https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/189364630396/oldgamemags-egm-124-nov-1999-seejackboyer
WCW Mayhem is a wrestling game that was released in 1999 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. It was also released the following year for the Game Boy Color. In a number of ways, it was innovative in the sense that it included ideas and features never before used in this type of game. But in other ways, it was just a really crappy game.
It included WCWs complete set of venues and shows at the time. It also included a number of other firsts including backstage areas and audio commentary. Perhaps its most unique and interesting feature though was the ability to unlock real-life match line-ups. A code would be provided on Monday Nitro a week before the actual pay-per-view event which could be used to unlock the same match-ups in the game. Of course, playing the game now you lose a little of that anticipation I suppose.
However, despite WCW Mayhem’s notable firsts, the game itself just wasn’t very good. There weren’t many moves and the collision detection wasn’t great either. To be fair, other than the collision detection, the graphics were pretty good and the animation smooth, at least for the time. For those interested in wrestling games it is worth giving a try but just don’t expect great things. The PlayStation version is probably the slightly better version as it has more complete commentary and better sound and music in general.
As a side note, WCW Mayhem represents the first time a Pay-Per-View event was named after a game as opposed to the other way around. There were two Mayhem events in 1999 and 2000. Screen shots above are from the PlayStation version of the game.
