History VideoGame / WWFNoMercy

''WWF No Mercy'' is a ProfessionalWrestling video game for the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} that was released on November 17, 2000 in North America, with a European release the following month; it was the last licensed wrestling game made by established developer AKI Corporation (now Syn Sophia), who had previously made the ''Virtual Pro Wrestling'' and ''WCW vs. nWo'' series along with ''[=WrestleMania=] 2000'' -- and would go on to make the Anime/UltimateMuscle[=/=]Manga/{{Kinnikuman}} games, the ''VideoGame/DefJamSeries'', and [[GenreAdultery two SimCity games]] for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS. It was also (along with ''WCW Backstage Assault'') the last wrestling game for the 5th Generation of console gaming, which happened to coincide with the end of wrestling's Wrestling/MondayNightWars era (and the WWF's Wrestling/AttitudeEra).

** Certain grapple holds are no longer as powerful as they were before. The Chokeslam from Hell, previously from B-rank, is now C-rank (it still keeps the KO chance). The Death Valley Driver (Pimp Drop in [=WM2000=]) is no longer a finisher and is now downgraded from an A-Rank to C-Rank.

** This game took place during the time period when The Stooges (Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco) were using Wrestling/{{Hulk Hogan}}'s taunts and theme music, and this was included in the game. Similarly, although Big Show was removed, his "Showster" attire[[note]]Big Show was briefly given a gimmick where he did unflattering impressions of other wrestlers prior to being sent back to developmental - one of them was Hulk Hogan[[/note]] remained in the game.

* BreathWeapon: Fireball and Poison Mist. UpToEleven with Misty Frankensteiner, which combines the latter with another move.

* WhenEldersAttack: In Tag Team Championship mode (if you don't start as the champion), Mae Young and Fabulous Moolah are the first team to come out and challenge you. If you choose to play as Moolah and Mae in Tag Team Championship Mode, Paul Bearer and ''Howard Finkle'' take their place.

** In story mode when competing for the Women's Title, one of the last matches has Triple H fight you for it.

* BaitAndSwitch: The tail end of a Heavyweight Championship Defence has Vince promising to bring out his "walking weapon". "The Lethal Weapon" is Wrestling/SteveBlackman's RedBaron, and we're led to think that Vince has paid for the martial artist's services but immediately after this, Vince reveals that he has enlisted the services of a feared, long-dead and most importantly [[TheGiant HUGE]] wrestler.
->'''Vince''': ANDRE!!

* FinalBoss: Andre The Giant serves as the final opponent you face in a Heavyweight Title Defense, serving as Vince’s “walking weapon”. It’ll take a few [[FinishingMove finishers]] to take him down for the count.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The game features an impressive roster that's bolstered by unlockable characters like Wrestling/{{Vince McMahon}} and even Wrestling/AndreTheGiant. Headshots and create-a-wrestler pieces were included for a few characters who didn't get included in the game, including Wrestling/{{Raven}}.

** Running moves in general. You can now grab opponents while running, making opponents think twice on just spamming the block button when you run. If they try to block while you run-grab, the grab succeeds.
** Weapons. Instead of weapons disappearing after losing it, the weapons get dropped and can be picked up again later or thrown out.

** B Grapple Moves. You can no longer give a B-leveled move to weak grapples. The game now separates weak grapple moves with the strong grapple moves. You need to take more effort to hold A for a strong grapple if you want to do the more powerful moves.

''No Mercy'' was set at the pinnacle of the Attitude Era, and years later is something of a time capsule to that period in wrestling history. It was the first game in the series to include a fleshed-out career mode, replacing the "win a gauntlet of matches against the computer" ExcusePlot found in previous entries. Players could select any title division and follow storylines that actually happened in real life, with the storylines branching and diverging based on wins and losses, and player decisions. It also featured a gigantic roster bolstered by many hidden characters, though completely excluding Wrestling/BigShow [[note]]At the time, Show was sent to developmental territory OVW while the game was in development in order to lose weight and improve his cardiovascular fitness; his position in the storylines was taken by [[Wrestling/StevieRichards Steven Richards]][[/note]. It also had the largest selection to date of possible match types; this combined with a relatively shallow learning curve contributed to the game's cherished multiplayer feature. On the downside, ''No Mercy'' suffered from a major bug - the first few production runs of the game shipped with a defect built into the game's code that wiped all the save data after a set amount of time; as a result, the bug's in nearly every known ROM of the game [[note]]Look for a V1.1, or Rev A, preferably of the NTSC variety as this one never had blood stripped for censorship unlike at least one European build[[/note]].

''No Mercy'' was set at the pinnacle of the Attitude Era, and years later is something of a time capsule to that period in wrestling history. It was the first game in the series to include a fleshed-out career mode, replacing the "win a gauntlet of matches against the computer" ExcusePlot found in previous entries. Players could select any title division and follow storylines that actually happened in real life, with the storylines branching and diverging based on wins and losses, and player decisions. It also featured a gigantic roster bolstered by many hidden characters. It also had the largest selection to date of possible match types; this combined with a relatively shallow learning curve contributed to the game's cherished multiplayer feature. On the downside, ''No Mercy'' suffered from a major bug - the first few production runs of the game shipped with a defect built into the game's code that wiped all the save data after a set amount of time; as a result, the bug's in nearly every known ROM of the game [[note]]Look for a V1.1, or Rev A, preferably of the NTSC variety as this one never had blood stripped for censorship unlike at least one European build[[/note]].

THQ published spiritual sequels to ''No Mercy'' for the Gamecube in ''[=WrestleMania=] X8'', ''Wrestling/WrestleMania XIX'' and the two ''Day of Reckoning'' games. AKI's ''Def Jam'' games -- especially ''Fight For New York'' -- are also considered spiritual sequels, since the engine used for those games was remarkably similar to the ''No Mercy'' engine.

** Piledrivers. This game came out about the same time that WWF started banning piledrivers in real-life due to their propensity for causing injuries, and yet in this game, the basic piledriver is only an E-rank move and a couple others are D-rank.

** Mae Young and The Fabulous Moohlah were given the Jackhammer as their front grapple finisher and the Scorpion Death Drop as their back grapple finisher. Those were of course the finishing moves of top Wrestling/{{WCW}} stars Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} and Wrestling/{{Sting}.

* AscendedExtra: Weirdly enough, your created characters can and usually will be more powerful than the RealLife wrestlers, since you can give them all the best advantages (i.e. highest speed, submission expert, highest endurance etc.) and utilize all available Attack/Defense points, which, in the interests of balance and realism, even the most powerful main eventers don't.

** Mae Young and The Fabulous Moohlah were given The Jackhammer as their front grapple finisher and the Scorpion Death Drop as their back grapple finisher. Those were of course the finishing moves of top Wrestling/{{WCW}} stars Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} and Wrestling/{{Sting}}a finishing move. The Jackhammer was the finishing move of {{Wrestling/WCW}} star {{Wrestling/Goldberg}}. They were also given Wrestling/{{Sting}}'s Scorpion Death Drop.

** This game took place during the time period when The Stooges (Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco) were using Wrestling/{{Hulk Hogan}}'s taunts and theme music, and this was included in the game.

* FanDisservice: Since this game doesn't care about wrestler gender, you can play as a man in the Women's Championship story. There's a swimsuit competition in the story. He ''will'' put on the skimpiest bikini in the game and strut around in it. Doubles down if you are using Create-A-Wrestler as well since you can do the same.

The game doesn't restrict your character selection either - you can play as a female wrestler and win the World

* DummiedOut:
** Unlike ''[=WrestleMania 2000=]'' and ''[=WCW/nWo Revenge=]'' before that, entrances are limited to just the stage taunt - the walk to the ring and the ring taunt were cut. This was because the game was getting too big for the cartridge to handle and rather than make the unpopular N64 Expansion Pack required to play they cut some memory-draining bells and whistles.
** The Japanese version featured a shootfighting mechanic, where the B button on a strong grapple allowed you to perform a custom combo. To be fair, the shootfighting had been dummied out of [=WrestleMania=] 2000 as well, although it could be seen in ''WCW Revenge'' (most notably in Goldberg and Wrestling/UltimoDragon's movesets).

** Mae Young and The Fabulous Moohlah were given The Jackhammer as a finishing move. The Jackhammer was the finishing move of {{Wrestling/WCW}} star {{Wrestling/Goldberg}}. They were also given Wrestling/{{Sting}}'s Scorpion Death Drop.

* WouldHitAGirl: One of the last matches for the Women's Title has Triple H fight you for it. The game doesn't restrict your character selection either - you can play as a female wrestler and win the World Title. Or you can play as a male character, beat up a bunch of girls like a jerk and win the Women's Title if you prefer.
** In the Tag Team storyline, your very first match has you fighting Mae Young and Fabulous Moolah. Although to be fair, they challenge you and not the other way around.

''No Mercy'' was set at the pinnacle of the Attitude Era, and years later is something of a time capsule to that period in wrestling history. It was the first game in the series to include a fleshed-out career mode, replacing the "win a gauntlet of matches against the computer" ExcusePlot found in previous entries. Players could select any title division and follow storylines that actually happened in real life, with the storylines branching and diverging based on wins and losses, and player decisions. It also featured a gigantic roster bolstered by many hidden characters, though completely excluding Wrestling/BigShow [[note]]At the time, Show was sent to developmental territory OVW while the game was in development in order to lose weight and improve his cardiovascular fitness; his position in the storylines was taken by [[Wrestling/StevieRichards Steven Richards]][[/note]]. It also had the largest selection to date of possible match types; this combined with a relatively shallow learning curve contributed to the game's cherished multiplayer feature. On the downside, ''No Mercy'' suffered from a major bug - the first few production runs of the game shipped with a defect built into the game's code that wiped all the save data after a set amount of time; as a result, the bug's in nearly every known ROM of the game [[note]]Look for a V1.1, or Rev A, preferably of the NTSC variety as this one never had blood stripped for censorship unlike at least one European build[[/note]].

* BadassDecay: Most piledrivers got this, not just in No Mercy but for the entire series. This game came out about the same time that WWF started banning piledrivers in real life, and yet in this game, the basic piledriver is only an E-rank move and a couple others are D-rank.

* DummiedOut: Unlike ''[=WrestleMania 2000=]'' and ''[=WCW/nWo Revenge=]'' before that, entrances are limited to just the stage taunt - the walk to the ring and the ring taunt were cut. This was because the game was getting too big for the cartridge to handle and rather than make the unpopular N64 Expansion Pack required to play they cut some memory-draining bells and whistles.

** Certain grapple holds are no longer as powerful as they were before. The Chokeslam from Hell, previously from B-rank, is now C-rank (it still keeps the KO chance). The Death Valley Driver (Pimp Drop in WM2000) is no longer a finisher and is now downgraded from an A-Rank to C-Rank.
* PeriodPiece: Becoming one of the Attitude Era. The championship modes follow various storylines that actually happened quite closely, and the [=CAW=] feature reflects how much more popular long hair was than short hair at the time. More negatively, the lack of Lucha masks reflects WWF's belief at the time that most fans weren't interested in masked wrestlers and cruiserweights.

* [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Nerf Nerf]]: Mainly on Create-A-Wrestler's features:

* BreathWeapon: Fireball and Poison Mist.

* BreathWeapon: The Fireball move.

* PlayingWithFire: The Fireball move. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin You spit a fireball at your opponent's face.]]

* ShownTheirWork: The difference between No Mercy and the previous [=WrestleMania=] 2000 really is amazing. The championship career storylines are accurate abridged retellings of the hot feuds of the past year such as the [=McMahon-Helmsley=] era, and this was one of the games that is greatly improved by having branching storylines depending on your decisions and win-loss record. The midi music is amazing, with full and accurate themes for several wrestlers and really impressive versions for everybody else, and the moves, taunts and outfits are pretty accurate missing only a few months before the game's release.

** The weak grapples on the A button are the most basic moves, but can't be reversed, so they're also useful (If you can manage to actual grapple the computer without them reversing in the first place, that is). On the other hand the weak A grapples raise the defender's spirit rather than lowering it like other offensive moves, so it's a bad idea to rely on them too heavily.

* GuideDangIt: No Mercy neglected to include instructions in the manual on how to control a guest referee, and the referee actions were performed through the otherwise unutilized right arrow button. Checking for a submission is unintuitive as well - the button has to be pressed once so the ref gets in position to watch, and then pressed again while the wrestler is in the process of tapping out.
** The game features a limb-specific damage system and a fairly dynamic balance system (Which were later used in the Smackdown! games) - but there's no indication given anywhere in the manual or the game that this is the case. The onscreen Attitude meter is pretty much just a spirit gauge and only gives a vague idea of the progress of the match - it's quite possible to have your character submit or be pinned seemingly out of nowhere, or to pin someone whose meter reads "DANGER!" and have them kick out on a 1-count.

* BoringButPractical: The move where you're outside the ring, your opponent's inside, and you reach in and pull them out (or if they're facing away from you, trip them) isn't blockable or reversable, and even on extreme difficulty the computer's AI isn't very good at avoiding it. Exploiting this is helpful to overcome the computer ones it goes into Reverse Everything Mode.

** B Grapple Moves. You can no longer give a B-leveled move to weak grapples. The game now separates weak grapple moves with the strong grapple moves, so yeah. You need to take more effort to hold A for a strong grapple.

** Running moves in general. You can now grab opponents while running, making opponents think twice on just spamming the block button when you run. if they try to block while you run-grab, the grab succeeds.