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By Osei Tyson on June 22nd, 2002
Introduction WrestleMania the showcase of the immortals. The place legends are born. Everything with the name WrestleMania has a high standard to meet. Did the game with the name WrestleMania live up to those high standards tht was pre-set for it? Read on to know if this game is WRESTLEMANIA or just some small town house show. Presentation When you first boot up your game you’ll be met by a pretty simple main menu with not much to choose from. The main menu is made up of Exhibition, Path of Champion, Battle for the Belts, Create-a-Superstar, and Options. You also have a roster 42 WWE superstars to choose from 6 of them are hidden. A few match modes to play including Single, Tag, Handicap, Triple Threat, Fatal 4 Way, Battle Royal, and Royal Rumble. And a decent list of types to play them including Hardcore, Cage, Hell in a Cell, Ladder, Table, TLC, and Ironman(what no Last Man Standing). All of that is good but it sucks that THQ could not snag the rights to the licenced WCW music.
Graphics & Sound GRAPHICS:
WrestleMania X8 graphics fall right in the middle of Raw is War(Xbox) and Smackdown: Just Bring It(PlayStation 2). Yukes did’nt take time out to change the charcter models too much from what they did on PS2’s Smackdown. But they did add more polygons to the charcters so they look a little better than in Smackdown but kinda far behind of Raw is War. All the moves are well animated with better motion capture than other Wrestling games on next-gen consoles. The backrounds are too plain. They are well built but there’s not much camera flashes and on the fly camera angles to bring the backrounds to life like the real WWE. But all around you get a pretty solid look for the game with not a trace of slowdown. SOUND:
There’s not much to say here buy i’ll rant on about it anyway. This is where the game takes the biggest fall. First thing THQ take a few notes from Acclaim. Pay attention THQ guys "WE LIKE J.R. & JERRY THE KING TO TALK TO US". Also another tip from the WWF Warzone days we like the wrestlers to talk too. How good is a taunt when it’s a silent one??? Second thing why is the crowd so dull? When I walk that ramp with the Hollywood Hogan I want to feel like Hogan. The crowd must roar not cheer the same way they cheer for The Hurricane. Gameplay For you guys and gals out there that is looking for WWF No Mercy’s Evolution. Don’t look here becuse it’s not what your looking for. This game should not be WWE WrestleMania X8 it should be WWE Smackdown: Just Bring it+. The battle system is more Playstation-ish that N64-ish. With the auto grapple stuff found in the Smackdown series. Old No Mercy players will cringe over the lack of moves. Even Smackdown players will hate the lack of moves becuse you only have 4 front grapples and 4 back grapples. Unlike the 8 found in Smackdown or the 16 in No Mercy. The only new thing about the battle system I like is the finishing move reversals. It’s so fun to duck under William Regal’s Power of the Punch just to catch him with a Stunner.Exhibition mode is..... well you know what to find here. Path of Champion is where you go to win all WWE belts(minus the Womans title) and it’s done like the old WCW N64 games. You pick what belt you want a fight a series of matches to get is. Simple enough huh. Battle for the Belts is well...... THE STUPIDEST MODE EVER IN A WRESTLING GAME!!!! The game has been out since June 11th and I still don’t know what Yukes is trying to do with this mode. You win strange belts and battle for them with a friends(if you have any) over memory cards. It might sound good in print but it’s the most boring feture in the game. Man if i’m going to win tons of belts from my friends let me see my charcter walk to the ring wearing them for goodness sake. I pretty much like the Create-a-Superstar mode. It might be the only thing they done right in this game. You have lots of ways to customize your charcter. From body size, to Moves, to Outfits. You also have the stuff in there to create MIA WWE stars like Billy Gunn & X-Pac from their outfits to their finishing moves. It even have what it takes to create Bill Goldberg for all of you people who want to show Stone Cold what being a bad ass bald guy is all about. You can also edit the WWE stars moves to make up for what Yukes left out. Like giving Lance Storm the Super Kick as a finisher or the Chokeslam for the Hurricane.
Lasting Appeal After you win all of the belts a few times and create all the charcters you want there is not much left to do by yourself. Unless you want to try to beat the Big Show on Painful diffuculty in any kind of match. Beleive me it’s almost impossible. Other than that if you want a game to last you a while for the 50 bucks you shelled for the game you better have some brothers & sisters or some friends. No matter how good or bad a Wrestling game is. It’s still fun to lay the smackdown on someone else.Conclusion All together WWE WrestleMania X8 falls a little above the regular wrestling game. And delivers solid WWE fun on your Nintendo GameCube. If you’re a big WWE fan buy it. If you watch it sometimes rent it. If you don’t like WWE stay away from it. And if you are a diehard loving fan of the Wrestling games on the N64 CURSE IT TO HELL with the rest of the bad wrestling games like the EA WCW games. | 
