PlayStation

WCW/NWO Thunder

Once more we see the kids who 'must buy anything to do with wrestling' taken for a ride again. The wrestlers, graphics, and modes have changed, but the gameplay is still substandard. Thunder? I've heard louder farts!

This is a throwback to when fighting games first started appearing. It doesn't bear much resemblance to the extended combinations of the Mortal Kombat inspired games. It's a race to see who hits the buttons first and who remembers which moves are best for different situations. The battle of strength ruins the one player game as you can recover your strength at will. You can also milk that move to easy victory against the toughest opponents and even if a wrestler hops in to help your opponent. Not worth more than a weekend rental. It's not like you don't have other wrestling or fighting games to choose from.

WWF Warzone still remains king of the hill, but unlike the hurried job of last year, Inland actually put some work into Thunder, and it may just be worth taking a close look at. On the plus side the moves are easy to pull off. The negatives hit all over place, graphically, features, and gameplay. They almost pulled off a good job on the ring intros. Until two or more wrestlers had the same opening music. Or worse yet the same music as the title intro. The most fun arrives from getting secret wrestlers and then finding out what their moves are haha.

While Thunder does a good job of looking like real wrestling, the gameplay just doesn't hold up. While Nitro at least tried to do something different with its gameplay, different doesn't always mean good. Thunder carries on the tradition of bad gameplay a little too closely, but if you're after a wrestling game with lots of recognizable names and lots of non-gameplay-related options, then this is the game for you.