Columns: The Game
9.21.2000

Here we are. In the next few months we will have in our hands the two biggest anticipated wrestling games ever in our hands. The hype has been building for months now and in the past month or so we have come upon the point in which the beta versions of both Smackdown 2 and No Mercy have been handed out for others to test, review, and preview for the rest of us who do not yet have a copy. Many pictures, movies, and reports have been given by various web sites to quench our thirst for these videogames until the day we get that fateful call from our local Electronics Boutique that says our copies of Smackdown 2 or No Mercy are in. Hype. That is what all of this is but the first question is, “Will these games live up to the hype?” We look to the past. The first game to really be previewed in the way we are doing it now was WWF Attitude. Before this game, the beta versions of games such as WCW Revenge or WWF Warzone were kept very quiet and secretive to the Internet community and the rest of the world. Someone became a genius however and realized that by sending a copy of a game to some well-known Internet sites, lots of publicity that costs next-to-nothing could be gained. Does it work? Oh hell yeah! The first game to really take advantage of this new concept was WWF Attitude. WWF Attitude was hyped way beyond belief. Everywhere you turned on the Internet someone had a copy of the game and were doing a preview, Q&A, Wrestler of the day, picture of the day, or any other crazy thing you can think of to do with a game. I, like many others, was pumped. I preordered the game and waited patiently for my local EB to give me the call. Then the problems came. WWF Attitude was pushed back, more then once. The Internet was buzzing. Instead of making the delay a bad thing, they (whom ever was responsible for this I do not know) decided the delay was to add to the game and make it better. So the hype was on again. Finally the game arrived and we all know about the dissatisfaction that followed. Perhaps this was the biggest disappointment in videogame history. All the hype built the game up to way beyond anything it was. Everyone thought WWF Attitude was going to be the “Game of the Year” but instead it could be labeled as biggest disappointment ever. Ironically, a game released about two months later can be considered one of the best wrestling games ever. Was there much hype around it? Not too much. But in the end, the final product is what matters and what Wrestlemania 2000 left out in hype, it made up for in the final product. Will hype kill Smackdown 2 and No Mercy? Just look around at all the web sites with Q&A, wrestlers of the day and so forth. We are in the middle of hype that even WWF Attitude would envy. We are all expecting two games that will blow the video gaming industry out of the water. Let us hope that the games back up what we see now. It would be unfortunate to have two more games arrive at our homes, and when we stick them into our systems the hype was just hype and we have some more games that can be buried next to WWF Attitude in the videogames grave. Will the games live up to the hype? I hope so. I for one can’t wait to play either of the games and yes the hype is big around them both but I think it will all be justified.