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Originally Posted by KeeperBvK  Are some of those N64 wrestling games really as good as I always keep hearing? |
Firstly its important to distinquish which games we are talking about. not all N64 wrestling games are from the same series.
The ones you want to play were developed by the Japanese developer AKI and published by THQ. Ignore the Acclaim WWF/ECW games as they are quite poor and not part of the same series.
In my opinion the AKI titles are without question the best western 3D wrestling simulations out there to this day and rank alongside the 2D Fire Pro games as the best representations of pro wrestling (not sports entertainment!).
The pinacle of the game in the West was arguably either Wrestlemania 2000 or WWF: No Mercy. The latter was graphically superior and featured a more elaborate story mode with different routes however it made some poor and unnecessary ommissions from WM 2000 such as full entrances, custom belts to create and defend amd also featured a glitch in the first produced batch of the game which erased everything you had done/created at random points.
This was fixed in a later version but for PAL this version of the game was then censored to remove blood (idiotic for a game that had a first blood match as a match type.)
WM2000 was a simpler game that didn't feature the tables, ladder matches and backstage environments of the latter but had features such as create a belt/stable that the sequel lacked. Blood was also disabled in the PAL version but could be reinstated and permanently saved with a gameshark.
AKI also made two WCW/NWO games using the same engine which while fun are much simpler incarnations of the games the WWF incarnations became.
You might also be interesed in checking out the japanese equivilents that AKI transplanted the engine from, the Virtual Pro Wrestling series which have different features to the western games and take the simulation aspect even further.