap or extended pressing of the "A" button. Choosing to either tap or hold the grapple button will subsequently produce either "weak" or strong results once the move is performed, while a similar system is used for strikes. The game sold phenomenally well, and soon reached Player's Choice status.

Unlike today's wrestling games, World Tour featured no create-a-wrestler mode, no "real" story mode and had a limited amount of actual wrestlers. Asmik Ace and THQ did include a number of "fictional" characters in the game, who are actually Japanese wrestlers who appeared in that country's version of the game, Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, and appear in the American version with names changed due to copyright laws. These Japanese wrestlers appearing in the game include, among others FMW stars such as Hayabusa, who was renamed "Hannibal", and Atsushi Onita, who was renamed "Puchtecha", as well as future WWF stars such as Taka Michinoku, who went by the relatively prosaic moniker of "Black Belt".

A sequel, WCW/nWo Revenge, was released in 1998. Seeing the success that the WCW had with their video games and knowing that as they were rising again in 1999, the WWF decided they needed a marketable series of games for their fans to improve upon the lukewarm reception WWF War Zone and its sequel WWF Attitude. The WWF signed an exclusive contract with THQ to produce their wrestling games. This was a fruitful pairing and produced WWF WrestleMania 2000 and WWF No Mercy for the N64, which play like sequels to the two aforementioned WCW games, and also enjoyed great success which has persisted as a cult status.

Even though AKI and Asmik Ace no longer work on WWE titles, there is a strong demand for them to return to making wrestling games, and many current series including WWE Day of Reckoning and WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW use traits built from the AKI engine. Def Jam Vendetta, a game which appeared on Playstation 2 and Gamecube featuring rappers from the Def Jam label pitted against one another in a wrestling ring, was the final game which utilized the basic engine and grappling system from WCW vs. nWo: World Tour.

[edit] Featured wrestlers

In addition to several WCW and nWo wrestlers, World Tour featured many wrestlers from foreign promotions. In light of copyright concerns, the names and appearances of these wrestlers were changed, but their movesets remained intact.

[edit] World Championship Wrestling

[edit] New World Order

[edit] Dead or Alive Wrestling

[edit] Independent Union

[edit] Whole World Wrestling

Note: Whole World Wrestling is unlocked by winning either all the heavyweight or all the cruiserweight championships.

[edit] Notes

  1. ↑  Unlock by winning either the WCW Heavyweight or WCW Cruiserweight Championship in league challenge.
  2. ↑  Unlock by winning the nWo Singles Championship in league challenge.
  3. ↑  Unlock by winning either the DOA Heavyweight or DOA Cruiserweight Championship in league challenge.
  4. ↑  Unlock by winning the IU Singles Championship in league challenge.
  5. ↑  Unlock by winning the World Super Heavyweight Championship in league challenge.
  6. ↑  Judging by his appearance, Bruiser may be based on Muhammad Ali (or he may just be a generic boxer).
  7. ↑  Unlock by winning the World Super Crusierweight Championship in league challenge.

[edit] See also

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