Looking back at ECW Hardcore Revolution & Anarchy Rulz
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Support Wrestling Bios: / wrestling_bios
Back-up Channel / RTW Highlights: / @wrestlingbios2
Sweet Merch: www.wrestlingb...
Twitter: / wrestlingbios
After developing WWF Warzone and WWF Attitude, Acclaim Entertainment found themselves with the ECW video game license. The WWF had moved onto a partnership with AKI and THQ, so Acclaim had the opportunity to take everything they learned from War Zone and Attitude to present gamers with something special for their debut ECW game.
Instead of trying something new, Acclaim decided to simply reskin WWF Attitude when releasing ECW Hardcore Revolution. Their follow-up release, Anarchy Rulz, had a few new additions but at it's very core it was still the same clunky gameplay that WWF fans tolerated back in 1998 and 1999. Instead of Stone Cold, The Rock, Triple H and Undertaker fans could now play as RVD, Sabu, Taz and Tommy Dreamer. The poor reviews rolled in while sales stayed extremely low. - Спорт
Taz and Raven were the two coolest people on earth after I discovered ECW at 4am on my local public access channel in 1996...
Yeah that never happened...
@@Pine_Hill_Prophit I know right. Lol
Hell yea brotha! I thought the human suplex machine was the baddest mf walking
@@Pine_Hill_Prophit Raven & Taz were both in ECW in '96 so idk wtf you're talking about but great comment...
Those were the days, when they were unknown and hard-core back then. A friend of mine in high school told me to check out ECW and to watch them on the public access channel. Miss those 90s wrestling days
Another thing that always bothered me about the Acclaim games was how nobody had actual hands, they were more like paws. Every punch was an open-hand slap.
Limitations.
They didn't have what we got today.
Back in the day we thought this was
Cool.
I remember saying to a friend that it looked like they were wearing mittens
And WrestleMania 2000 had úgly blocky models and terrible faces
@@hitek9too255 Attitude had ugly models and clunky gameplay. WrestleMania 2000 had blocky models and awesome gameplay.
Again, I was a sucker for both back in the day, but the N64 THQ/AKI games blew these Acclaim titles out of the water. No contest.
Rock Star would've been perfect to create ECW Video Game
They were dma at the time.
@@nehemiahpouncey3607 He's referring to Rockstar the publisher, not Rockstar North. Rockstar existed since 1998.
After playing THQ's Smackdown!, the Acclaim games felt absolutely ancient. So clunky - the wrestlers moved like action figures
Smackdown on PS1 is no selling, overpriced Arcade junk. I'll rather play Attitude.
@@hitek9too255now that’s a wild take but okay
Yeah, I think once THQ took over the games, there really wasn't much competition. On another thread, I said I feel funny looking back on it because my friends with a PS1 had *WWF Attitude* and the *WCW Nitro* and *Thunder* games. I had an N64 and always had this sort of jealousy because the PS1 could play full videos of the wrestlers' entrances, their titantron videos, them talking trash, etc. Little did I know that I was actually playing far superior games with *WCW vs. nWo: Revenge, WWF - Wrestlemania 2000,* and *WWF - No Mercy.*
It's pretty messed up that we never got an actual good ECW game. WCW had their runs, of course the WWE/F games are the staple, but ECW never had a great game...
Those poor ECW fans.
Got garbage for Christmas.
Welp Merry Christmas.🤣
Acclaim:duh we don't how ECW
Work.🫨
Half to admit that new jack attire
Still hold up today.
Must have threatened Acclaim not
To ruin it.😂
With community creations you actually can make a decent ecw game roster. Small, but decent 👍😁👍
Acclaim really liked their Warzone game engine... 🙄
15:13 Lance Storm no-selling the table spot, the absolute mad lad.
When I seen that part I immediately remembered this comment cause I seen the comment early in the video
A must-buy video game title. It's like saying Undertaker vs. Goldberg is a must-watch wrestling match.
Maybe for morbid curiosity but that's about it lol
Like the acclaim WWF games before them, the ECW games suffered the same fate and they didn't age well. They came out at a time when wrestling games were evolving and with WM 2000 on N64 and WWF Smackdown on PS1, the ECW games couldn't compete. It was also around the time when the promotion itself was gonna go bankrupt soon.
The problem is, unlike the Acclaim WWF games, the ECW games were born already old. By the time Hardcore Revolution came up, we had WCW Mayhem (which, while not even close to being as fun as the AKI games, were still a step forward compared to the Acclaim games) and WWF SmackDown was right behind the corner. If you had a PS1, you had a lot more choice than you did in '98.
I may be wrong, but I just feel like with WWF being a national heading towards global brand and WCW being at their hottest and literally funded by a billionaire, any type of video game for ECW, which was as Indie as it gets(being silently aided by WWF aside) would be a miracle.
It's kinda sad to realize that Dawn Marie was in both ECW video games but only managed to appear in ONE WWE game (GC's WrestleMania XIX) despite being part of WWE's personnel for years and being pretty much Torrie Wilson's main rival.
Nobody care about her in a game 😂
Even others like Joy Giovanni and Amy Weber who were on screen for maybe a year were on SVR (05) not like it was a deal breaker but it is odd for sure.
@@robertl.wilson1199 Exactly!
Wrestling games on handheld systems didn't really get good until the early to mid 2000's with Fire Pro on the GBA and Smackdown vs Raw on PSP.
Still don't Like hand held games
I wanted Anarchy Rulz for what felt like months. I finally rented it. I was quite happy to return it
All I can really remember is playing these back when I had them on the Playstation. During the time, I was a huge wrestling fan and I would buy every wrestling game that came out on the PS1. A lot of times after they had been out for a minute, but I would eventually get them. I really enjoyed Hardcore Revolution. And yeah, it was just the WWE War Zone and Attitude engine. But you have to remember what WCW was putting out at the time. Next to Nitro, Thunder, Mayhem, and Backstage Brawl, the War Zone engine was awesome. I had gotten Smackdown by this time and it was definitely superior. But just for a quick pick it up and unlock a character, Hardcore Revolution was passable. And I enjoyed the ECW roster. I didn't buy Anarchy Rulz until 2011 and boy was that disappointing! By that time, I hadn't messed with any of these games in a while, so I could really tell how clunky the engine was. And I just didn't feel like doing the grinds anymore. But I still have some good memories of playing the first one. Hardcore Revolution just felt like taking my "Build a Character" into a new company.
The new finishers they put in were pretty good. I have never seen the acid drop put into any other game yet. The Nutcracker Sweet, 5 star, Evenflow, and even the really weird cradle piledriver were good.
So, a few points as i admittedly am about to play the video. Warzone was so much worse than all of em, you couldnt even select your opponent and the finishers werent even in the pause menu. But we didnt know any better so we had a ton of fun. Attitude was an improvement but much of the same. By the time ecw came out 1.) it was cheap compared to other wrestling games. 2.) it helped fans who had no way of watching the product learn about ecw and the wrestlers/moves. 3.) Anarchy Rulz finally fixed the control scheme and made it as simplified as it always shouldve been
I rented these once back then and never again.
I remember reading in gaming magazines at the time that Joey Styles had a Shooting Star Press because Styles himself allegedly did the motion capture for it himself. Not sure how true that ever was, though I guess if Styles was ever in any shape to actually perform an SSP it'd be around this time.
No no no, Joey Styles has a Styles Clash and he invented the One Wing Angle
That standing armbar animation gives me Nam flashbacks
I actually had high hopes for Anarchy Rulz
I don't think I ever knew about the move list in this or War Zone/Attitude. I just bought the strategy guides because they had each wrestlers' move set.
I imagine Rockstar would have paid for the songs and more since they were including licensed music in games before GTA3 was a thing (see Thrasher: Skate & Destroy for one example).
I still have my copy of Hardcore Revolution on the 64.......... I have not intentions on ever playing it again. 😂
I bought mine just to have it not to play it. I couldn’t pass up 99 cents
@@shawn9753 🤣🤣🤣
I'm never playing mine either. But I stole mine from Hollywood video back in 2002. I did them a favor
It's great that you've covered ECW console games to go alongside your excellent collection of all the other games you've looked at
As an ECW fan I'll be pissed off seeing
This.
Like how new jacks attire still holds
Up today.
Guessing he told Acclaim not to
Screw it up or he'll find them.😂
Acclaim:okay okay we...we...will
Uh um do it right.😓
The ECW games after this where the Svr series
I remember buying this as a youngin' and thinking how much better it looked on the cover than in-game 😅
Tomorrow is my birthday 🎉 thank you for your time and work Wrestling Bios
4:15 not only that, in the SmackDown game, you could ACTUALLY do hard-core things in matches. In the ECW game, you couldn’t do anything fun. The ECW video game from acclaim played like WWE’s version of ECW on TV. 🤢🤮
I've still got this game on the Dreamcast. Great video as always
i forgot all about these games they just felt like WWF attitude with the ECW license awesome video.
Got this for Christmas one year and probably played it twice
It's sad that Fire Pro Wrestling World is still the best ECW game we ever got, and it isn't even a goddamn dedicated ECW game. WWF/E had No Mercy and Here Comes the Pain. And WCW had WCW/NWO Revenge (and maybe Mayhem to a degree). ECW had no such game made for them.
Always have always will.
The wrestling empire games too.
@@nehemiahpouncey3607 Oh yeah, I forgot about those. They're cool, too.
@@harveyplissken4604where else
You could murder someone in the
Ring?😂
Plus have their funeral and get blamed for neglet.
These games were ass I'm glad your covering them!!!
Ass? 🤔
@@partypoppers1988 Yep A S S.
One of my biggest complaints about Attitude/Hardcore Revolution is that they don't use the move set style that War Zone did. In War Zone pretty much any two directional buttons will result in a move. Presses like Up, Down, B or Left, Right, A would do a decent and sometimes signature move (Down, Down, B was a chokeslam for example)
But when they releases Attitude they left A LOT of button commands blank so if you tried to guess at a combo then pretty much without fail you'd just end up doing an armbar or a wristlock... completely killed the flow of matches.
The only time I ever had fun with Attitude and ECW games was when I made create-a-wrestlers with custom movesets based on War Zone's button inputs.
Create-a-wrestler is usually one of the best parts of a wrestling game
I had an ECW game it was funny i think it was hardcore i Liked it but damm it was really low level
I'm a huge ECW fan, but when I tell you that these games almost ruined my fandom.... man, that's Hard Time's
Still an ECW fan
Having worked in IT projects now for a while, my guess is the budget for this was so small that Acclaimed almost HAD to recreate Attitude and WarZone. If ECW had a bigger budget, they would have gotten Acclaimed to build on this even if it meant the game was delayed. I had both ECW games, they were OK. Nothing amazing as you say
The only fun I had with these games was the occasional break from WM2000/No Mercy to turn people into bloody messes in barbed wire matches. War Zone and Attitude were practically unplayable for me, so these were huge letdowns.
Man I was just looking for a review of these the other day, great timing.
Loved these games but preferred Anarchy Rulz. Spent a lot of time playing the WWF Acclaim games with my cousin so it was easy to pick up and play. I just couldn't get into the Smackdown engine until Know Your Role.
Shoulda been Rockstar
I bought Anarchy and Medal of Honor the same time. I never thought the ww2 game would be less frustrating and challenging. Rubber band a.i. and I didn't hate it, I just wanted to use the guys. It was fun having all the promotions to be like a wrestling god controlling all 3 though. I feel like video games decided the Monday night wars more than the tv though.
Wrestle mania 2000
Wcw mayhem
Ecw hardcore.
Then
No mercy
Backstage assault
Anarchy Rulz.
They were pretty reflective of the promotions of whose names they had.
Elbows Pads|Knee Pads|Taped Wrists|MMA Style Gloves Past Present Future
It probably would have been better for ECW to take a worse agreement to have Rockstar make the game. I expect there was a lot of overlap in their fanbases at the time.
please keep doing videos as often as you do . Its really helping me out in hard times.
ECW was also featured in SVR games
But didn't catch the spirit of ECW.😂
ty for puting the effort for this video. it must hurt playing these. lol
Cant wait for your review on WWF Crush Hour LOL
So many empty seats in the Acclaim wrestling games on Game Boy...
Who knew Acclaim would predict AEW?
I was a teenager when Warzone came out, and me and my friend bought one for each of us. Now that I think about it, it looks like a game that you can play on Newgrounds.
Not sure about early 00's Rockstar producing an ECW game that'd be known through the ages.... I can only remember the first 2 GTA games, and thinking they were fun, but not what the franchise would become... but if ECW survived a few more years around the time that Rockstar started getting better at making great brawler-style games, that'd be an absolute dream team!
Well, GTA 3 arrived the following year :P
While some of their games had promise (Bounty Harvest and Space Station Silicon Valley on N64 come to mind), they definately did some contract work to pay the bills/finance the games they actually wanted to work on. The fact that Rockstar wanted to work with ECW, prpbably meant the game might've got a little extra care. Definately more care than what Acclaim did :(
@@metalninjajesus1580 Hard to say since we don't know which of their development studios would have lead development on it and in 1999-2000 they had several studios internally through Take-Two and others they frequently partnered with. Z-Axis might have probably gotten a shot at it since RS/Take-Two published Skate and Destroy which was a solid 7/10 game. Tarantula Studios at the time were just port monkeys for RS/TT games but were itching to create a game too. Those are just two examples.
I love smackdown 1&2 the best, so easy to play
Wonder why Sandman isn't on the Hardcore revolution rooster, was he already in WCW at the time?
He was still in WCW when the game was in delveopment . He joined after and then was in the second game as you already know.
My cousin and I played WWF Attitude after playing Smackdown 1 and 2, and we were blown away by the blood in WWF Attitude. We spent all day playing hardcore handicapped matches and destroyed our opponent.
The best part about Acclaim's laziness is that the "New" match modes in Anarchy Rulz were literally matches meant for the next WWF game that never came. The Brimstone match was their attempt at Inferno Matches. The Dumpster Match was from WM 14. Rage In The Cage was the Lion's Den.
Bought the first ecw game on PS1 at Walmart 2 weeks after it came out, just wanted to play as RVD
This was one of my first games as a kid on 64. I wish I could find both right now as a adult
Acclaim love their warzone engine.
15:23 Oh my god that one venue in Anarchy Rulz having its TNN sign replaced with just a second ECW sign because Raw moved to that channel in 2000 is so sad
In a perfect world Thq/Aki woulda stayed making games, for wCw, Wwf AND Ecw 🔥
Paul Heyman has always been a crook and everytime I hear him saying anything business related, I feel like I need a shower afterwards
Smack down came out I never looked back.
Man, on one hand, A Rockstar developed ECW game would have been interesting. On the other hand, anything Rockstar non-GTA (especially in the late 90s) wasn't really that great IMO (think State of Emergency). I guess it all becomes "be careful what you wish for" type of hypothetical.
I’ve had Hardcore Revolution sat in a cupboard for about 10 years and never played it…it’s good to know that was the right choice.
ECW getting WWF's sloppy seconds lol
When I was a kid a friend brought over a copy of the first ECW game and I didn't know who the hell any of the characters were because we didn't get ECW in our area.
The 1998-2000 Rockstar Games would have been a good fit, but they didn't have an amazing track record just yet. They had a string of hits and misses at that time until GTA3 released in October 2001. Which practically catapulted them into the stratosphere overnight and the rest, as they say, is history.
Nice man, this was a great game. If you used ravens ddt as a regular move for your created character you could get a guaranteed pin fall when the health bar was at yellow 💪😂
I abused that so much. lol
@@TheIceAnt it was always a great failsafe haha
I remember a mate if mine got Hardcore revolution and was so buzzed to play it, within 30 mins we went back to the wwf AKI games
The best games to feature ECW was the WWE games svr 2008-2011 although as the WWE ECW brand there was good storylines you could create I did one where Tommy dreamer was WWE champion after cashing in MITB and then John cena wins the ECW championship at the royal rumble after beating my created wrestler who just defended the WWE title on the same night. Also rocks return on the ECW brand and JBL getting annoyed rock is payed more.
I remember being so excited to get Anarchy Rulz. I didn’t have Revolution but I had WWF Raw Zone and when I realized it was the same game I was sooooo pissed. I wasted like 2 months of allowance and I hated War Zone for the controls and pausing to figure out the tough combos
Pretty cool that the first game has The Sheik in it. That’s gotta be the only video game he was ever in.
My two favorite things wrestling and comic books. JK Simmons aka Omni Man also J Jonah, Jameson vs WWE John Cena
Lame
Smack down on ps1 was the most played wrestling game by me 😅
I still have both these games, and I enjoyed them then and do still play today. I play on the original Playstation.
Id of loved to seen what rockstar woulda done with making a ECW game. Woulda been potentially thr best wrestling game bringing in extra fans to the company.
I liked Hardcore Revolution although it might have been just being excited for an ECW game. I also got carded when I bought it bc it was rated M lol
It’s a shame they don’t use the ECW and WCW licenses to release a new game alongside the 2K titles. They could sign up all the old legends (minus AEW talent, so sadly no Tazz) and make a nostalgia title with a new game engine and maybe try some new ideas.
Huge shoutout for saying “Aki” and not “A-K-I.”
As a Raven fan I was sooo annoyed that it had a automatic pin after the Evenflow DDT.
In any tag match it was almost guaranteed to have the pin interrupted
Hardcore Revolution is one of two games I got when I got my Dreamcast, I enjoyed itat the time and managed to unlock everything.
The other game was Jet Set Radio, where I also unlocked everything.
Guess which one I kept playing after unlocking everything.
Funny story about anarchy rules. I was 11 and I had no idea ECW went out of business. My dad bought me this over the phone and I played it for a few minutes just because Dusty Rhodes was in the the game in 2005 after ECW one night stand and hard girl homecoming. I started to play this more and wanted to know more about ECW the more and more I played it. The more and more I realized that like everybody else has said, this was literally WWF attitude with an ECW skin on it. I really wish that we got a true ECW game independent of any other system that was used for WCW or the WWF. Something like a Legends of wrestling or even aew fight forever. I'm not saying you would have been amazing but it would have been accepted in the right direction
I remember owning Revolution. It was ok to a youngin' like me at the time. Played WCW Thunder much more and Smackdiwn until the disc died, but by the next one was out by then to be a fantastic replacement. I can smelllll the greatness cookin'!
It's a shame that all three companies couldn't share the same developer and publisher. It would have been cool to have THQ /AKI release an ECW game along with their WCW and WWF games
I was actually excited that ECW was getting a game, even though I had an idea of what was going to happen, and was majorly disappointed when Acclaim microwaved last night's slop.
Had the Dreamcast version of what I think was the first game. Got Fire Pro D like 6 months later and never thought of it again. I might actually still have the disc somewhere.
I gotta be honest. In my opinion, the best and most original wrestling game from that generation of game consoles was WWF Warzone. Let me explain. All other games are a copy of a much better and deeper Japanese wrestling game (Virtual Pro Wrestling 1 and 2). VPW has grunts. A much larger list of wrestlers and customizable features. WrestleMania 2000 is a shell of a game compared to Virtual Pro Wrestling. And WWF No Mercy was a rushed glitchy mess with many errors.
For example, in VPW, you can customize the AI of created wrestlers. There's also more reversal options than both WM2000 and No Mercy. No Mercy also has several move glitches that dont perform as intended, specifically throw moves that transition to submissions do the REGULAR move, when for its purpose it's suppose to do your SPECIAL move. Also WM2000 had a little bit of this, but there were more move options in Virtual Pro Wrestling. Like being able to do an A + Up front grapple move as an Irish Whip counter special. VPW also allowed you to select any move as a FINISHER, regardless if it was a special or not.
WWF Warzone was not a copy of any game. It was built like a simulation and an arcade game had a baby. It had a high score system, hidden moves found in multiple button combinations and all finishers had to found by guessing. They weren't in the moveset lists. All wrestlers have very accurate movesets. Give or take one or two moves. Like Shawn Michaels and Owen Hart having a hidden Shooting Star Press or Mankind having a Gutwrench Sit-down Powerbomb. Also, most finishers have multiple ways to use them, unlike ALL future titles. Mankind can use the Mandible Claw on a grounded opponent, on a standing opponent and from a front grapple. Same thing with most others. There are some exceptions, but like a simulation, only when it makes sense.
There's some button mashing involved in submissions and holds. But there's alot of moves available. Pretty much any direction plus any button will get you started. You can go from Armdrags to Backbreakers quickly and once you get the hang of using the analog stick and learning the wrestlers a little better you'll see a pattern where the DDT has a universal direction combo as well as other moves. However not all wrestlers share the same combinations for some moves like Powerbombs and Piledrivers.
There's also a health bar, damage meter and momentum indicator. However, you can turn off these. Also weapons can he used until they break. And they don't disappear until they break.
Don't get me wrong. It's not perfect. But it was farther along and better than most people like to admit. I feel like it gets lumped in with WWF Attitude too often because they are somewhat similar. But Warzone was actually the better game and to me it was better than the others. WrestleMania 2000 and No Mercy have a puppet look to them. They just don't look realistic, it's weird to see an arm floating above a shoulder regularly. And they have a blocky look to me. And SmackDown games, honestly I thought played like ass. Everyone seems like they're on speed and nobody sells anything.
Edit: in WWF Warzone there are also moves that can throw an opponent out of the ring, as well as a specific toss when you and your opponent are close to the ropes. But it's still pretty damn cool to Backdrop, Press Slam or Belly to Belly a guy over your head out to the floor, especially in the Royal Rumble.
I know I'm in the minority. But just an opinion.
ECW would of benefited greatly having Yukes do a game for them. The fast paced arcade style would have suited them very well.
I remember in the N64 version of Hardcore Revolution the mic still has the WWF logo on it.
I still play this sometimes...ECW Hardcore Revolution -have had it since it came out. I love the crowd in this one which seems minor but the crowd reactions, name calling and such is IMO better than any other N64 wrestling game. It's a better game than Nitro, Mayhem and World Tour, IMO
I loved Hardcore Revolution! I played it so much on my Dreamcast!
I have fond memories of this game on Ps1 been on sale at a indie wrestling show that came to my hometown as Sabu was in the main event. (it was those weird PS1 not for sale ones with the plastic cases and b/w discs) come Sunday, they were all onsale down the local carboot. absolute grind of a game to get thru. looking back anarchy rulz was no better either. i think the only highlight was the unedited sweary rants some of the wrestlers had as their opening speeches, especially Rhino's lol
Wow, flashbacks to the grind! I was a huge ecw fan so certainly would have claimed to enjoy at the time. Only thing I remember truly enjoying was Dope - Debonaire from the Anarchy Rulez menu and having a CAW who had every available groin attack in his move set.
I grew up with warzone and attitude. So for me ecw revenge was great I loved it and still occasionally play them now
I had ecw hardcore revolution on dreamcast and i loved it as a kid 😂
I went to the NYC ECW signing at Gamestop or Electrics Boutique for the first game and met RVD and Dreamer. Have pics on my IG of it and some pics of them arriving
This game was definitely a major disappointment but it was cause i was a huge ECW fan that i let it slide for a little
What's your IG account ?
4:16 Because we want to played as Booger, The Kid and William F 😄
I know you probably want a break after finishing reliving the war. However a look back on ECW week by week from Shane Douglas throwing down the belt till closure would be interesting. As I think there is a big discrepancy on how it is remembered and how it actually was.
The memory remains
My brother in law got Raven to sign his copy of ECW Hardcore Revolution at a show in Salt Lake. He also signed my copy of WCW/nWo Revenge.
an ECW game by Rockstar would have been amazing and superior to what we got and also the 2008 smackdown vs raw. DAMN!