As a giant wrestling fan, I’ve been playing the best of the best (No Mercy, Fire Pro) and the worst of the worst (WCW Nitro). In the overall scheme of things, AKI’s N64 offerings were arguably the best wrestling games ever created, whereas the premiere series on the PSX, entitled Smackdown, was often regarded as a shallow game with a plethora of modes and options. Unfortunately, it seems that the developer change (from AKI to a Yukes team separate from the Yukes Smackdown team) was a big mistake.

WX8 controls identically to the Smackdown series. I can not stress how big of a disappointment this is. If you’ve never played a Smackdown game before, just imagine a wrestling game where you get less than 10 grapple moves, an inconsequential striking system, and a very arcade like feel to the movement of the characters. Essentially, it’s like taking the chess pieces off of a chess board and replacing them with shiny objects.

As mentioned, the control scheme is quite simple. A is grapple, B is strike (punching and kicking), X allows you to pick up downed opponents or climb through the ropes and up the turnbuckle, and Y is run. You control your wrestler with the main analog stick, the D-pad allows you to taunt, and the C-stick changes the wrestler you’re facing. As far as trigger buttons go, Z is the button you use to pin, the L trigger counters attempts by your opponent to enter a grapple, and the R trigger counters any striking attacks coming your way. The only fresh aspect of the control layout would be the C-stick targeting function, and even that is borrowing a bit from NBA Courtside. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the control scheme.

And then you start playing, and you immediately recognize what’s wrong. You grab your opponent, and you automatically do one of 4 moves assigned (depending on what direction you were pressing). That’s it. Four. Now I wasn’t able to track down a THQ representative to find out if there were other ways to reveal new grapples, so if there are, then great. But if not, just realize that WWF No Mercy features 17 available front grapple moves compared to WWE Wrestlemania X8’s 4. This lack of variety greatly hurts the game, as you’ll find yourself starting to concentrate more on striking, because of the sole reason regarding the monotony of your grapples. And then you’ll recognize the horrible transitions between animations as you’re attacking your opponent. So you knock him or her down, and go to the pin, just to end the match, grasping at the small possibility that you’ll forget this utterly disappointing experience with a game you were so looking forward to… and your enemy will kick out. This is when the epiphany hits that, aside from the potential of EA bringing over a Fire Pro game, North America will not have any good wrestling sims on any consoles for a long time. And that’s a bad thing.

Not to say that all of Wrestlemania X8 is bad, because it does have fairly pretty graphics. The wrestler models themselves are very decent (better than Smackdown 3, equal, if not a little worse than Smackdown 4, and not as well modeled nor detailed than WWF RAW), and the presentation is top notch. Very good lighting and FMV footage for each wrestler’s intro, multiple (PPV) stages, and a TV style presentation temporarily washes the bad taste out of your mouth. The crowd is especially good, especially for 2D sprites, as they change angle depending on where the camera is aimed at them, and they’re very crisp and detailed. Unfortunately, the interactive's on THQ’s floor did not have any sound to them, so we’ll have to wait and see if the audio is up to the task or not.

Basically, I’m really disappointed with Wrestlemania X8, and I think a lot of other people are going to be disappointed when they try out their copy next month. Smackdown 4 offers better visuals on many aspects, just as many modes and arenas (if not more), and a full fledged storyline. And Smackdown 4 won’t even be a very good game. If you enjoy the Yukes mantra of arcade style wrestling, then there’s a chance you’re going to enjoy Wrestlemania X8 when it’s released, but if you’re like me, a wrestling fan who imported Fire Pro D for the Dreamcast, you’ll be let down if you’re expecting a title with the gameplay mechanics similar or as good as AKI’s classics. My play time with this title was a huge let down, and I pray that THQ will look into switching development teams for their next installment of the WWE franchise. Wrestling fans deserve more than this.