WWF No Mercy

Developer: AKI Corporation Publisher: THQ

Released: November 17, 2000 Rated: T 10/10

Full disclosure: I did not grow up on WWF No Mercy. The only one of AKI Corp.’s wrestling titles I even remember playing when I was young was a handed-down copy of WCW vs. nWo World Tour. Among a smattering of wrestling titles, I played some of the greats (pretty much every SmackDown! title up to 2007) and some stinkers (WCW Backstage Assault, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling, WWF War Zone), but the legend of No Mercy was always oddly prevalent. It would get mentioned in comparisons when I read gaming magazines or mentioned by other kids growing up, but it was something I’d have struggled to get my hands on when I wanted it, and was “too old for wrestling” by the time I could have gotten it. But even just remembering what I liked about wrestling games and how I played them as a kid, along with how I feel about wrestling now, I can easily say that every time I pop in No Mercy, I know for sure it is the best wrestling game ever made. And both nine-year-old and 29-year-old me would be in complete agreement on that.

Even if you’ve never played or seen No Mercy in action before, the intangible nature of a product released to cover a period in wrestling that carries more nostalgic value than most gives the game an almost unfair advantage over its predecessors. The old pillars that get rattled off every time folks make reference to the Attitude Era — Austin, Rock, Mankind, etc. — are flanked by the later additions of Jericho, Angle, Big Show, Kane, and the now fondly-remembered Biker Undertaker. A quick flip through the rest of the roster reveals few options that don’t elicit childish glee over the potential matchups. Essa Rios, Viscera, Blue Jeans British Bulldog… there’s not much excess fat to cut from this meaty mass of beef and its over 60 available characters. And that’s before getting into the creation suite and its absolute smorgasbord of options for both editing existing characters as well as making new ones by the dozens.

As it had been for several iterations, AKI’s game engine is without equal, and has been refined to razor sharpness here. Since changing the game with the advent of the Spirit Meter, now known as the Attitude Meter since the change to WWF branding, the ebb and flow of matches has truly become an integral part of all but the most lopsided squashes. And in No Mercy, where reversals are balanced beyond reproach, move sets are intimately fine-tuned, and the overall pace and control of gameplay is consistently at a perfect rhythm, there truly is no getting tired. It’s hard to imagine having the same match twice, both literally in terms of gameplay options, and in execution, where No Mercy lets you call it in the ring like a true mat monarch.

The marriage of the WWF and the AKI engine would have been a long-awaited one when WrestleMania 2000 hit the shelves, but what truly sets No Mercy apart from its predecessor more than something like the roster or some small refinements to already excellent gameplay is its content. That is, the incredible amount of it and how much depth No Mercy offers because of it. Ladder matches, backstage brawls, survival mode, the SmackDown Mall and its plethora of unlockables — including tons of additional options to use with created wrestlers; for every small refinement, like running grapples, there’s also an outright addition that makes No Mercy feel like a game that lets you do almost anything the on-screen product has to offer. With all this under consideration, the only area where No Mercy doesn’t offer something its predecessor does — creating championships — is done for a very important reason, perhaps even its single greatest accomplishment: Championship Mode.

Representing each of the company’s seven championship titles, even those pushed out of focus at the time like the European and Light Heavyweight belts, Championship Mode offers not only a unique, fully storyboarded and written out storyline for each belt, but ones with extensive branching pathways, varying feud options, unique matches and interactions with different roster members. Instead of adhering simply to an ever-flipping calendar or an arcade-style ladder to represent your chosen character’s standing, WWF No Mercy offers a multitude of flow charts and variable outcomes that would make visual novel fans take notice. Even with each individual scene typically relying on a small handful of potential players and the same dialogue regardless of your character, the prospect of seeing what’s next, often differing based on the outcome of your matches, is still a fascinating gameplay progression even today, and simply game-changing for its time period. An achievement in and of itself and the greatest jewel in the crown of WWF No Mercy’s enduring legacy.

WWF No Mercy is a game for a desert island. Between a single player experience packing in hours of content, challenge, and replayability, an endlessly customizable suite of options and user creation, and a satisfying gameplay engine to back it all up, it’s hard to imagine a wrestling fan can return to this well and truly run it dry. Admittedly, there are those worthy of joining No Mercy at its table, but it’s typically AKI and its final WWF title (or its sister game, Virtual Pro Wrestling 2) that looms largest over the genre in the years since.

Continuing Legacy

When TNA made its first video game, and asked roster members AJ Styles and Samoa Joe to provide input, they referred to the works of AKI Corporation, including No Mercy and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2. When AEW made its first video game, it hired Yuke’s, the developers of over 20 years of WWE games… who would hire No Mercy director Hideyuki “Geta” Iwashita as project lead. Being “like No Mercy” has been a primary, albeit oversimplified, request of wrestling game fans for over two decades now. And aside from official releases constantly working with No Mercy as a reference point and influence, it is also possibly the most modded title on the N64 outside of Super Mario 64. From AEW to Hulkamania era to late-era WCW and everything in-between, fan overhauls of WWF No Mercy based around nearly every company and era of wrestling have been created, much like the consistently updated rosters of games like Tecmo Bowl and MVP Baseball 2005, because gameplay is king, and fans still want to play what delivers the best in that aspect.