WCW/NWO Thunder (PS)

WCW Thunder had a lot to offer fans when it was released. For starters, you had some 60 superstars to choose from, including the biggest names around such as Goldberg and Hogan; all kinds of other hidden wrestlers also lay buried inside the game, waiting for you to win with certain characters (or use the handy dandy cheat codes) to unlock them-everything from made-up goofy characters to the wrestlers who got beat up for a living every week to announcers to members of the Nitro Girls (including the luscious Kimberly). While certain basic moves worked for all wrestlers, each individual wrestler, including the hidden ones, had their own signature moves. Thus, you could have Goldberg take his opponent out with the Spear followed by the Jack Hammer, or have Lex Luger turn a man into a little baby while hoisted up in the Torture Rack. Each wrestler came with his own theme music and personal allegiance, but you had the option of changing a guy's alliance. This could become important in terms of one of my favorite features of the game, the ability to have an ally come to the ring to help you avoid a loss or just to help you beat the heck out of your opponent.

The game offers a number of game types for one or two players. You can fight an exhibition match or go for the TV Title, US Heavyweight Title or walk that aisle in pursuit of the World Heavyweight belt. If you get tired of one-on-one action, you can choose tag-team play or battle it out with 29 other wrestlers in a Battle Royal. You can even get down to brass tacks and battle it out in a cage match. The only bad thing about a cage match is the fact that it does not allow you access to any weapons. In normal game play, there are a number of weapons outside the ring (you control how many) that you can pick up and use to beat the fool out of everybody that gets in your way; you can even just keep wailing on your opponent after he hits the ground.

WCW Thunder is and never was perfect, though. For one thing, the game quickly becomes rather easy. You can just pile drive your opponent over and over again into oblivion if you like or take a stop sign upside a guy's head a dozen or more times and pin him easily. The clumsy combination moves actually become a good thing here because it is sometimes a challenge to perform that special killer move your wrestler is famous for and end the match in style. The graphics are decent but not great, and my Playstation seems to have a few hitches in its gitty-up when it tries to render large numbers of wrestlers all at once in Battle Royal mode. I still enjoy playing WCW Thunder, though. It looks a lot like the earlier WCW Nitro game, but it plays a lot better in my opinion. There are better games available now, even for the Playstation, but I have a feeling that I'll be enjoying this game on and off for many years to come.