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Pod Warriors #6: The N64 Wrestling Games
28 Plays3 years ago
Heel Husband and The Fig God take a trip down memory lane to discuss the Mount Rushmore of wrestling video games: WCW vs nWo World Tour, WCW vs nWo Revenge, Wrestlemania 2000, and No Mercy!
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
Grrrrrrrrrr!
Introduction to the Pod Warriors Podcast
00:00:15
Speaker
What is up, Holy Fam? The Pod Warriors are back on the attack with the sixth edition of the Pod Warriors podcast. Again, this is the special spinoff of the Chick Foley show where me and the Fig God Jordan Wells go deep on one topic of choice tonight.
Topic Announcement: Mount Rushmore of N64 Wrestling Games
00:00:32
Speaker
We are going to be talking about the Mount Rushmore of Nintendo, 64 Wrestling Games, the THQ, AKI WCW NWO World Tour, WCW NWO Revenge, WrestleMania 2000, and WWF No Mercy. Before we get into that though, I got to start by introducing my main man, my best friend, the Fig God, Jordan Wells. Jordan, what's
Jordan's Enthusiasm for N64 Wrestling Games
00:00:54
Speaker
up?
00:00:54
Speaker
man I am ready to do this this is a this has been in the making for two months for those of you that don't know which why would you know this but yeah man this is a this is going to be definitely looking back at our childhood so I'm excited to do it with you and it's gonna be fun
00:01:11
Speaker
This one was kind of Jordan's baby, man. Like Jordan has been badgering me about doing a show on these games. Like we kind of, you know, we brainstorm on topics. I'm like, you know, we can do like best WrestleMania rematches. He's like, no, in 64 wrestling games. I'm like best wrestling figures from the eighties. No, in 64 wrestling games. I'm like, Hey, dude, maybe we could do like some, you know, instant live reviews of the paper views. And he's just like, fuck no. Let's do these in 64 wrestling games. Maybe you could shut the fuck up and just listen to what I'm saying.
Promotion of Chick Foley Show and Social Media
00:01:42
Speaker
Let's get our housekeeping out of the way with some plug skis want to remind you guys to follow the the true star of the chick Foley show my wife Sheena chick Foley herself at chick Foley on Instagram and You can join the premium Foley fam at chick Foley comm just hit the patreon link there
00:01:59
Speaker
There's a ton of fun in the Facebook group every week. We're doing special events all the time, in addition to just the communal fig hunting that's going on.
Excitement for New Legends Wrestling Figures
00:02:07
Speaker
We know those new legends are about to drop, so we got to go for those. Which one of those are you most hyped for, Jordan, out of the new Legends series? I really like the cane. I think the cane is really good out of this, but I mean, dude, anytime it's a chase figure, you got to be excited about the chase, so Luger for sure.
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah, the cane is cool. Cane's one of those guys kind of like, you know, like a Booker T or like a Seth Rollins that they really don't have a bad figure for whatever reason. They're just super toyetic and every figure is cool. The new cane is really nice. I'm kind of in the boat, though, where I'm like, why would I really need this? You know, the Ultimate Edition cane was so good. I feel like I barely really need another cane after that one. But yeah, it's definitely the Luger for me. I want the Wolfpack and I want the old school with the orange trunks, kind of like the late 80s Lex Luger.
00:02:51
Speaker
So those should be hitting target pretty soon. Again, we know, you know, the pod Wars is always pretty much evergreen content, but it is July 15th, 2022 as we record this. So, uh, you know, I know we're kind of dating ourselves a little bit talking about the legends line, but yeah, join up the premium Foley fam.
Discount Offers for Listeners
00:03:06
Speaker
It's a ton of fun. And we want to remind you guys to use code chick Foley to save 10% on all your figure purchases at ringside collectibles.
00:03:14
Speaker
and use code PF10 to save 10% on all your merch at Chalkline and that is courtesy of the Pod Foundation. Our friends at the Extra Cooler Show, Turnbuckle Tavern, and coming down the aisle. Jordan, you got anything you need to get off your chest before we get into this?
Challenges of Podcasting
00:03:32
Speaker
Well, I feel like we should address the elephant in the room. This is the second time me and Seth are recording this. So I know he wasn't going to address it. So I might as well bring it up. So he botched it. I think Jordan botched it, man. We had a little bit of the technical difficulty. This is the, uh, there's been times in the history of the chick Foley show, you know, you never.
00:03:55
Speaker
Everybody thinks it's easy to do a podcast, right? And it is easy to get started. You could literally use the mic on your laptop or your iPhone's headphones if you want, if you're not too worried about audio. And it takes about 35 minutes to set up all the online architecture to get your podcast out there. But to keep doing it week after week for, you know, we're coming up on four years we've been doing this damn thing.
00:04:16
Speaker
There's a lot of technical difficulties and headaches that come up, just little shit, you know. And it's been times before where, you know, we've had to rerecord like the last 20 minutes or, you know, just a certain segment of a podcast. Right. We've done that before, right, Jordan? Oh, yeah. 100 percent. I think this was the first time that we I think we had to record a full podcast again one time with everybody. Somebody had issue. Oh, I think somebody's audio didn't upload. So we had to do it again.
00:04:46
Speaker
Yeah, we've had this issue before. But yeah, basically, my audio just came through garbled last week. And the Pod Warriors was like the HBO man of the Chick Foley show. The regular show is like what you're going to find on NBC or whatever on network TV. This is like your premium television. So we cannot drop this with any type of subpar audio for you guys. So we're re-recording the whole thing. We're going to do a different take on it. So it's not like we're going back and going word for word what we did the first time.
00:05:15
Speaker
Um, so, but yeah, this is, that's how dedicated we are to this topic in this show. We're basically doing this whole podcast from scratch. It's going to be great. That's all I had. So let's, let's roll.
Impact and Nostalgia of N64 Wrestling Games
00:05:27
Speaker
All right. So again, going back to the intro, you guys heard me. We're talking about four games in particular, um, the two WCW games and the two WWF games, which were developed by THQ and AKI on the Nintendo 64, uh,
00:05:42
Speaker
These games came out really at the height of the industry. These were the most beloved wrestling games ever made, and they came out at the hottest time in wrestling during the Attitude Era slash Monday Night Wars. You had the boom in the 80s, but back then NES was really the only game in town, and it was just extremely limited, which you could do for video games. Do you remember any of the NES games, Jordan?
00:06:05
Speaker
I remember some of them. I just don't, it wasn't one of them just WrestleMania or something. I mean, the games were not good. Obviously only had two buttons. So we worked. They were horrible, man. Yeah, we worked with what we had, but they're definitely not good.
00:06:20
Speaker
Yeah, the the games there the wrestling games that came out on NES were basically like a cut hair better than those little electronic handheld games you would get to just have like the green background and stuff, you know, that's really the like the level of gameplay you had you had a couple you had a little sprite of a graphic that maybe if you squint it hard enough resemble the rest of you selected and there was no signature moves.
00:06:41
Speaker
So really, you know, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo had some solid games, but it was really the N64 that we really kind of got our first truly immersive wrestling experience. The gameplay was super simple. It really consisted of strong and weak strikes and strong and weak grapples. And you see, you had kind of like a paper rock scissors system going on whenever you were going for
00:07:01
Speaker
for moves against your opponent. Um, kind of, what do you remember about the gameplay that just really kind of drew you to these games, Jordan? So I just remember, cause I mean the N 64 controller itself is unique. So I just remember these games coming out and, um, yeah, just the, the grappling system and stuff, just how cool it was. Like, I mean, each time it was, it was a different move, depending on whether you hit up or down on the D pad.
00:07:25
Speaker
Um, yeah, man, I love this, get these games. This is, to me, this is by far the greatest area era of video games. These four games we're talking about. Um, and I don't think it's personally debatable, but whatever debate, whoever you want. That's why we're here to talk about this. So, um, yeah, these games were just so much fun. And I just remember being so hyped when these came out. And then, um, as we move along, we'll talk about each game, but yeah, man,
00:07:52
Speaker
I love the N64 system and everything about these games. And the gameplay mechanics and control scheme was just so simple and so perfect that it really didn't change across the four games. I would say between the first one we're going to talk about, World Tour, all the way through No Mercy, the gameplay really stayed about 95% the same. They would refine it and they'd add new game modes, but the actual core gameplay
00:08:18
Speaker
stayed the same and I think that really helped out with the pickup and play factor, you know, like just think about like WWE 2K22. Imagine somebody that hasn't played wrestling games in a while or is not a big gamer. Imagine trying to explain that control scheme to them.
00:08:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That was by far the best thing about this. I mean, you could still remember the buttons and stuff. You hit the down arrow on the right hand side of the controller. That's how you got weapons. That's how you did an Irish whip. That's how you ran. So yeah, man, keeping it simple definitely helped these games too.
N64 Controller Design and Gaming Experience
00:08:51
Speaker
Cause we had a lot of friends that weren't into video games and man, they love these games. So it tells you really all you need to know.
00:09:00
Speaker
And do you remember the spirit meter, something that hadn't been done before and hasn't been done since instead of the, uh, you know, said the health bar, you just had a spirit slash momentum meter that kind of guided your way through the match. Yeah, I still to this day think this is the best way to do these games. Cause it's more like true to life, you know? Um, and I mean, you either had to taunt a ton or do a ton of moves to get that spirit meter high enough to do your finisher. And then, um,
00:09:26
Speaker
getting your finisher like that was only the start of it like you had to taunt to get to your finisher like it would blink all the way green and then you are all the way red and then you'd have to taunt again so if you pick somebody with a long taunt probably not getting it off
00:09:43
Speaker
You had to get really strategic, man, on your wrestler selection and when you were going to bust that out. Because, yeah, if you had somebody like the Giant with that super drawn out slow motion choke slam taunt, you're opening yourself up to, you know, get hit with a low blow or some sort of move to just break your momentum. And then you kind of had those toxic strategies. You know, you had to wait until your opponent was down to do it because if they were up and standing, you know, they would just run out of the ring and just run around until like your spirit meter ran back down to normal. Like, did you ever pull that one on your friends, Jordan?
00:10:12
Speaker
Oh, a hundred percent. Or like if you get right behind like the, um, the ring post or whatever, it's hard for like you to see where everyone is and then take off when they get out of the ring. Yeah, man. Or did you ever pull the, uh, you know, if you're struggling in a match, just leave out of the ring and just start taunting like crazy to build that special up a hundred percent, dude, you, it wasn't cheating. You had to do anything you could to win one of those games.
00:10:38
Speaker
It got to the point where my big gang that I would play with on these games was my little brother, Tad, and then our two good friends, Dustin and RC. And we would set ground rules sometimes, man. We would be like, hey, no just running out of the ring and taunting. That was just grounds for immediate disqualification. You lose your N64 controller for 20 minutes or whatever.
00:11:01
Speaker
That's how annoying that was, man. The people that would just run out of the ring and taunt like crazy to get their special built up. But just a ton of great memories on these games. Let's talk a little bit about the competing series during this time.
THQ vs Acclaim: Game Design Comparison
00:11:14
Speaker
Jordan, do you get any fond memories from the Acclaim WWE games that were kind of the main competitor for these THQ games?
00:11:21
Speaker
No, not really, man. I mean, they just were there. I mean, they weren't anything great. I definitely would never go back and play. I wasn't one of them war zone. I don't know, man. Yeah, they had. So I enjoyed the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo generation of wrestling games. There was Royal Rumble and Monday Night Raw and Super WrestleMania. Those were all pretty fun and really good for the 16-bit era. But yeah, the games that came out
00:11:50
Speaker
on the PlayStation and N64 war zone and attitude. They were cool because they had all the WWE wrestlers at the height of the attitude era and stuff, but the controls just sucked, man. Acclaim is known for Mortal Kombat. They're big in the arcade fighting games and they basically just took that same control scheme and just put it on a wrestling game and stuff, which
00:12:13
Speaker
It's cool for Mortal Kombat, you know, those really competitive fighting games and stuff, you want to have kind of like a complex control scheme, that's kind of part of the deal, you know, that you got to pull off these really intricate button combos to do your special moves and stuff. But for wrestling games, we just want to pick it up and, you know, body slam people and hit some stone cold stunners and some sweet chin music. And it just sucked, man. And especially it sucked in general, and especially compared to this product that was going down on the N64.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, a hundred percent. There was, there wasn't really a lot to enjoy about these games. So that's why I just, I don't have a lot of fond memories of them. I mean, we played them cause that's all we had at the time. So, but that's about all the positive feedback I can give on those games. What was your system of choice during these during the late nineties, Jordan?
00:12:59
Speaker
Uh, Nintendo 64, a hundred percent. Um, they, they said they had all the good games like the donkey Kong, Mario Kart, golden. I, um, I played 10 80 snowboarding a lot. Oh yeah. Obviously all the rest of race. Yep. Yeah. Wave, wave runner. Yeah. Yeah. Those games were all great, man. This system really was ahead of its time. I think, I think if they re-release this now with today's graphics, I think people would snatch it up.
00:13:27
Speaker
Hell yeah. So I had a PlayStation and N64. You guys know I've always been a hardcore sports gamer, so I really had the PlayStation for NCAA football and for Madden, just because that PlayStation controller was really just way superior to the N64 controller for those games. But my heart was with the N64, man. Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is still my all-time favorite video game. There's all the awesome games Jordan already mentioned. You had NFL Blitz.
00:13:54
Speaker
And the thing we haven't talked about yet, man, I think the real game changer for the N64, which made it so much just pure unadulterated fun, was the four control reports on the system. Prior to that, even on the PlayStation, which was released the same time, on Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, you had to get a multi-tap accessory.
00:14:15
Speaker
which basically plugged into your one controller port and expanded it to where you can have up to four players. Where the N64, just out of the box, you could plug four controllers into it. And that was just a true game changer because it allowed game developers to really go deep into these multiplayer modes. Before that, it was really, really limited on how many games had a fun
00:14:37
Speaker
multiplayer mode for more than two players, just because why go through the trouble of developing it if you know there's only gonna be a very small segment of the audience that's even got the accessories and stuff to even participate in this kind of gameplay mode. But I just remember playing four players on this, Mario Kart, GoldenEye, and it was just so much damn fun.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah. Cause those, those ports you had to use for Sega and PlayStation would eventually wear out or somebody's controller would like short out during the game. And then you'd have a fight on your hands and then all of a sudden you have somebody that shows up with the mad cats controller instead of like the official, uh, the official system. Yeah. And then all of a sudden the TVs broke and then all of a sudden you're fighting in the basement. It just becomes a whole thing. So just play the end 64.
00:15:23
Speaker
Yeah, definitely man. So yeah, in 64 was fun. Did you have just the regular like dark gray one or did you have one of the special edition in 64 Jordan? So I got the first release with the gray one. And then I think shortly after that, like me and my sister both wanted to have one. So I think I got the green one.
00:15:40
Speaker
Nice, yeah, I had the PlayStation first, man. I got the N64 whenever I started seeing the commercials for Legend of Zelda Ocarina at the time, and I was like, okay, I gotta play this game. And so I got the clear purple one. That was like the brand new one that had just come out when I was getting into the N64. Let's hit the beverage break, and then we will get into these individual games. Are you gonna leave? Say that you're gonna leave.
00:16:15
Speaker
So Kanye West kind of just organically became the official soundtrack for the beverage break on the Pod Warrior. So we're hitting you guys with slow jams, the OG Kanye single. Jordan, what are you sipping on tonight, man?
00:16:28
Speaker
So appropriate for the night, I am sipping on Zombie Mania. It is a triple hazy IPA. It's got a really cool picture on the front of it. It's basically got Ultimate Warrior's body and it's got the LOD shoulder pads on it and Hogan ripping his shirt off. Really cool beer. It's out of San Marcos, California. So yeah, man, it's a good beer, but it's 10.5. So one too many of these and you're cooked for the night.
00:16:56
Speaker
Yeah, you may be, you're in like WCW and W.O. revenge battle royal mode right now, man. You might not make it to the end. I am, I'm keeping it basic right now. I'm sipping on a Miller Lite, but I have been drinking since about two o'clock this afternoon. I got a cooler beer behind me. I'll keep you guys updated as I start popping the top on some other stuff. Let's get into WCW and W.O. world tour. Before we talk about that, Jordan, do you remember the true original game of this series?
00:17:23
Speaker
I do so for PlayStation WCW versus the world. I remember this game. It was not good, but I do remember it.
00:17:32
Speaker
Yeah, it was now the gameplay was still there man. It was still the same gameplay as these ones So this is like the most bare-bones possible version of this game The only real mode was like a gauntlet mode where you wrestled through a series of wrestlers But I just remember it had crow sting on it It was the first video game that had crow sting so it was a must-have for me and I remember getting it and just kind of being perplexed because There was a ton a ton of generic Japanese wrestlers on the game. They pretty much make up the bulk of the roster and
00:17:59
Speaker
So it was just really confusing to, you know, 12 year old Seth as he's playing through this game, but it had crosting. So I had to have it anyways. Yeah, a hundred percent. It was cool just to have those people in that game. But outside of that, there wasn't much to it. The menu was generic. There was, there was nothing to it at all.
00:18:17
Speaker
Alright, so WCW NWO World Tour was released November 30th, 1997. It was the American counterpart to Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, a hit game in Japan. This was actually the second biggest selling N64 game of 1997, man.
00:18:35
Speaker
I think a lot of that has to do with the release date. Think about this November 30th, 1997. That means it was releasing less than a month before Starrcade 97, the biggest pay-per-view in WCW history with Sting and Hulk Hogan going head to head.
Re-release and Success of WCW NWO World Tour
00:18:48
Speaker
So WCW could not have been any more red hot when this game released. Yeah. And a fact about this, it actually had to get a re-release in February, February 12th of 1998, because it had sold so well the first three months. So they had to re-release it.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, the supply was so, was so dry on this game from how everybody trying to get it before Christmas that they went through a full fledged second release with like a hundred, you know, the same promotional campaign that went into it in November, went back into it in February just to hype it up. And WCW was just absolutely on fire at this time.
00:19:23
Speaker
and this game was right there along the ride, just, you know, going along with the wave. The gameplay modes were single, tag team, handicap, battle royal, and a WCW versus NWO tournament, which was really like a glorified gauntlet mode. That's really the crazy thing to think about. You know, nowadays you're playing like my player or universe mode where you get this really immersive season mode. We had so much fun on these games and there was really no replay value other than just setting up matches and doing it.
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, this is when we were like more creative with our time. Gee, you got to remember that. I mean, now everybody wants everything just like built up for them. Like, dude, we had to we had to do this on our own. There was no like, build a pay per view, anything like that. Like, we were literally just doing one off matches every time. So I liked that because I mean, at the time, we didn't know any better anyway. So
00:20:14
Speaker
Obviously now it would be a problem. But yeah at that time we didn't know any better So yeah, we'd have to just make shit up Like I remember me and my brother would pick like, you know two of the weaker wrestlers on the roster and just started battle royal With the agreement that we wouldn't go after each other and we would just try to survive till the end working together You know, like that's the kind of shit you'd have to do for fun on these games because the game boats just were not there But it's a testament to how good the gameplay was because these games are still that beloved just to elaborate there was no creative player and
00:20:43
Speaker
no story mode, no entrances. And here's the funny thing, man. This is something that I do not remember until I had to look up some screenshots of it. There were no belts, man. I could swear there were belts in this game. But when you've got to the end of the gauntlet modes and stuff, you just got a trophy and your player would just hold up a trophy above his head instead of a belt. Yeah, I do not remember that either. Like that blows my mind. Still, there was no belts on this game.
00:21:06
Speaker
The only thing I can think is that's like a nod to the, you know, cause this was really a Japanese game, right? This is basically a Japanese game that was just reskinned with American wrestlers for, you know, NWCW branded graphics and stuff. Um, I can just think it's maybe a nod to the Japanese scene where tournaments are so, so important. And they were like, yeah, we'll just do trophies after they win and who gives a shit, you know, whereas in America, it's all about the belt.
00:21:31
Speaker
Yeah. A hundred percent. I mean, it is cool to look back and think about that, but yeah, it's just so weird for a wrestling game not to have a belt. Do you remember the unlockable characters, Jordan? I do remember these. So you had, uh, macho, uh, wrath for the NWO for the new, new, new world order. You had wrath for DOA. And then you had glacier for that was for the international wing. And then you had DDP for WCW.
00:21:59
Speaker
Yeah, pretty crazy. They've had macho man is an unlockable man. That seems almost criminal. You know, macho when I think like mid nineties WCW macho man is one of the first names to come up right after Hulk and stinks. That's pretty crazy. They made him an unlockable, but pretty funny. You know, you got macho and DDP, these two first Bella Hall of Famers and then, you know, these mortal combat rejects with Glacier and, uh, and wrath, you know? Yeah, it's, it's crazy to think that you had to unlock DDP and macho man of all people, like,
00:22:28
Speaker
It is where it is. I mean, it's still a great game. And if you manage to play through the WCW, NWO, IOU and DOA gauntlet, you unlocked the whole world wrestling gauntlet. And the, the, uh, mega boss on that was Joe Bruiser and Muhammad Ali clone. So all I can think is maybe there was like a big Mike Tyson's punch out fan on the development team. And they were like, yeah, we need a big, bad boxer to be the final boss on this game. Wasn't there a chick too?
00:22:59
Speaker
I'm pretty sure there was a chick on this one. Yeah, Black Widow. I'm nearly positive. Oh, yeah, you're right. Black Widow was an unlockable one. I think she was on the I think she was like the underboss and then Joe Bruiser was the last one you fought. Yeah. And she was supposed to be Manami Toyota is what her name is in actual wrestling. So what's your all time favorite Manami Toyota match? It would probably have to be a match on WCW NWO World Tour.
00:23:28
Speaker
All right. The other cool thing on this, another nod to the Japanese development was the way you got foreign objects.
Unique Features of N64 Wrestling Games
00:23:34
Speaker
Jordan, explain to the listeners how you had to retrieve your foreign objects on this game. This to me was the most unique part of this game. So rather than do the normal, get the foreign object under the ring, you had to reach into the crowd.
00:23:47
Speaker
and they would hand you something back. I mean, you'd never know what you were getting. It's not like you could do a wheel and pick what you wanted. Like, you were getting whatever they were giving you. And to me, that was one of the coolest things of this. It was like Japanese-style wrestling. Like, you're grabbing your weapon from the crowd. It was awesome.
00:24:03
Speaker
Yeah, it was just like FMW, like an Onita match. That was just like a Japanese thing where the fans hand you the foreign objects and stuff. So pretty cool little touch. And that actually lasted all through the rest of the series. I think it just became such a hit that it was just a staple of these games. I do have a bone to pick with the roster. So we only have 20 WCW wrestlers. And then the rest of the roster is padded out with some of those generic international stars like we talked about on WCW versus the world.
00:24:32
Speaker
on PlayStation, one of the 20 spots was given to the freaking NWO sting, the fake sting. Like Jordan, defend this roster decision 25 years later. I mean, I can't still 25 years later. It just makes no sense at all why they do this. I mean, I get the gist of having NWO sting, but dude, this was like the most pointless character at this time. So yeah, I don't get that one.
00:24:59
Speaker
Yeah, the only thing I can think is it was just a way to get one more WCW wrestler on the roster, and it was super easy for them to do, because I got to imagine they used most of the same graphical resources they used with Sting, and they probably just had to change some of the text on a file to create a new wrestler on there. So that's what I'm thinking, because storage space and stuff was always an issue on these cartridge-based games. Did you have any of the other generic international wrestlers that were favorites of yours, Jordan? So I loved Powder King.
00:25:26
Speaker
That was like one of my favorite people to use on this game, and he was actually modeled after Terry Gordy, so kind of a cool thing.
00:25:34
Speaker
I mean, I obviously didn't know that at that time, but yeah, you had a Shaolin was, or no, not Shaolin. Yeah, Shaolin was Hayabusa. I mean, they had cool restaurants on there. Yeah, Japanese legend. Yeah, they had great restaurants. Yeah, AKI man who was Mitsuhara Masala. AKA man's not till the next game, buddy. You're a game early. Oh, I jumped the gun, man. Well, you know, the international stars all kind of run together anyways. Yikes. Cut me some slack.
00:25:58
Speaker
We'll go ahead and make it a smooth segue then into WCW versus NWR revenge. So this game was released October 16th, 1998. This was the best selling wrestling game on the N64. And this was the number one third party game on the N64. So think about, you know, me and Jordan already, you know, had the love fest for Nintendo 64 earlier on.
00:26:21
Speaker
Think about all the incredible games that came out for this system over the years. This was the number one third party game. So aside from the stuff that Nintendo was making, like, you know, your Marios, Mario Kart, Zelda, stuff like that, this was the number one game that just lets you know how beloved this game was. This is my, you know, spoiler alert, this is my favorite of the four we're gonna talk about tonight. And it was just incredible, man. I just, I love this game so much. I played, we play this one a ton. When I think about like playing video games as a kid,
00:26:51
Speaker
one of the first things that flashes in my mind is playing four players on WCW and WO revenge. Oh, 100%. Um, this is by far my fit. This is still my favorite wrestling game to this day. Um, not even just on this list. This is my favorite wrestling game today. Um, just cause we had so many memories with this game and recreating childhood memories is just basically impossible with today's games. Um, yeah, this game is just, this is the tippy top of wrestling games for me.
00:27:21
Speaker
Yeah, something about just the bright color, even though the next two games we're going to talk about were definitely more advanced games, right? Like from an objective standpoint, you can't say this game was better than the two coming after it. But I just love this game. Something about the bright, you know, it's brighter, right? Like WCW just was just a little bit more colorful.
00:27:39
Speaker
than WWF was during the Attitude Era. Maybe it's the sets, the character selection, and I think it was really just the time. This came out in 1998. I was still a kid at this time. Not that I wasn't a kid when the next two games came out, but I feel like a lot changed for me. I was in high school when the next two games came out, so I'm a little bit more interested in chasing girls.
00:28:01
Speaker
doing other stuff that teenagers do, whereas this game came out, there was still nothing better to me than, you know, having a 12 pack them out and doing the fridge, getting some pizza, you know, delivered from somewhere and just having my buddies over and playing video games all night. Yeah, it's that that's just an all time experience that you can't replicate again. I mean, you could try, but it just it's not going to work. I'll give Seth a little break from talking here and I'll go through some of the arenas and the titles that were on this game.
00:28:29
Speaker
You had WCW nitro. Yeah. WCW star Kane Halloween havoc bash at the beach sold out and super brawl eight for titles. You had the WCW world heavyweight title, WCW United States heavyweight championship. You had the world television championship.
00:28:48
Speaker
the world cruiserweight championship and you had the world tag titles so they put a lot of titles into this game which is crazy considering this came out only a year after the last game we talked about so they definitely corrected some things and um yeah man it shows in this game like the roster is so much better on this game so yeah this is this is the top four of the games to me
00:29:11
Speaker
dude one thing that just blew my mind when i was going back and doing the research for this episode that i just it just does not compute in my brain man is that there were no entrance themes on this game i could have swore there were actual entrance themes for every superstar but but no there's only there's like three or four just generic themes that uh you know they rotate through depending on the character i actually had to fire up my n64 and turn this on to just confirm that because i could not believe it i could have swore i remember hearing like the nwo theme
00:29:41
Speaker
and like Goldberg's theme on this game. I think we were just like playing it off of our computer or like another TV or something. I think that's what you're remembering. Yeah. Who was your favorite characters to be, man?
00:29:55
Speaker
Dude, I always had a soft spot for NWO Red. And dude, if you look at the five guys that were in NWO Red on this game, you had Nash, Sting, Luger, Macho Man, and Conan. I used Kevin Nash a ton on this game. Like probably one of my favorite characters in any wrestling game just because I loved NWO Red so much. I mean, dude, Wolfpack is, that's easily one of my favorite factions. So I always use an NWO Red.
00:30:25
Speaker
So I remember one of the first things I checked when I got this game and I got it the day it came out, make no mistake about it. I remember one of the first things I checked was Kevin Nash because the year before he just had the generic power bomb, right? His power bomb looked the same.
00:30:41
Speaker
as Dean Malenko's power bomb and Chris Benoit's power bomb. Basically, he just had generic power bomb number two for his finisher. This year, they gave him the true Kevin Nash jackknife. He did his little taunt beforehand, and then it was no mistake. Kevin Nash had his own little swag when he did the jackknife, and it was on there. And when I saw that, I think I was just immediately hooked, like, OK, this game is on some real shit this year.
00:31:06
Speaker
For me, it was all about, I love Scott Hall just because I was such a huge Razor remote Mark, so I used him a lot. I felt like Kevin Nash was a little too slow. I was huge into Hall of Nash this time, but I feel like Nash was just a little bit too cumbersome moving around the ring. So I like Scott Hall, and then I love Goldberg. Even though Goldberg wasn't really his fully powered self on this, he was still kind of on the come up when this game was in development. I like using him just because the spear and the jackhammer were so much fun to do on this game.
00:31:34
Speaker
Rick Steiner was awesome to use on this game just because his taunt is him on the ground lifting his leg like a dog. So using him was pretty awesome.
00:31:44
Speaker
Yeah, but yeah, um, like I said, I, we need to test it out, dude. Maybe next time when you come, uh, to the, uh, the redneck groovy era here in Tennessee, man, maybe we could fire it up and we'll get Sheena and maybe Brad will be mature enough at that time. We can get him on there too and get some four player action going just to see if it still holds up. Cause for me, four player battle Royal on WCW, NWO revenge is like absolute video game nirvana.
00:32:09
Speaker
I just think it's funny, like looking back on it, that you could only do the battle royals in groups of four. So like the least you could do is 28. So it's just wild thinking back to it and you can go all the way up to 40. But yeah, man, I just remember having to do that mode where the Royal Rumble mode, you had to be 31 other people. And it was like by about 15, you're like, don't think I'm making it through this one.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah, your spirit meter. It's almost impossible to get it off that just little like north carolina blue blip That's like barely beeping and stuff. You know, you're basically on life support trying to keep it going but but yeah, that was always so fun and it was cool when you'd play with like People who didn't really know what the hell they were doing because they would pick somebody like kevin nash or sting It started battle royale. It's like no, this is not how this works, dude Your first like character is definitely a throw away. You know what I mean? You're going with like hoovin to guerrera or
00:33:02
Speaker
or LaParca, somebody like that for your first character, because you do not want to mess around. Because you know that guy's getting tossed out. You just pick some throwaway for the first character and then just roll the dice and hope you get somebody good coming out after you get eliminated the first time. Yeah, you have no chance of making it from the first group of four to the end. There's no chance. You'll be lucky to make it to 20. We used to like to set up the battle royal with the custom rules where it wasn't ring out. It was just straight up knockouts. You remember how you could do that?
00:33:33
Speaker
Yeah. And don't you remember you only had to knock them through the middle rope to get them out on this game and it continued with the WWF games, which is crazy.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah, it was not Royal Rumble rules. You cannot come through the middle ropes. But I remember playing the knockout mode. The knockout was always so dramatic and pitiful. You'd hit somebody with a power bomb or a scorpion death drop. And once they were knocked out and eliminated, they'd be laid out. And they would set up and do this little vibrating gimmick for a second and then just die. They would just fall out. And that was it. Yeah, great game mode. But yeah, man, this game, like we talked about, there's a lot of memories here for both of us.
00:34:11
Speaker
Yeah, this one was an easy one to talk about.
00:34:15
Speaker
For sure. Let's move on to WWF. So we talked about it a little bit before. WWF at this time was under a license with a claim, which had been a really fruitful relationship up until the 32-bit era. And the games sold well enough. They weren't like commercial failures, but critically, they were just lagging far behind WCW. And by the time that we get to late 98, when the THQ and AKI deal ran out with WCW,
00:34:44
Speaker
WWF had surpassed him in the ratings and was really just pulling away, you know, faster and faster as the weeks went by.
WWF's Contract with THQ for Future Games
00:34:51
Speaker
But the one part that WCW was still winning on was video games. Obviously, you know Vince McMahon, he wants to be the best at everything. So as soon as their deal expired, they went on and latched on to THQ and AKI.
00:35:03
Speaker
We basically got the same game just with WWF graphics, right? They put a WWF coat of paint on top of WCW and WO revenge through some new modes on there, specifically the creative player and WrestleMania 2000 was born. What's some of your key memories from this game, Jordan?
00:35:19
Speaker
Yeah, this is a fun game. The one thing that always sticks out to me about this game is the taunts on this game. Like Stone Cold did the straight up middle finger at his opponent. And the other one I always remember is Mr. Ass actually mooned the opponent on this game like
00:35:37
Speaker
I don't know what like, and I never use Mr. Ass, but for some reason I just remember that. Like it's just, that's just one of the things. Cause I mean, at this time we're 15 years old, so we're still immature 15 year olds. And it's like, holy crap. They actually put that on here. THQ and AKI, they were feeling themselves going over to the, you know, the TV 14 WWF as opposed to WCW, which was still PG at the time.
00:36:02
Speaker
Oh, for sure. But yeah, this game's a lot of fun. There was some things wrong with it, but being able to create a wrestler, I just remember how iconic that was. Like first thing I did was put Goldberg on it. And yeah, the creative player mode was crazy. We had had creator wrestler modes before this, but
00:36:20
Speaker
They were really limited on what you could do visually, and then you always had to pick just a complete existing move set. This allowed you to do everything. I remember the first thing I did when I got this game, again, this is at the height of ECW also, we got this game, we went to the Walmart in Beaver Dam, Kentucky. We were there at midnight on release day, so Walmart was the only 24-hour spot back in the day. So as soon as it hit midnight on release day, we got the guy to unlock it from the glass case and hook us up.
00:36:47
Speaker
raced back home and we spent like an hour and a half me and my uncle Josh, we spent like an hour and a half making Taz, you know, Taz was the human suplex machine, which always confused me, man. So they called him the human suplex machine, right? That implies that there's like a non human suplex machine. Like what's the deal with that? Maybe there's a robot that's the suplex machine. I don't know, man. I just am I thinking too am I thinking too much into this?
00:37:10
Speaker
I think you're digging too hard into it, dude. They just had to make it know that he actually is human. He's not a genetic freak. But regardless, we're going home. We're making his whole move set complicit. It's consistent of suplex on top of suplex on top of suplex. You know, we're hitting shit I've never even heard of before. You know, Northern light suplex, T bone suplex, like, you know, the freaking Great Lakes suplex shit that
00:37:34
Speaker
we've never even heard of but was on the menus and stuff we threw on there and it was just so much fun and so crazy. The other cool thing that THQ hooked us up with was that they left all of the move sets and taunts from WCW and WL Revenge in the game so it was very easy to make
00:37:50
Speaker
Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Sting, and get them in your games. And I remember going to these crappy, like, Geocities websites, and they would have the recipe for all these different creative players on there. So, you know, you could just, you could print those out on your crappy bitmap printer and then go and sit in front of you in 64.
00:38:08
Speaker
You wouldn't have to do any thinking. You could just go through the menu and put all these selections in and get your characters. Can you imagine? I mean, when this happened, I don't think Vince was too into the video game world and maybe he still isn't, but can you imagine how pissed off he would have been if they would have told him, hey, we left all this stuff in here from WCW so that way the kids can put WCW wrestlers on this game? There's just something that tells me. He'd be like, what? Are you shitting me? This is my game.
00:38:38
Speaker
Yeah, nowadays it'd be lawsuit city, man. Like, they would never even kind of broach that stuff. Like, every once in a while on WWE 2K series, they'll leave some moves in, but for the most part, they clean that shit up, man. And once somebody's at the game, like, they erase all traces of them. You had your Royal Rumble mode, which was basically Battle Royal mode, just renamed Royal Rumble, and then King of the Ring mode, which was standard tournaments.
00:39:00
Speaker
There was a story mode on this game, but it was non-branching. So whether you won or lost didn't matter. Time just kept marching on, but you still had a little bit of story as opposed to straight up gauntlet mode. And then there was creative pay-per-view mode that was really hyped up. I didn't mess with that one too much, man. I guess I just couldn't really see the vision behind it. It was similar to like universe mode nowadays, but it was only for single shows. There wasn't like any
00:39:22
Speaker
You really couldn't build on it unless you just kind of did it in your own head and, you know, kept notes and stuff. Did you mess with the creative pay-per-view much, Jordan? Oh, yeah, I did. So I basically had everybody work in three matches a night because I was doing like four Royal Rumbles every show. I'm like... Killing the talent. Dude, the talent's just dead. Like, if it was an actual universe, they'd be like, talent all dead.
00:39:46
Speaker
Yeah, man. The other cool thing was you had two new match modes. You had cage matches and first blood matches, which were both really, really neat. The first blood match, you basically had to hope the fans gave you a nine millimeter and you could just shoot your opponent in the face to win. It was damn near impossible. Yeah. When you had to do one of those matches, it was like, well, you're going to be here for a while. You could hit them with a chair like 50 times, nothing.
00:40:10
Speaker
Yeah, it was, uh, you know, it was stiff, man. There was no blading going on. These guys were getting busted open hard way. Yeah. Nobody's, we're not getting any Hogan blade jobs in this game. So we criticize NWO sting being included on WCW NWO world tour. Uh, you know, we're going to be equal opportunities here and throw some, throw some shade in WWF's direction. The Godfather's hoe was a playable character on this game.
00:40:36
Speaker
Yeah, I remember unlocking the hoe, but I don't ever remember using the hoe for anything other than a valet. Wow. We'll just leave that quote on its own there, man. All right. Relax. There's nothing wrong with what I said. Just relax. You said you remember unlocking the hoe, but you just didn't use the hoe. Do you got any closing thoughts on WrestleMania 2000 before we move on to No Mercy?
00:41:03
Speaker
No, man, it was another fun game. It was lacking behind WCW NWO Revenge, but yeah, it's still a great game, but yeah, we'll move on to No Mercy here. I think it was just, dude, honestly, it sounds super simple, man.
Appeal of WCW Games
00:41:20
Speaker
I think it was just the roster and the color scheme. We use the term toyetic for action figures and stuff that just make for better figures, regardless of how good the wrestler was. I feel like WCW was just more like,
00:41:32
Speaker
video game edit if i can like make up a word here you know like it was just the pay-per-view sets were brighter the wrestlers were kind of more just colorful and really kind of just more goofy and i think it just made it more fun you know yeah dude anything the house has a halloween havoc entrance automatically is going to be bumped up at least three points
00:41:51
Speaker
Yeah, the Halloween Havoc and the Bash the Beach sets were just they were just beautiful, man. They just got you. You were just ready to have some fun playing games when you saw your wrestlers coming out of those those entrance stages. Let's move on to the last game. We're going to talk about No Mercy. This was released on November 13th, 2000.
00:42:10
Speaker
This is, you know, it's widely renowned now as the greatest wrestling game of all time. This was the pinnacle of the THQ AKI games. It's the last one that they did on N64. It was, you know, the final form of the evolution across these games. But at the time it didn't get quite as much love as I think it deserved. And I think that's because of the release date. You know, this game was released again, November 13th, 2000.
00:42:36
Speaker
That was basically one month after the PS2. So the N64 is already kind of in the rear view. You know, it's no longer the most advanced system. The PS2 was the new hotness. It had these incredible games. PlayStation 2 is arguably the greatest video game system of all time. There were just so many just classic games that came out on that and video games really just took a massive step forward, you know. Nowadays, like,
00:42:58
Speaker
The difference between the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X, all that stuff, it's kind of minimal, right? Sometimes you kind of got to squint hard to see the difference. The difference from PS2 between the PlayStation One and the N64 was dramatic. I mean, am I right on this, Jordan? 100%.
00:43:17
Speaker
yeah the graphics were just crazy the ability the gameplay was was just way more advanced so i feel like there was kind of like a little dark period like that last six months or so um after the playstation 2 release like there were a lot of there were still a lot of big games coming out on playstation 1 and then 64 and sega dreamcast but they kind of got overshadowed a little bit but regardless
00:43:37
Speaker
This game was the pinnacle of this series of games. They had ladder matches. That was the big new match mode that came on. But the big thing was the story mode with the branching storylines. And this story mode still holds up to this day. You could pick a wrestler, pick which title you want to go after, and that determined how the first big chunk of your
00:43:57
Speaker
your story mode was going to go. And this was the first time that whether you won or lost, it really mattered. You know, but like we said on, on WrestleMania 2000, you time kept marching forward no matter what. This one actually had branching storylines depending on the results of your matches. Um, do you remember playing this story mode much Jordan? Oh yeah, dude, I played this.
00:44:15
Speaker
I think I used probably at least 10 wrestlers on this story mode. I did it a couple different times mainly because you could unlock people. So that's what I was always after was unlocking the characters and stuff because I mean, that's what games are all about. But yeah, this was a fun game. Yeah, I have a lot of good memories of this game.
00:44:35
Speaker
another funny quirk on it if you get into the story mode nowadays you're gonna be like why the fuck is Stevie Richards so featured on this man like Stevie Richards is like kind of like your main like antagonist for like the first half of your story modes he's always interfering in your matches
00:44:52
Speaker
getting in on handicap matches with your main rival against you. The reason for that is because this was originally going to be Big Show, right? The story mode was written for Big Show to kind of be the main guy fucking with you and stuff, which made sense for where he was at on the card at the time.
00:45:07
Speaker
About four or five months before the game released, Big Show actually got demoted to Ohio Valley Wrestling because he was having so many issues keeping his weight in check and just staying in solid ring shape. And in my mind, I'm thinking WWF just told THQ AKI get rid of Big Show.
00:45:23
Speaker
And when they asked like, who do you want to put in their place? Like, you know, I'm just going to assume it was Vince. He was like, fuck it, whoever you want, pal. And there were some huge like Stevie Richards, Blue World Order Mark at THQ.
Stevie Richards in No Mercy Story Mode
00:45:35
Speaker
They just thought he was going to be the future of the business. I mean, what other explanation is there for Stevie Richards being so heavily featured in this story mode, Jordan? There is no other reason. And the fact that they actually did it is absolutely ridiculous. Like it literally makes no sense to this day. There was plenty of people on the roster. They could have picked anyone else.
00:45:53
Speaker
other than Stephen Richards. Yeah, it was pretty weak. We talked about our favorites on the WCW games. Who was your favorite across the two WWF games to use? Probably S.A. Rios. No. Wow. I didn't realize you were such a Los Pericles smart. Stone Cold was always my favorite at this time, so that's probably who I used the most, but I also love using Eddie Guerrero a lot.
00:46:19
Speaker
Yeah, the Frog Splash hit hard. I liked, the Stunner was cool. My favorite move to do with Stone Cold was the Thezpress, man. The Thezpress was always badass to do on these games. I was, you know, this is sacrilegious for me to say, I was big on using Shawn Michaels on this, man, just because he was fast. Sweet Chin Music just freaking slapped on this. And so yeah, HBK was kind of my guy across the two WWF games. Any of the DXD music, you know, the DXD music always went hard.
00:46:48
Speaker
Yeah. A hundred percent. That's a, that's a good choice. The crappy thing is you had done a lock Shawn Michaels on both games, which is unreal. I don't get it, but whatever.
00:46:59
Speaker
So let's kind of talk legacy, man. These games were so great for us wrestling gamers, but they've really kind of been a curse on modern wrestling game developers, because these are the games everybody's immediately comparing them to. Jordan, what do you think the modern developers could do to stop chasing the ghost of these games on N64? I mean, outside of re-releasing them with today's graphics, I don't really know what you can do.
00:47:27
Speaker
these games were just it was just so natural like we've talked about this at this time video games weren't like the most widely accepted thing so and we've even talked about the advertisements for these were were non-existent like these games just came out like if you were if you were a fan like us obviously you knew they were coming out but i mean a lot of people didn't even know these games released so
00:47:52
Speaker
I don't know, man, I just feel like there's no I don't feel like you can get that feeling back organically, if that makes sense. It's just, I don't know, man, this was just a special three year run. And I just I don't see a way you can get it back, honestly.
00:48:07
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure it would even work if you know, the thing you hear a lot is let's just take this gameplay and put the modern like HD 4k graphics on it I don't even know if that would work man I feel like there would be a small chunk of people like us people that came up with these games who would really dig it but I feel like modern gamers would just be like what the hell, you know, cuz
00:48:28
Speaker
The games, as much as we love them, they weren't really a true representation of wrestling. They were wrestling in a fun video game package. Whereas nowadays, the games coming out, like WWE 2K, they're trying to let you do every single thing the real wrestlers do, you know, like collar and elbow tie-ups, you know, laying people on the table and then doing springboard moves off the ropes onto them. There's just so much shit that you can do in the modern games that you couldn't do on these, but it didn't matter to us back in the day, right?
00:48:54
Speaker
No. We, dude, we didn't care about that stuff. All we cared about is they put out a kick ass wrestling game. You could burn an entire day with your friends playing this game in your basement. Dude, kids just, I don't know, man, kids stay inside more than ever today. I just don't feel like they would appreciate it, man. They need to be able to like see your wrestlers face clear. Like when we played these, these games, like especially football games, like everybody had the same face. Like nobody was different. So
00:49:22
Speaker
Yeah. Now, like you can see Tom Brady's face when he pulls his helmet off. Like, dude, I just, I don't think kids would appreciate this game, even if it had today's graphics.
00:49:31
Speaker
Yeah, sadly, I think you're right, man. I don't know what they could really do. And I will say objectively, to me, WWE 2K19, that's my all-time favorite wrestling game. The stuff you can do on there is crazy. It's the best, but it still doesn't hit that sentimental feel spot. Even though there's so much cool stuff you can do on there, it'll keep you occupied, the fun factor is never as high as it was on the N64.
Modern Games vs N64 Nostalgia
00:49:58
Speaker
Yeah, the problem also too is, I mean, we're 20 years older at this point. So, sitting down and playing a video game for 15 hours sounds really good in theory, but absolutely impossible with kids, life. There's no way we could ever do it again. There's shit you get to do around the house, doing the dishes, just different shit, man.
00:50:20
Speaker
If you play the game, if you sit down for 15 hours, play the game the next day, you're going to be fucking strapped, taking care of all the real world adult shit you got to do. Yeah. Or your wife's going to fucking murder you for playing a game for 15 hours. One of the two. All right. Let's, you want to get into some listener mail? Yeah, let's do it.
00:50:36
Speaker
So we opened up the mail to the premium Foley fan members. We did not limit it to just these games. We said pretty much anything wrestling video game related. So we're gonna start off with Mike Rivera. He says, how about ECW Hardcore Revolution? So this was the game that Acclaim made right after they lost the WWF license. You know, WCW went to EA and Acclaim snapped up ECW. Now it's crazy because ECW was like at the height of their powers when this game dropped.
00:51:02
Speaker
But it was straight dog shit. I actually had this game on Sega Dreamcast of all things. And I think I played it for maybe like 25 minutes and I was like, fuck this and just turn it off and never to be touched again.
00:51:15
Speaker
Yeah, the roster made it look like we were actually going to get something here. And I was excited because I mean, it was the same game system as the four games we just talked about. My God, it was not. It was not that at all. It was fucking horrible. It was basically like they took that game system and put it back into an original Nintendo game. And then they shit this out.
00:51:39
Speaker
Yeah it was it was horrible and it was everybody was really excited for it at the time because like I said ECW was red hot and for like 90% of the roster this was the first time you were seeing these guys in video game form. I do love one thing about this game though they actually had jobbers on this game but like that that to me is a good addition.
00:51:59
Speaker
Yeah, that was a nice touch. All right, let's move on to David Brooks. He says, how many times did you hit your opponent with a Singapore cane to hear Tony Schiavone go wild on WCW backstage assault? So this was a game, like I said, I think this was like a budget decision. EA Sports got the WCW license and the first game they released had no in-ring action. It was only backstage areas, man. It was just like,
00:52:23
Speaker
a straight up fighting game with WCW wrestlers. And again, I was, it was worse than ECW hardcore revolution. Yeah, this game is not good. It, I remember playing it. I never bought it, but, uh, back when we could rent video games from a video store, I know that's an unreal concept to some people now, but I rented it and I just remember playing it for like five minutes. I was like, well, that was a poor choice of $5.
00:52:50
Speaker
Yeah, WCW was already circling the drain at the time this game came out. Tony Giovanni's talked about it on his podcast, though. He said that EA deal paid him and the boys a lot of money. Tony was the main announcer, like David Brooks talked about. He said that everybody got a solid check from EA for the development of the game. So that's cool, even though the game actually ended up sucking. Our good friend in Canada, Eric Blondin, says, what did you guys think of AKI, man?
00:53:18
Speaker
fucking awesome dude like what's there not to like about this dude it was it was a cool character based off a real wrestler I don't remember who was based off Metuhara Masawa one of like the all-time Japanese legends from the 90s yeah dude I enjoyed it I mean I think I enjoyed everything about that game so I mean there was nothing that really turned me off about that game
00:53:40
Speaker
Yeah, his moveset slapped. He looked like Max Moon, you know, so he had this full bodysuit gear on. Just Google image, AKI, man. Zachary Hertzer says, are you guys ready for SummerSlam? I'll answer for the both of us. Yes, we are.
00:53:55
Speaker
God, please, please, please do not let Austin Theory walk out with both belts. He says, side note, I will never forget WCW versus NWO World Tour. That was the first N64 game I got when I got my Nintendo 64 as a kid for my birthday. Good times. Also, GoldenEye for the N64 was amazing. Missed those days as a kid playing N64.
00:54:15
Speaker
Yeah, again, we cannot stress this enough. If you got a little bit of extra money laying around, get on eBay, find yourself a N64. They're not too expensive. Get you an N64 with a few controllers and go back and pick up some of these games, man. This system is so, so, so much fun. Yeah, dude, GoldenEye, the feeling of getting the Golden Gun when you're in a four player match is like, I still don't think you can replicate that feeling.
00:54:41
Speaker
Yeah, you were the fucking man, dude. Unquestioned. You were fucking running shit, dude. You were the head motherfucker in charge. Like, it was a wrap.
00:54:51
Speaker
All right, Matt Carlos says he's got a trilogy question. When is the next Chick Foley Rumble? The Sunday paper, the Saturday paper views have kind of killed that. As great as it is having Saturday paper views, that used to be the night that we would do the Chick Foley Rumble. You know, we would do it the Saturday before the Sunday paper view. Because really, think about the rest of the week. Thursday is the only night there's no wrestling. You got Raw on Monday.
00:55:13
Speaker
NXT on Tuesday, AEW on Wednesday, and then SmackDown and Rampage on Friday. So maybe we'll do some Thursday night action sometime, but we'll look for an opportunity. It has been a while. The dust has finally settled on getting the new house ready, so sometime soon. He says, will it be on 2K22? No, it won't. Even though I love all the crazy stuff we're seeing in 2K22,
00:55:36
Speaker
It's just still too glitchy for me, man. And I already have such an awesome roster and such a good deal built on 2K19. I haven't been motivated to move over. Jordan, have you messed with 2K22 much? I bought the game like probably two weeks after it came out, got the deluxe edition, was all jacked to play it. I still haven't downloaded it.
00:55:55
Speaker
Yeah, that kind of tells you everything you need to know. Jeffrey Allen says, my 2k22 roster is everyone from these four games. It's insane how good the Creator wrestlers are this year. So you don't really have a question, just a statement. Yeah, I do get envious, man. Sometimes I'll see some of the really cool stuff you guys are doing in the Facebook group, those of you that share your universe mode and your Creator players and stuff. I get a little itchy, man, and think about moving over.
00:56:20
Speaker
I always go and kind of look on the forums and stuff on Reddit and people are still complaining about universe mode which is really where I spend most of my time on 2k and I invest a lot of time in it and I just don't want to do that to have to deal with crashes and shit all the time so that's why it's a no for me dog.
00:56:39
Speaker
Uh, Johnny JB shared this tweet says you've just ordered pizza hut. You got a new copy of WWF, no mercy for the N64 and a two liter Dr. Pepper. No school tomorrow. Your parents don't care if you stay up all night. It's perfect summer night. Spoiler alert. You're 39 years old in the years, 2022. I love this whole scenario. He's got laid out except for the Dr. Pepper, man. Mountain Dew is my nostalgia drink of choice. How about you, Jordan? Uh, code red mountain dew a hundred percent.
00:57:04
Speaker
Nice. Jordan's best friend Tony Barker says, what was your favorite customized character you ever created and what was their gimmick?
00:57:12
Speaker
So I used my personal name, obviously. I mean, I put a personalized name in every game I buy. So I just, I mean, obviously I'm a bigger dude. So I think I either took Kevin Nash's moveset or I think I mixed together Kevin Nash and the Giants moveset. Like obviously I wasn't a big fast dude or anything, but I was just all about beating the shit out of everybody. So that was my gimmick.
00:57:37
Speaker
Yeah, I was the same. I had Seth the Sniper Phelps, and I was a hybrid of HBK and Bret Hart. I pretty much had Bret Hart's moveset, but for the finisher, I had Sweet Chin Music, just because it was always a pain in the ass using a submission for the finisher. And last question, Chris Foreman says, I wish I could find someone tech savvy who could get the updated ROM of these games onto my computer. Do you guys have the current ROM versions? No, I don't, because I have the N64 versions of all these.
00:58:06
Speaker
Jordan's been my best friend for going on 12 years now and probably the biggest contribution he's made to my life was getting me back into wrestling big time in 2014 when WWE Network dropped. I subscribed to it just because I wanted to watch all the old stuff and Jordan would kind of just keep poking me like,
00:58:27
Speaker
Watch WrestleMania 30, you know, watch Extreme Rules and stuff as the pay per views would come on. So I'd throw them on, kind of have them on like running on my laptop while I'm playing Madden or something. And little by little I started getting hooked on the new stuff.
00:58:41
Speaker
And before you know it, I was back into wrestling bigger than ever. One thing I've never really shared with everybody though, the first thing I did when I got back into wrestling, something about that nostalgic itch was getting to me and I went and got an N64 off of eBay and then I hit up all the thrift shops and stuff in Hawaii where I lived at at the time.
00:59:01
Speaker
Picked up these four games that we discussed tonight. That was the first thing I did when I got back into wrestling after tenure hiatus So that's probably the strongest endorsement that I can give to these games how good they were You guys know how much I'm into the figures before I got back into action figures the first thing I did was get these N64 wrestling games and fire them up and and start playing them What about you Jordan? Have you messed with like any of the ROMs or emulators or anything?
00:59:24
Speaker
And that's a that's way above what I'm capable of doing so I'm not gonna blow my computer up at home on Whatever that means. I think I'll just pass These still haven't working in 64 at home right now, Jordan Oh, yeah, dude. I kept mine from when I was a kid. It was in like storage and I found it so I still have the green and 64 and
00:59:47
Speaker
Nice, man. Yeah, I got the new and improved Sharpshooter Studios we got here at the new house. We got a 32-inch Samsung set up, and I have my Super Nintendo, a NES, a N64, and a PlayStation 2 hooked up, and no Mercy is setting in my N64 right now.
01:00:08
Speaker
We want to thank you guys again for listening to this. Make sure you guys give us some feedback. Let us know what topics you want me and Jordan to tackle going forward. I remind you to use code chick Foley to save 10% at ringsidecollectibles.com and use code PF10 to save 10% at chalk line courtesy of the pod foundation. Jordan hit us with some closing thoughts for this week.
01:00:28
Speaker
Man, this was a fun episode for something that I really wanted to do and I kept bothering Seth about. I really hope everybody enjoys this and wants us to maybe do something like this again. But either way, like Seth said, thanks for the support. Keep giving us feedback and let us know what we can do better. And yeah, we'll just keep making them better.
01:01:03
Speaker
Break it!