WWF No Mercy

The sequel to WWF WrestleMania 2000 and often hailed as one of the greatest wrestling games ever.

Overview

WWF No Mercy is a professional wrestling game created by Aki Corporation and published by THQ in November 2000. The game's title comes from the pay-per-view event of the same name, and is a follow-up to WWF WrestleMania 2000. While not a considerable commercial success, the game has been deemed one of the best wrestling games ever due to its in game mechanics as well as other features which had not been featured in a wrestling game before or again until late on in the SmackDown! series such as blood and branching storylines.

One possible factor why it didnt become a great commercial success is the fact that the vast majority of copies had a massive memory glitch, causing save data to be deleted at any time. THQ did release a fixed version of the game almost a year later. This version, however, had blood removed even though all related animations and first blood matches remained unchanged. Unlike its predecesor, WWF No Mercy had new matchtypes, including ladder and cage matches. Furthermore with the use of Action replay, players could unlock a variety of different add ons, such as scaffold matches, but were notoriously bugged. More recently through emulators, wrestling fans have made a patch which includes more current wrestlers, from independent promotions, called ROH vs TNA.

A sequel was announced in the form of WWF Backlash which only ever appeared in Nintendo Power, but it was cancelled due to support for the Nintendo 64 dropping near the end of its lifespan.

Modes

Championship

Rather than having a linear story to follow or simply a set of matches to beat before a title shot, WWF No Mercy had a different storyline for each of the available championships and each one of those modes featured different career paths depending on if you won or lost. For example, the Royal Rumble match in the WWF Championship mode has several different outcomes depending on where the player finished. This gave the player many story options while playing while also adapting the difficulty to allow for different skill levels. While the mechanics of the career mode were totally original, all the storylines featured were taken from episodes of RAW is WAR and SmackDown! such as the rivalry between Triple H and Mankind from 2000 or Crash Holly's 24/7 defence of the Hardcore Title. One significant difference however is that any storylines featuring the Big Show were recreated with Right to Censor era Steven Richards.

In the career mode you play through a certain title you want (heavyweight, women's, tag team. etc.). What is new to this years game is the idea of branching campaigns. Depending on how you finish a match you could possible unlock a new level for a certain chapter of a belt. There are two ways to start a title, either as the defending champion or a new guy who will work his way on the Road to Wrestlemania. The game has lists of percentages based on how many of the possible levels you have unlocked for each belt. The many ways to finish a level aren't just limited to winning or losing but how you win or lose. One match In Tag Team has the objective of smashing Bubba Ray through the announcers table and then pinning him. The possibilities for ending this match are: smash him and pin, just pin, lose, lose after smashing him. This added a whole new depth to the career mode for much more replay value. For completing each level you earn money which can be used in the Smackdown mall. Another notable feature of the career mode is the ability to use a female character to win male championships, and vice versa. Allowing players to do such things as Triple H winning the Women's Championship.

Survival

Survival mode is a 100 wrestler Royal Rumble style elimination match. You can eliminate your opponents by knocking them out of the ring as well as pinfall, submission, or knockout.

You earn money that can be spent in the Smackdown Mall for each elimination, and the amount you earn depends on how you defeated an opponent. You earn the least amount of money from knocking people out of the ring and you earn the most money from scoring pinfalls.

Unlike the Royal Rumble, if you are eliminated the match ends, and you are shown the total amount of eliminations you had as well as the money you earned.

If you manage to secure all 100 eliminations, you are rewarded a 1,000,000 dollar bonus, effectively allowing you to purchase everything in the Smackdown Mall at once.

After every ten entrants, a hidden character will enter and if you eliminate them they will be available if you have not already unlocked them by other means. The last entrant in Survival mode will always be Andre The Giant.

Match Types

  • Singles Match
  • Tag Match
  • Triple Threat Match
  • Handicap Match
  • Cage Match
  • Ladder Match
  • Royal Rumble
  • Ironman Match
  • King of the Ring

All match types can have a variety of rules changed and tweaked allowing you to creat ner enough any match type you can come up with that is a variation of the ones above, from making a match falls count anywhere with no DQ's making it a hardcore match. Setting it to TKO only making it a Last Man Standing match, creating a four man Royal Rumble match with regular match rules turning it into a Fatal Four Way, Making it a First Blood match, or setting an Ironman Match to submission only turning it into an Ultimate Submission Match. Fancy a Hardcore Tag Team Tornado Match? Simple set Tags off, fall to count anywhere and no DQ's, the possibilities are endless.

Playable Roster

Characters available from the start:

Characters that had to be unlocked through either story mode, the Endurance battle royal mode or the SmackDown! Mall:

Note: The characters shown after the slashes all share the same moves and attributes, only their appearance is different.

Characters that can be created perfectly in the Create-a-Wrestler mode:

Arenas

Arenas featured in the game from the start:

  • Wrestlemania 2000
  • RAW is WAR
  • Smackdown!
  • No Mercy 1999
  • King of the Ring 2000
  • Summer Slam 1999
  • Royal Rumble 2000
  • Survivor Series 1999

Arenas to be unlocked from the SmackDown! Mall:

  • Armageddon 1999
  • Backlash 2000

Besides these, there are several areas away from ringside which remain constant regardless of which arena is selected. These areas include:

  • The entrance ramp
  • Bar
  • Boiler Room
  • Locker Room
  • Hallway
  • Parking lot