WCW vs. The World
PlayStation
1 Disc
Memory Card: 1 Block

Graphics:  The wrestlers are polygonal and are texture mapped to look
like their real-life counterparts.  The Rings are well done, and there
are a LOT of different ring designs.  The crowd is a texture map of a
"real" wrestling crowd, the people look real, but do not move.  The
only bad thing is that the polygons for the wrestlers sometimes do not
look like they're connected during certain moves, but this can be
overlooked.  Lack of a Referee in the ring hurts a bit too.  Wrestlers
have two different outfits depending on which button was used to
select them (X="current" and O="old").  Intro FMV is EXCELLENT.
Score: 8.5

Sound:  Let's face it.  The Music sucks.  There is no ring entrance
music, nor an announcer as in Power Move Pro Wrestling.  The sounds
are rather generic, and not too inspiring.  This is the only area in
which this game is lacking.
Score: 5

Gameplay:  There are 7 modes in WCW vs. The World.  These are:

Double Title:  You face a friend and both of you wager a belt that is
saved on your respective memory cards (2 players, 2 memory cards).
The loser has his belt deleted from his memory card and placed onto
the winner's.

League Match:  A round-robin tournament for up to 8 wrestlers (1-8 can
be human controlled).  This can be fought for no belt, a new belt that
you create (you even name your belts), or a previously saved belt on
your memory card.  The game will keep track of your previous champions
if title changes occur.

Tournament:  A traditional tournament (Like the old King of the Ring
tournaments) for up to 8 wrestlers (1-8 can be human controlled).
Like the League Match, this can be fought for no belt, a new belt, or
previously saved belt.

Elimination Match:  A Tekken 2 like option.  Each player (or 1 player
agains the computer) selects 5 wrestlers, who then battle in either
one of two styles.  One is like the WCW vs. New Japan series from a
few years back where one wrestler faces another wrestler from the
other team.  The second is like the Tekken 2 team battle, where the 
winner stays in the ring and takes on the next opponent from the other 
team.

Exhibition Match:  A one or two player match with nothing at stake.

Best of Seven: Like the Gauntlet option in Power Move Pro Wrestling.
You select one wrestler, and the computer selects seven opponents
whom you must beat.  This can be fought for no belt, a new belt, or a
previously saved belt.

League Challenge:  This is the heart and soul of the game.  You select
one wrestler, then select which of the leagues you will challenge.
the possible Leagues are:

World Championship Wrestling
Empire Wrestling Federation
Samurai Wrestling Federation
Dead or Alive
Independant Union
Neo Strong Wrestling (New Japan Pro Wrestling)

(each one represents a certain organization, but I don't know which is
which yet, except for Neo Strong)

You will fight 5 wrestlers, and then a "boss" wrestler, who is a
secret character.  After you win the belt of a league, you save it to
the memory card, and that boss wrestler is selectable in all modes
except League Challenge from then on.  Once you beat all 6 Leagues
with the same wrestler it opens up a "secret" league for you to
wrestle in.  There are two secret leagues, and which one opens up
depends on what type of wrestler you have been playing with.  If
you're using a Junior Heavyweight, the "Super Jr." League will be
playable, if you're using a Heavyweight, the "Super Heavy" League will
be playable.  Beat each "Super" league and two more wrestlers will
become playable.

There are many options available as well.  There are 3 levels for the
computer opponents (Easy, Normal, Hard), 5 time limits (5, 10, 30, 60,
and no time limit), Normal and European matches (1 fall, Best of 3
falls), Ring Out on or off, Rope Break (if a wrestler is in the ropes,
the pinfall/submission hold must be broken) on or off, and TKO on or
off (I think this gets rid of the submission wins, I'm not sure).  You
can also save 10 created belts on your memory card (the whole game
only takes one memory card slot to save your League Challenge belts
won and your created belts).

Control is well done as well.  The O Button is used for all
"grappling" moves, the X button for Punch/Kick moves, the Triangle
button runs at the ropes, and the square button is used for blocking
and escaping.  The shoulder buttons are also used to help substitute
for double button presses, such as the "special move" (unblockable
punch/kick type hit, which decreases in effectiveness each time you
use it in the match), the punch/kick reversal, the Leapfrog or
drop-down move wrestlers use when an opponent is running at them from
the ropes, and the taunt, which is used to increase your "spirit
meter".  The O button is used in combination with D-pad pressing and
holding down the O button for different periods of time.  These
variables, along with your distance from your opponent and whether
you're facing his front or back determine which move your wrestler
will perform.  It sounds complicated, but you get the hang of it quickly.

The Spirit meter is a measure of how "psyched" your wrestler is.  As
the meter goes from red to a flashing white, your moves become more
potent and you can reverse more moves on your opponent.  You increase
your spirit by performing difficult moves, and by doing these moves
you also decrease your opponent's spirit.  A High spirit level makes
your moves more effective and help you pin your opponent.

I won't even go into the superplexes, planchas, and top-rope
frankensteiners and powerbombs.....but they're in there!
Score: 10

Manual: For once there's a well done wrestling manual!  It doesn't
tell you every move for every wrestler, but it DOES tell you the
differnt button presses needed to pull off those moves.  It's easy to
pick up and play on Easy, but Normal and Hard introduce a lot more
blocking and escaping done by the Computer.  There's even a WCW
catalogue you can order from in the back if you want to buy a WCW belt
to wear when you play..... :)
Score: 9

Overall: Only down side is no tag-team matches, but that'll probably
happen in the sequel.  If you're a Wrestling fan in the US: BUY THIS
GAME.  You won't be disappointed.

Score: 9.5 (lack of tag-team and sound keep it from being a 10)

Below I will list the wrestlers that I can recognise in the game.
This list does include Spoilers for the secret characters, so I will
leave some spoiler space......

SPOILER SPACE!!!!!!!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|


WCW wrestlers (real names in game): Hulk Hogan (NWO and Red&Yellow),
Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, Lex Luger, Sting (Crow & Original), Ric
Flair, Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner, Dean Malenko, Ultimo Dragon, Lord
Steven Regal, Masahiro Chono, Jeff Jarrett (boss for WCW), The Giant
(reported boss for Super Heavy, i haven't won it yet, so I'm not sure)

Other Wrestlers (real names not used, but recognizable):Akira Maeda
(master of the shoot...once broke Andre the Giant's cheek with kicks
to the head), Ken Shamrock (now in WWF), Scott Norton (he's in the
WCW, why they didn't use his real name is beyond me), Hakushi, Sabu,
Great Muta, Jushin Lyger, Road Warrior Hawk, Mil Mascaras (boss
character), Steve Williams, Stan Hanson, Tiger Mask (boss character
for Super Jr.)  If others are more familiar with Japanese wrestling
they might be able to identify more than I can.  Needless to say,
59/60 are based on real wrestlers, the only "fake" one being "The
Unknown".

Good luck, and have fun playing WCW vs. the World!

Keith E. Young