WWE Day of Reckoning (GCN) Hidden Wrestlers (1/4): Bret Hart gameplay.

Описание: Gameplay of the hidden wrestler Bret Hart in WWE Day of Reckoning for the Nintendo Gamecube.

Now this is more like it. Day of Reckoning was a game I grew up on, so it’s pretty special to me. As a title, it’s held up really well, and feels much more like a true sequel to No Mercy than the Wrestlemania games did. Gameplay-wise, it’s just brilliant.

The only issue with gameplay I really have is the fact that reversals feel really overpowered. Counters are one thing, but when I’m wailing on someone and they manage to reverse and instantly get up off the floor, it pulls me out of it a bit. Day of Reckoning however feels pretty arcade-y, particularly with the reversals, and especially with a system called “momentum” shift, where, if timed correctly, a character at danger of being defeated can instantly steal the momentum from the opponent and put them in danger instead. For kayfabe this kind of stuff works well, but in a video game you really need consistency. There are matches were I’m dominating but because the opponent gets a few cheap reversals in, the tables are suddenly turned and I’m suddenly in danger. If you were watching a real wrestling match then that would be great, but in a game it just feels unfair. This is a complaint I'll make with the later SvR games too, that's for sure.

Generally, though, Day of Reckoning plays brilliantly. It brings back the heavy grappling from No Mercy, though the trade-off is that heavy grapples are easier to counter. You now have most a pulse meter and a stocks for super moves, which can be activated by pressing A+B together to go into a “special” state, and then press them again to use the super move. Like No Mercy, as long as you’re in that state you can use your finisher over and over again, which can lead to your opponent being decimated as a result. The pulse meter returns, and like No Mercy indicates if a character is close to being ko’ed or submitting. Also helping with this is the body part meter. Next to your characters’ HUD is a icon which shows which area of your wrestler is being damaged when an attack takes place. These areas, after a certain number of attacks, change to yellow, and then to red, to indicate damage taken. When damage has been taken, it makes these areas much more susceptible to submissions or to being ko’ed. And let’s you know both which areas to avoid your opponent attacking, as well as which areas you should focus on hurting your opponent. Then is also complimented by the submission gauge which appears during any submission, and let’s you know how close you are to forcing an opponent to submit, or submitting yourself, which is incredibly useful. Weapons have also been changed, with all of them (with the exception of ladders and tables) breaking after a few uses, with the upside being that they deal significantly more damage and can even knock out an opponent if their head health is low enough.
Bret Hart is actually my favourite wrestler of all time (probably obvious by this point, I know), which is particularly good here as I do believe he’s the best wrestler in the game. Seriously, he’s a total beast; all of his attacks hit like a truck, with his Sharpshooter finisher absolutely destroying the opponent’s body health, meaning that just a few of them will render see them submitting, or left vulnerable to a ko.

Indeed, all four hidden wrestlers here are legendary wrestlers instead of being current ones. We saw this a little before with Andre the Giant’s inclusion in No Mercy, but this idea of legends being the hidden characters was taking fold in the Smackdown games as well, and would be a staple by the Smackdown vs. Raw games. And, quite frankly, it’s absolutely brilliant. It adds a ton of fanservice to the game, allowing current fans to enjoy their favourite wrestler/s right off of the bat while also allowing classic fans an entry point back into the franchise, letting them access wrestlers they already know and like while introducing them to new ones. It’s a pretty genius idea, and definitely suits the series, as each unlock feels like it has purpose, weight to it and a sense of grandeur, rather than just being another McMahon or another Mick Foley persona.

Of course, I say all that, but that wouldn’t feel take hold until the Smackdown vs. Raw games, where they managed to get much better names on board. Bret Hart and Andre the Giant, who I’ll be looking at next time, are brilliant, but Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine seem like odd, underwhelming choices. I guess it was the best they could do at the time.

Lastly, no screwjob this time, bitch.

We’ll be seeing Bret a few more times as well. Next up, it’s another appearance by Andre the Giant.