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WWE Day of Reckoning is the third Gamecube game under the WWE label. After the horrendous WWE Wrestlemania X8 and XIX, people had their hopes up with DoR, hoping that Yukes would rejuvenate the WWE wrestling game on Nintendo's console.
Story
In Day of Reckoning, you take your created wrestler to the mat, as you start your wrestling career in the WWE's developmental program, slowly working your way to Sunday Night Heat, and eventually getting yourself on either Raw or Smackdown! You choose which one you go to, but that's the only choice you'll ever make in the game, making the game irritatingly linear. As I played through the Raw storyline--well, I won't spoil anything, but--there were moments where I thought, for once, the game was gonna let me make a choice. But, what's this? It decided for me! What the hell? The storyline isn't even faithful to the real-life program: Bischoff treated the heels like he treats the good guys in the real program (in other words, he treats them like crap), and then treats the good guys the other way around. It was as if I was playing in a parallel universe, where people wear shoes on their hands, and hamburgers eat people. But, on the other hand, it is interesting to see different scenarios than the ones in real life, which is exactly what you'll see in Story mode. However, the Smackdown! storyline is pretty much identical--except for the characters involved, of course, as well as the dialogue.
Features
The highlight of the game is its Create-A-Wrestler mode, where there are several adjustments you can make--I literally spent two hours on my first Create-A-Wrestler, what with the dozens of adjustments to his appearance, dozens of moves, and fine-tuning his entrance. Speaking of entrances, you can adjust everything about the entrance, from the way your character moves as he walks to the ring to pyro effects to camera angles. Also, you can take a snapshot of your character through the nifty feature in the game that freely lets you change the angle, magnification, and lighting for the snapshot: no longer will you have to see your character represented by a black silhouette on the character selection screen.
DoR's roster does lack some key superstars, such as JBL. But you can still find fan favorites such as Eddie Guerrero, John Cena, and Chris Benoit on the roster, as well as heels such as the members of Evolution and Kurt Angle. Most of the types of matches, as well as the variations of them, are in the game, but one big type of match is missing, and that's the elimination chamber match. Nonetheless, exhibition matches are still tons of fun to play with other players.
One significant new feature in the game is the Momentum Shift, which, when you're in a Danger status, gives you a chance to perform a move on your adversary which swaps your momentum with theirs, or even steal their Special status if they were in Special status when you performed a Momentum Shift. However, this can only be done once throughout the match, and if your opponent performs it on you, you can't perform it back later in the match.
Gameplay/Controls
The gameplay, however, is disappointingly screwy. There are several AI problems: one example is that the referee, for no apparent reason, went in and out of the ring constantly during a lot of my matches. Also, during a tornado tag match, I was pinning one of my adversaries while my partner was working on the other opponent--the ref doesn't even bother to look the other way and get counting. Speaking of tag team matches, this game lacks a button to call your partner into the ring while he's waiting on the apron, which is very inconvenient. Also, I found it rather difficult to tag my partner or even willingly get out of the ring. The controls, as it seems, haven't been programmed that well, as you don't just tag your partner whenever you press the Z button within a foot or two of him. Instead, the game just has you tag your partner during a certain time that you press the Z button next to him. Also, you have to hold--instead of tapping--the control stick away from the ring while pressing the Y button to exit the ring. These both add to the inconvenience of the game.
Another nuisance with the game was that the computer-controlled opponents reverse your moves way too often. There was one occasion where, after I pulled off the almighty jackhammer with my created player and then proceeded to pick my opponent up and grapple him, he reversed my grapple, and went straight for the pedigree. This never happens in the real-life program, and is still annoying, regardless of the lack of realism. Speaking of realism, the game feels as if Yukes had worked way too hard to make the game as realistic as possible, which resulted in them failing miserably in the process. Trying to lift up the Big Show with, say, Rey Mysterio results in Rey having to repeatedly tap A to try to lift the big man up. While this is an interesting feature, it can be distracting and frustrating. Also, you could just give your created wrestler a stat that says he weighs "very heavy," and most superstars will have a hard time lifting you up while there is no effect on your character's speed. And, finally, the hit detection is off: sometimes, especially when you or your adversary try to hit each other with a running attack, the attacker will just go right through you, allowing you or your opponent to capitalize on this. Other example is when my computer-controlled tag team partner tried to stop my opponent from getting the three-count as they were pinning me: my partner was clearly trying to kick my opponent but kicked the mat instead, resulting in the W for the other tag team. A third example was when I tried some high-risk manuevers off the turnbuckle, which were going to hit my opponent, but instead, the move just seemed to push my opponent out of the way as my character tasted the mat. All of these inconveniences make for some frustrations, but you can still have some fun with the game if you're patient enough.
Graphics
The graphics in DoR have some polish, but they're just not as good as they could have been. There are plenty of video games on the Gamecube that just look better than DoR. Although, yes, they've been polished a bit since Wrestlemania XIX, there are also some minor clipping problems--some of them even appear to be a result of the hit detection problems the game has. The models look good, as aliasing doesn't seem to pose a problem and the superstars featured in the game look like they do in real life. But the textures and skins seem as if they were rushed, as they look plain and dull. Perhaps if the skins were just as good as the models, the graphics would have been more impressive, but they simply aren't. However, on the bright side, the lighting is excellent in the game and definitely makes up for the unimpressive looks of the superstars, as light shines off the character as they do in real life, and the certain dim lighting that some superstars have for their entrances really enhances the atmosphere (to see what I mean, watch The Undertaker's entrance). Lastly, some graphical slowdown happened at certain points, such as when my created player was walking to the ring as fireworks lit up the ramp, or when I was playing a tag-team ladder match, the ring littered with ladders. But, otherwise, the excellent models and lighting really help the graphics, in general, look great.
Audio
The soundtrack isn't that immersive, and you'll end up listening to Shocore's "Bonecracker" or Swollen Members' "Bottom Line" most of the time anyways. There is no voice commentary, let alone voices. As Ric Flair says his trademark "Woooooo!" you just see him saying it. You don't hear it. This hurts the overall feel of the game, but, then again, there hasn't been a Gamecube game to date with voice-overs. It could, however, use them. Meanwhile, in the ring, the sound effects feel solid, as you hear your opponent's face being buried into the mat, or as you perform an asai moonsault off the top turnbuckle to the outside of the ring, on top of your adversary, and you both make a big thud on the outside of the ring. The sound effects redeem the game's repetitive background music and lack of voice-overs.
Conclusion
The WWE Wrestlemania series for the Gamecube was always thought as a disappointing game. Day of Reckoning does feature some significant improvements when compared to the previous Gamecube grapplers. Day of Reckoning had the potential to be a superb game, but was held back by a lack of several things, such as a strong roster, voice-overs, and a strong Story mode, as well as its buggy AI. You can also say the dull skins kept the game from looking quite astonishing. However, the Create-A-Player mode, which is one of the best I've ever seen in a wrestling game, somewhat makes up for it. Although some WWE fanatics will be disappointed at Day of Reckoning's bad Story mode, while some players will be frustrated at Day of Reckoning's AI, the game is still a guilty pleasure, as well as the best Gamecube wrestling game to date. WWE fanatics should definitely purchase this one. However, everyone else should rent before they consider buying it. -- Troy Matautia, PGNx Media
---- Sep 6, 2004
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