Featuring
a Spring, 1999 WWF roster, the game includes wrestlers like Jeff Jarrett
(who now wrestles for WCW), Owen Hart (who was tragically
killed at the Over the Edge pay-pay-view), and Sable (who filed a sexual
harassment lawsuit against the WWF and left). If you're looking to play
as Chris "Y2J" Jericho, Rakishi Phatu, or Tazz, you're not going
to find them here. (But you could try to make them via the game's "Create-A-Wrestler" option,
which I'll explain in a bit.) However, if you want the big stars like
The Rock, Mankind, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chyna, HHH, and X-Pac, they're
all here, along with other hidden wrestlers.
When the game was released for the PlayStation and N64,
one of the biggest complaints about it was the difficulty in pulling
off the wrestlers'
featured moves. Unfortunately, the same is true of the Dreamcast version.
Moves
are performed by tapping the D-pad a few times along with hitting the
proper button. The game is very unforgiving in terms of the time allowed
for you
to perform all but the simplest maneuvers. So, basically matches will
boil down to a series of punches, kicks, and the occasional armbar. Slightly
less often, you'll get the periodic vertical suplex or clothesline. If
you're wrestling as The Rock, you can equate the frequency of pulling
off "The
People's Elbow" with sightings of Bigfoot. It happens, but not very
often...and usually when no one's there to document it. Somehow, though,
the matches tend to be fun, if a little frustrating. Getting your wrestler
to tag out in tag-team match or climbing the steel cage to win a cage
match prove to be very difficult when they shouldn't be. Otherwise, its
fun to
see if you can pull out a victory despite the odds.
It's a shame that the game is so hard to control, because it is a relatively
good-looking game. Now, keep in mind that WWF Attitude for the Dreamcast
is essentially a port of the N64 version. The graphics in no way push the
Dreamcast's hardware. There are polygon seam problems, collision detection
problems and other visual clues that the Dreamcast version of the game
was not programmed to take advantage of the hardware's capabilities. Still,
the game manages to recreate the visual experience of a wrestling TV show
with some degree of success. The wrestlers themselves are rendered fairly
well. Although the newer WWF Smackdown for the PlayStation looks better,
the Dreamcast Attitude gives each wrestler a good on-screen representation.
The sound effects and music are also adequate, without
leaning too much towards being awful or outstanding. Decidedly average
is a good way of
describing them. The entrance music for each wrestler is good, even though
some of the themes are no longer used by the individual wrestlers. The
commentary, provided by Jerry "The King" Lawler and Shane McMahon,
is fairly lame. Basically, they react to moves with generic responses like, "A
lot of height on that one!" or "The Undertaker's getting killed
out there!" Whoopee.
The aforementioned "Create-A-Wrestler" option is probably the
game's centerpiece attraction. This option allows the player to construction
his/her own grappler to take part in the action. The player can choose
the wrestler's size, proportions, skin color, hair color, hair style, clothing,
tattoos, accessories, entrance music, moves, and more. One could spend
an entire afternoon simply putting it all together. After the creation
is complete, the wrestler can be entered into the game's career mode, which
tracks a wrestler's progress from house shows to pay-per-view events. There's
also a "Create-A-Pay-Per-View" option that allows the gamer
to set up an entire event, including the matches, arena style, rope color,
event name, banner signs and more.
All-in-all, there's nothing about the Dreamcast version of WWF
Attitude that makes it superior to the PlayStation or Nintendo 64 versions. The
graphics may be a bit better, but not by any sizable margin. If you've
already purchased one of the two previous versions and like it, stick with
it. If you're a Dreamcast owner and a wrestling fan, you may be tempted
to run out and buy this one. Slow down. Rent it first. You may find the
game's finicky control scheme and glitchy collision detection more frustrating
than fun.