WWF No Mercy is the best wrestling game ever made. That’s not a throwaway line for a Nintendo 64 title from 2000 — it’s the verdict that has held for two decades. THQ published it, Asmik Ace Entertainment and AKI Corporation developed it, and it closed out a run of Nintendo 64 wrestling games that began with WCW vs. nWo: World Tour. A Game Boy Color port was planned and cancelled.
The Championship Mode
No Mercy’s biggest addition is the Championship mode, which asks players to win one of the WWF’s various titles. There are seven story paths, one for each championship, and each branches based on decisions made during the story or whether a match is won or lost. Currency earned in this mode feeds the Smackdown Mall, where players unlock characters, arenas, moves and costumes for the create-a-wrestler mode.
Attitude, Ladder Matches and Backstage Brawls
The mechanics carry over from the previous games, and that’s fine. Strikes and grapples map to button-and-direction combinations, and the momentum system returns: attacking builds the “Attitude” meter, which raises the odds of a successful pinfall or submission. Fill it completely and a character’s finishing maneuver opens up.
The improvements made to the game, combined with the series’ vaunted gameplay and controls garnered praise from critics upon release.
Exhibition mode adds a ladder match. Up to four players can compete in the same match, as in the earlier Nintendo 64 titles. New arenas arrive, along with backstage areas where wrestlers brawl with weapons and objects in the environment.
What Holds It Back
Some faulted the game for blocky graphics, slowdown and the difficulty of computer-controlled opponents. Those complaints are real. The visuals do not flatter the hardware, and the computer can be punishing in ways that feel less like challenge than friction.
Why It Still Stands
None of that dislodges No Mercy from the top. It became one of the best-selling titles for the Nintendo 64 and the third-best-selling wrestling game for the console. More telling: a loyal fanbase has kept it alive for years, building unofficial modifications that update graphics and sounds and introduce different play. A game that people keep rebuilding is a game that got the fundamentals right.
The branching storylines, the backstage brawls, the four-player matches and the Attitude meter all still work. The slowdown does not erase them. This is the one to play.
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