 |
The Total Recall |
 |
| Artist touch: RVD kicking Jerry Lynn in the head with a chair is a great example of what ECW is all about! It just looks cool. Maybe there could have more recognizable wrestlers on the cover but it is still great as it is. Cover art rating: 9/10 |
Month
it won: January 2005
(Acclaim, March 1, 2000) |
Special note:
This is ECW's first video game!
|
| Introduction and Story: |
| One
of the coolest DVD's to come out in 2004 in my opinion was The Rise
and Fall of ECW. This special 2 DVD set chronicles a small but highly
violent and entertaining wrestling company that liked breaking all the
rules. That company was ECW: Extreme Championship Wrestling!
In it you can witness all the controversy surrounding its heavy use
of blood, swearing, and some of the most shocking matches in wrestling
history. The DVD was so good that is easily out performs other wrestling
WWE DVD's that year like the dismal Great American Bash 2004
and even Wrestlemania XX. Sadly, one of the reasons why the company
folded in the first place was because it just didn't have the big budget
to get the name out there and it certainly didn't help matters when
the video games were total garbage. Take Acclaim's ECW Hardcore Revolution
for example. To warn you in advance: this game is really Acclaim's WWF Attitude from the Summer of 1999 (also on the Dreamcast, N64, and Playstation) but now Acclaim has lost their big WWF license to rival company THQ. To counter the lost they created a new wrestling game under the ECW name, a company few people would know about but at the time this brand of wrestling was gaining some serious popularity at the time with its more edgy style. ECW is based on more hardcore 18 to 35 demographic rather than more family friendly Sports Entertainment wrestling that the WWF (or WWE) and the old WCW are known for. With then huge up and comers like Tommy Dreamer, Mike Awesome, Sabu, Justin Incredible, and the Sandman making a name for themselves for their wreckless and intense fighting style, ECW Hardcore Revolution had the chance to be a much more different game. |
| Controls and Game Play: |
| So
did Acclaim fix any of the problems from WWF Attitude when they released
ECW Hardcore Revolution? Nope, this game sucks too! You still have all
the play modes for single or multi-player action and you can still Create-A-Wrestler
if you like but there is for little else new and even the low energy
presentation looks the same. You can fight with cool weapons like Singapore
canes, chairs, and lots more but what wrestling game doesn't these days?
You can also wrestling in a cool looking barbwire ring but this is really
used for a novelty effect more then anything else so it quickly becomes
boring. Not only is the game play in ECW H.R. is very chunky with most the modes looking the same but the controls are unresponsive and out of date as well. Punches and Kicks often don't have to need to connect to hit a player and to add insult to injury the audience will even boo you if you use the same moves over and over again. There is virtually no difference between this lousy game and its N64 and Playstation counterparts either but I did noticed it was harder to control your character on the bulky Dreamcast controller. |
| Graphics and Sounds: |
 Moving
on to the graphics, guys like Lance Storm, Taz, and Rob Van Dam
do not act like their TV counterparts at all. Usually when a guy like
RVD comes down to the ring he is in a overly cocky mood and loves to
show off to the crowd, in the game however, his animations look incomplete
and he does his jumping roundhouse kick it just looks awful. Despite
having some decent character models, everybody on the roster looks so
sluggish that they appear to be drunk in the ring and why does it look
like they are dancing at the end of the match? Diehard ECW fans will
also notice that several stars will not come out to their original heavy
metal music either so you can forget about hearing Rob Van Dam's "What
Ya Say!", The Sandman's Enter Sandman from
Metallica or basically anything good. The sound effects and voices
are a little better because wrestlers will shot off a few one liners
now and again but they feel more cheesy then extreme especially when
it looks like the guys are washing tables (which is what many of the
wrestlers are actually doing today). |
| The Bottomline: |
| If you’re into wrestling and you’re an ECW fan then please avoid the ECW games on any system and pick up WWF No Mercy for the N64 or the WWE Smackdown games for the Playstation2 and create your own favourite ECW fighters instead of getting this recycled piece of junk. ECW Hardcore Revolution will leave you more disappointed then an ECW wrestler looking for their next pay check. |
| Conclusion: | |
|
overall rating: 38/100 For 1 to 4 players Rated (M) for Mature graphics: 4/10 sound: 4/10 gameplay: 5/10 replay: 5/10 -StarSoldier (Ryan Genno) 2005 See other Total Recall duds of the month |
|