Year on year it's the same - another WWE game is released, this time around it's
WWE 2K18, and it looks nice, and it has good adverts, and it's pushed down your throat
so much by WWE, and you hope that maybe - maybe - this time it will be as great as they promise.
And it's just bad.
It's just bad.
So once again you think you have to go a year without a great wrestling game to keep you
happy; you think you're going to have to take up a game based on a lesser sport like
basketball or football or gridiron.
But you don't have to do that.
WWF No Mercy has existed since Space Year 2000 and, since then, has been the best wrestling
game available.
There are always those who argue against this, so for the first time ever I have conducted
some hard, in-depth science to show you all just why and how - in proper, real detail
- WWE 2K18 pales in comparison to the N64's WWF No Mercy.
LET THE SCIENCE COMMENCE… with categories, like.
Graphics It's the first topic because it's the
first thing you pay attention to - how nice do these two wrestlemen games look?
Well, it's a pretty clear difference thanks in the most part to the fact one game came
out 17 years after the other.
Naturally WWE 2K18 looks a lot better than No Mercy.
What would you expect?
But let's try to bring this to a more even keel, looking at each title's contemporaries
for an idea of how good they look comparatively speaking.
WWE 2K18 has no direct wrestling competition, but compared to other sports titles - FIFA,
NBA 2K, Madden etcetera - it's at least on a par with them.
In fact, thanks to the fact there aren't as many people in a ring to render as there
are people on a field or rink, the wrestlefolks actually look better than those in other sporty
titles.
Even if their faces do look weird sometimes.
Alright, more often than you'd hope for.
Still, in contemporary circles and when you look at marquee talent, WWE 2K18 is one of
the best looking games out there.
WWF No Mercy had actual wrestling games to compare it to - the likes of WWF's Smackdown
and Royal Rumble, ECW's Harcore Revolution and Anarchy Rulz, All-Star Pro Wrestling and
WCW's Backstage Assault, even the other game from AKI, Virtual Pro Wrestling 2, to
name but a few.
They all have their quirks, graphically speaking, but it's fair to say No Mercy lands either
in the lower echelon or - at most - comfortably in the middle of the card.
Fine animations are one thing, but the weird, blocky wrestlers with eternally pained expressions
really do manage to haunt your dreams.
First fall goes to WWE 2K18, clean pin in the middle of the ring.
One-nil.
Sound Again this is an area it's not fair to compare
the two titles directly in - one is from an era hardly used to CD audio, the other a world
where uncompressed Blu-ray audio is a thing people pretend to understand.
And so, again, we have to turn to each title's contemporaries to figure out where they stand
in the world of audio ability.
Now I did just mention CD audio, but that was the era I'm talking about - No Mercy
was a cartridge based game on a cartridge based system - a system notorious for having
sound, and I quote 'not like, as good, like, as on PlayStation and Dreamcast, like'.
So yes, the thuds and punches and slams and chairshots all sound fine - nothing spectacular
- but it's in those entrance themes that you see… hear… the limitations of the
N64 game.
Good god man.
There's charm, much as I hate to use the word, but there's no doubt about it - this
is bad audio compared to the competition.
CD audio is probably the future, or something.
WWE 2K18 obviously doesn't suffer the same problems as its opponent and takes an obvious,
easy lead there.
Compared to its contemporaries, it's up there - perfect recreations of theme tunes,
an awful but, quality-wise, perfectly fine soundtrack, slams that sound like slams and
the whack of chairshots that probably shouldn't be to the head because concussions are a thing
- it's all there.
The problem with 2K18 is that the commentary is - and remember, this is scientific so this
is definitely the scientifical term that sciencers would use - utter dogshit.
I mean, it's been bad for years so it's expected, but you never can really prepare
yourself for just how rushed, poor quality and thoroughly pointless it is.
It serves no purpose, it adds nothing, and it absolutely ruins the game's audio.
All the perfectly-recreated theme tunes in the world - including Glorious - can't make
up for Corey Graves sounding this bored.
Second fall, in an upset, goes to WWF No Mercy after the commentary caused 2K18 to slip off
the top rope and fall through a table.
One-all.
Roster Now we're on to a slightly more even keel
for comparisons - so the storage space is an issue, of course, with a cart measured
in megabytes going up against a disc measured in gigabytes.
It's not equal, certainly, but I've decided to sod all those variables off like a fantastic
and superb scientist from the future would and just compare each game directly.
The humble N64 cartridge's 32MB is stacked to the gills with some 74 superstars - ugh
- divas, a referee, Linda McMahon, loads of them.
You also have the ability to create your own superstars and, while you can't make a giant
crab-handed purple monster like in the better Smackdown games, you can craft some realistic
wrestlefolks with their proper movesets.
Like Rob Van Dam, or Essa Rios wait what do you mean I don't have to do that Essa Rios
is in the game oh good god he actually is, this is superb.
It's the cream of the late 90s crop, and Essa Rios, and it's a good mix of top and
mid-carders, legends, women and non-wrestling people.
And Essa Rios.
It's a good set of folks with the chance to expand, even if the Big Show was missing
owing to the fact he was a bit too big a show at the time of the game's release.
Replaced by Steven Richards, oh the humanity...
WWE 2K18, though, features a ridiculous 174 unique, controllable superstars.
184 if you include DLC, and then even more factoring in variations - like all of Sting's
incarnations, for example - and non-playable characters like Renee Young.
Oh, and the ability to both create and share your best and brightest worldwide.
Sure, you do have to live with a game featuring a Baron Corbin who actually looks like he
has hair, and with so many legends in 2K18 it's frankly absurd that Essa Rios isn't
in there somewhere, but what can you do.
There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is a fantastic roster in the WWE game,
and while DLC does irritate as not everyone wants to - or can - pay for that, what you
get on the disc is more than enough.
Third fall, despite run-ins from Essa Rios, Mae Young and Chris Benoit, goes to 2K18.
Even if you do have to pay to walk with Elias.
Two-one to WWE.
Modes No wrestling game since 1847 has just featured
singles exhibition matches and nothing else - that's not how wrestling works.
Just look at the women's division, where the solution to any problem - even if it isn't
a problem - is to put all active female competitors in a match together.
If No Mercy and 2K18 just featured singles matches, how would we be able to recreate
that?
So it's only fair to see how the mode selections in each game look compared to each other.
Career modes get their own category, as I see them as that damn important, so for now
it's just the general modes on offer.
You'll find plenty to keep your interest in 2K18's modes - from two to eight competitors
in the ring at any one time and all manner of different rules and stipulations to plop
on top of them.
Basic exhibition matches, tags and handicap matches, Hell in a Cell, TLC, backstage brawls
- there's definitely plenty on show.
I can't add much beyond that, honestly.
It's a good selection of match types, even if there is no way to beat up Jason Jordan
in an inferno match.
Ah well.
WWF No Mercy is an odd one - it feels right, in the amount of different matches and rulesets
you can invoke for your encounters.
There's singles and tags, triple-threats and royal rumbles, cage matches, ladder matches,
backstage brawls and Hell in a… no, actually, there's no Hell in a Cell, despite it being
a mainstay of WWF programming by the time No Mercy released.
Ah, technological limitations.
And, weirdly, the Royal Rumble match can't have a flat 30 competitors in it, instead
only allowing multiples of four - 28 or 32 is your closest.
It's quirks like these - mainly harking back to No Mercy not beginning its life as
a WWF game - that become a bit weird and irritating when you just want to beat Crash Holly to
a pulp in your common, everyday inferno match.
Ah well again.
The fourth fall makes it two in a row for the modern game, with No Mercy unable to bring
itself to jump off the top of the cell…
seeing as there's no Hell in a Cell in the game.
Three-one 2K18.
Careers Nothing in wrestling game careerdom will ever
compare to Smackdown 2: Know Your Role on the PlayStation - at least not for me and
my scientific ways.
See, this allowed myself and three friends to play through an unlimited career of randomly
generated feuds and match types until we, eventually, got bored.
It was great.
A good career mode in a wrestling game is the thing that can keep you coming back even
years after it was originally released, long after the online servers are derelict and
most of the gimmick matches have lost their allure, the business of working your way from
the bottom to the top can be a lifesaver.
A gamesaver.
Something to play, I mean.
Scientific, that is.
No Mercy does something that no WWF or E game I can think of does: it understands wrestling
in its career mode.
While other games, even in the 2K series, don't just immediately end if you lose a
match, No Mercy's career mode allows you to progress the story in a logical fashion
by losing.
In fact, you'll never see everything the career mode has to offer unless you do lose
matches at certain branching points.
It's not perfect to how wrestling games should be - we won't get that until people
understand the allure of Curt Hawkins and his endless losing streak - but it's the
gold standard for career modes in wrestling games that should be emulated, and, well,
is a bit, to this day.
There's also the fact it's a smaller scale game than the competition, so No Mercy is
able to personalise its career mode more - no generic statements from wrestlers you'd
expect notable idiosyncrasies from: they talk how they're supposed to, and it makes it
all the more engaging as a result.
On the other side of the fence we have Captain Millionaire, Ted Dibiase's seafaring, poorer
brother.
WWE 2K18 throws out another generalist approach to the career mode, in which you take your
superstar from humble beginnings to the bright lights of relative success in the mid-card.
Oh, and cheques and championships, and all that guff.
Look, my goal in life is to be a comfortable mid-carder, so to me that's the only thing
you should aim to achieve in the game too.
Regardless, 2K18's career mode is absolutely fine and throws in all manner of different
superstars and backstage talent to keep things interesting.
All the same, it doesn't offer a personalised experience when it comes to the talent you
encounter, and when Enzo Amore spouts some generic crap written for anyone to say, it
drags you right out of the experience and makes you realise you're just jumping through
some hoops for no particular reason.
Boil it down, focus it more, make it something people will bother with.
Simpler is better.
Fall five is a victory for the plucky underdog, proving that a generic, catch-all presentation
just doesn't cut it against a smaller, more focused mode that - importantly - understands
wrestling storylines aren't just about winning all of the time and that things can progress
with meaning and drive even when the main character finishes their back.
Three-two, No Mercy pulls one back.
Controls What is a wrestling game without the ability
to make sure your overgrown child in a silly costume can hit an egotist and potential murderer
in the back of the head with an open-handed palm strike?
Nothing, that's what.
Controls are important, because there's a lot that can happen in and around the ring
- you need to be sure you can actually do all of it.
WWE 2K18 is blessed with the wisdom of decades of wrestling games being made for similar
controllers, and as such it's settled in its ways of allowing you to do all the wrestlestuff
you need to do without fracturing your pelvis or suffering a severe concussion.
Unless someone hits you on the head with a pad, I don't know how violent your game
sessions might get.
There are some oddities - not like Golga and that lot - but generally speaking… yep,
it's fine.
You can do stuff by pressing buttons and moving sticks, and that's good.
Ultra science 9000, as it has been rebranded to make it cool for the kids, has shown WWF
No Mercy's controls to be so good that people actually fail to decide as to whether they're
simple or complex.
I've run the numbers and it's come out as such: they're deep, not complex, but
straightforward enough that any old jobber can pick them up fairly quickly.
Once mastered, you've got yourself a system that allows for kicks and punches and different
types of grapples, to move and manipulate your opposition, to specifically target non-active
competitors, to taunt before dropping the elbow from the top rope and to generally muck
about in the finest traditions of wrestling manias.
The N64 pad is still rubbish, though.
The sixth fall sees an always crowd-pleasing double count out, neither superstar able to
really get anything over its opponent, brawling through the crowd and into that weird no-man's-land
where they keep tables with black cotton cloths on them and sound or lighting equipment that
explodes in a shower of sparks when you just look at it.
Score remains Three-two in favour of WWE.
Gamepla...mechanics Some might wonder why this, easily the most
important category in this whole deeply scientifical test, is buried so deep in the exam.
Well that's to keep you watching, of course.
No wait I mean it's because the science is hard to quantify so I had to work extra
hard on this one.
Ahem.
WWE 2K18 struggles from the start.
Overengineered animations get in the way of just getting on with things, and while it
does control well enough this isn't always reflected in the action, which tends to be
clunky and - sometimes - actively glitchy.
Getting into a simple brawl is a slog in 2K18, multi-person matches are rarely anything other
than a chore and the grappling system that should be so straightforward and satisfying
often ends up with you repeating the same move over and over again because, by god,
it's just easier to do things that way.
As for that star rating for matches?
It's a returning feature, sure, but that doesn't mean we in the science community
should overlook it - especially when it makes no sense.
Ostensibly there to offer a Meltzer-style match rating out of five stars - so not the
Omega Okada scale - this feature is half-baked at best and actively pointless at worst.
If it's meant to score the whole match out of five, why do only your actions as the player
have any impact on it?
What is the point in that?
It's a system that does not make any sense, nor does it show the player any understanding
of wrestling itself.
No Mercy, meanwhile, just sits back and lets you get on with it.
'Here's a bunch of stuff we've both come up with and seen in wrestling over the
years, we put it in the game and trust you to just get on with it and have fun'.
That's it.
Little in the way of gimmickry, No Mercy instead just plays out like grade A pro wrestling
from start to finish.
Okay, so the computer might reverse moves way too often, but if you actually have the
ability to time button presses, unlike me, you can reverse everything too - though this
involves skill, unlike 2K18's hey press the button now prompts.
From the moves in every situation to the ability to steal an opponent's finisher - press
A and B together on a strong grapple when you have a special, you're welcome - No
Mercy just offers up a simple-yet-deep take on videogame wrestling, full of variety and,
importantly, fun.
It doesn't try to be the TV show, but it doesn't just end up a straightforward fighting
game.
For that, it's worth celebrating - which No Mercy already is, because it won this round
in record time.
Fall seven is a squash match for the ages, as craft veteran No Mercy hooks 2K18 around
the waist and German suplexes it 47 times before placing a foot on WWE's prone body,
flexing its biceps and crying 'come on, baby!' as the ref slowly counts to three.
No.
Chance.
In.
Hell.
Three-all.
How different it is to the previous version I can just leave it as 'not very' for
both games and be done here, and the scientific community would celebrate me as the hero I
clearly am.
Really, there's very little of actual value between either game and its precursor.
Lighting, graphics, different superstars - all that usual crap is updated, but beyond that
it's business as usual.
And that's something people tend to forget when they're looking to the rose-tinted
past - games of 17 years ago were still guilty of the same sins we see today.
One way in which No Mercy does falter, though, is that it actually has a few little things
removed.
I'm guessing - which is a perfectly valid scientific technique - this is because of
cartridge space limitations.
All the same, Wresltemania 2000 featured better superstar entrances than No Mercy, in that
it actually had proper ones and they were all but removed in its follow up.
Additions like backstage sections, a better create a wrestler mode and such are nice,
but the sorts of things you'd expect - removing features is very much a sin.
For once, WWE 2K18 doesn't remove all that much compared to the previous game, barring
some specific talent.
It's not like the early days of 2K's WWE games when it featured approximately two game
modes and three point seven superstars.
The eighth fall is closer than anyone expected, as they are forgetful of the past and so the
perfect audience for the real world WWE which repeats stories more often than I do to my
girlfriend.
There's the slightest of slips from No Mercy, what with it removing full entrances, that
puts it on the back foot - a schoolboy roll-up later and 2K18 bags the cheap victory.
Four-three WWE.
In-game purchases You'd expect a definite victory for No Mercy
here, seeing as it came before the era of loot boxes and 2K18 is a game full of evil,
money-sucking random drops that reward bank balances over playing time.
Except… it's not that simple.
See, for one, 2K18 doesn't actually charge real money for its in-game credits, so everything
- almost everything - is earned through regular play.
Second, No Mercy featured a very similar system of earning in-game credits to buy unlocks.
Put that in your "games were better in the past" pipe and smoke it.
It does go a bit further than that shocking revelation, of course.
WWF No Mercy does require you to play through multiple times in order to build up enough
cash to unlock the likes of Shawn Michaels and, well, Mae Young, but you can try and
make your way through survival mode to unlock them for free.
You're looking at 101 victories in a row to unlock Andre the Giant, mind.
But the options are there, I guess, and the sense of reward for being able to choose Vince
McMahon and get beaten up by the Kat is palpable.
2K18, meanwhile, goes for a loot box approach - but not one involving real currency, at
least at the time of making this video.
I would not put it past 2K to introduce paid-for boxes some time soon.
Anyway, these are unlocked randomly by earning in-game currency, and that same currency can
also be used to unlock a solid selection of wrestlepeople to play as in the game.
That's fine.
There is paid for DLC, though, in the shape of characters and more, so to actually get
everything you do need to superkick your wallet all over 2K's face.
What absolutely stinks about the DLC, though, is something called 'the New Moves Pack'
This features things like Tye Dillinger and Kassius Ohno's finishers, and they're
people who are actually in the game to begin with.
That is, as sciencefolk often say, pretty bloody icky.
Our penultimate, ninth fall is another closely fought bout with each superstar landing its
full repertoire of signatures and finishers.
2K18 is about to finally finish it with a Batista Bomb, but then realises it hasn't
paid real money for this particular DLC so No Mercy's Ken Shamrock, earned entirely
in-game, hits a low blow and steals it.
Four-all.
How much I want to play it still A very important category, this - longevity
matters to me, even if these days it is a new wrestling game like clockwork every single
year.
Back in No Mercy's day it was a new wrestling game every… year…
like clockwork.
Hmm.
Still, no more WWF AKI games were released after the N64 title, so that's the one I've
been stuck playing for 17 years.
And that's the rub - I have continued to play it for 17 years.
I haven't continued to play a recent WWE game for more than 17 weeks.
Not even 17 days, in some cases.
2K18 absolutely falls into this trap, with the kind of poor core mechanics on show that
just make me bored and want to give up.
I'll play it a bit longer - likely after I pick up Elias and can make a video about
him going for a walk with someone - but I've pretty much given up on this one already.
No Mercy, however, will remain.
The tenth and final fall brings to mind Homer the Klown beating the Krusty Burglar up, with
the cry of 'stop, stop - he's already dead!' ringing in our ears.
I don't just not want to play 2K18 any more: I want to set fire to it.
But I can't, because I own the digital version and that would mean melting my hard drive
and so losing Everybody's Golf.
I ain't doing that.
Five-four No Mercy, and that's the last time the bell rings.
Overall So we've looked at every area of each game
that matters and have ended up with a score reached fairly, intelligently and free of
emotional bias.
And so, the final score is… something that doesn't matter.
WWF No Mercy is a far better game than WWE 2K18, despite what any final scores might
say.
With that in mind I'm invoking my Vince McMahon, damn it, clause and saying SCREEEW
YOOOOU to 2K18.
No Mercy wins ten-nil.
And that, friends, is hard science that cannot be argued with.
Thanks for watching, please do like, share, subscribe and get the tables.
If I ever get a reasonable amount of time I'll spend it explaining in more detail
why all other wrestling games pale in comparison to No Mercy.
Apart from maybe Virtual Pro Wrestling 2.
Bye!
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