WCW Backstage Assault

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WCW Backstage Assault
Pretty much sums up the state of WCW in 2000, really...
Genre(s): Wrestling
Platform(s): PlayStation
Nintendo 64
Release Date: December 2000
Developer(s): Kodiak Interactive
Publisher(s): Electronic Arts
Series: WCW
Predecessor: WCW Mayhem

WCW Backstage Assault is the last World Championship Wrestling game ever released, and was one of two WCW games published by Electronic Arts. It was released in December 2000 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64.

This game was released to negative reviews, and is considered to be one of the worst wrestling games of all time. It is also the last WCW video game ever released due to the company's purchase by WWF (WWE) in March 2001.

Why It Sucks

  1. The main issue is the whole premise of a game where you can only fight in the backstage areas. Despite the game being called Backstage Assault a wrestling game should have at least one actual wrestling ring to fight in, which makes this game feel more like a weak fighting game than anything.
    • WCW wasn't known for having hardcore backstage brawls that much, so it makes the feel of the game unfitting for the promotion.
    • In fact on that topic, the game was announced by EA 4 months before it was officially released, making its existence only there to impress WCW fans before Mayhem 2 (which was soon canceled after WCW's buyout by the WWF) would come out. In any other case, the game was practically rushed.
  2. A complete lack of match types, there are only singles matches and nothing else.
  3. Half of the roster is locked from the start, and the ones who are unlockable are quite difficult to unlock (Some can be unlocked by simply defeating the specific wrestler in the challenge mode, but some, eg, Bret Hart requires the player to complete in the Hardcore Gauntlet five times)
    • The roster itself can easily explain how much WCW was dead by that point featuring many forgotten wrestlers, jobbers, etc. There are also quite a lot of non-wrestlers (eg, Vince Russo, Doug Dillenger) in the game as well who just feel like wasted filler because of how little the roster in WCW was at the time.
  4. The gameplay engine, abit reused from WCW Mayhem, feels quite broken and makes the game frustrating. Moves are difficult to pull off, hit detection is bad (you can hit your opponent yet still miss at the same time) and the AI doesn't have any issues with these flaws at all.
    • The weapon system used in the game is pretty much broken. The hit detection can mean that even if you do swing your weapon it can miss easily, and will require some time for it to be used again.
  5. The finisher system is also incredibly flawed. The player can be awarded with one almost immediately, and they don't do as much damage as normal attacks. Finisher moves should do more damage than the regular attacks because they're supposed to be used to finish them and successfully pin them out and win (that's why they're called finisher moves in the first place). For the same reason, the finisher attacks shouldn't be able to be used too much.
    • Most wrestlers use the same finishing moves as each other, these apply to ones that have finishers that could be performed face to face.
  6. Messy control scheme. The Square button is used not just for grappling but is a multi-use button (for holding weapons, etc.), which is very convoluted to use.
  7. The game suffers from a terrible framerate.
  8. Poor graphics.
    • The character models look as bad as the rest of the graphics. Models look rugged, blocky when closeup and blurry (to the point where you can't see their heads) when further away. There is also a lot of clipping issues.
    • The animations for them are also quite choppy, clunky and jarring.
    • Even some of the models look off or broken or defective, for example:
      • Hollywood Hulk Hogan's shoulders are shorter than his body.
      • Booker T's pants look smaller than they would be in reality.
      • Scott Steiner has green hair by default. You can fix his hair, but doing so will take him away from the main roster.
  9. The PS1 version suffers from long load times and the loading screens themselves look like a complete camera rush job.
  10. The Create a Wrestler mode suffers from the same ugly models that the main roster has, and they can only be applied generic moves. Only six can be produced at any one time on a Memory Card.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. This was the first (and only) WCW to feature female wrestlers.
  2. The Nintendo 64 version has slightly improved graphics and lacks load times.
  3. Decent announcing from Bobby Heenan and Tony Schiavone.

Videos

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YouTube

Reception

WCW Backstage Assault received mixed to negative reviews. The PlayStation 1 version currently has a critic score of 40 on Metacritic with no user reviews[1], while the Nintendo 64 version currently has a critic score of 48 and an user score of 6.0 on Metacritic. Both versions currently have a 2.38 on GameFAQs[2][3].

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[[Category:Electronic Arts

  1. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation/wcw-backstage-assault
  2. ↑ https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/367003-wcw-backstage-assault
  3. ↑ https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/n64/367004-wcw-backstage-assault
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