2000 and WCW/NWO Revenge) and is a blast to play either by yourself or with up to three friends in multiplayer mode. This game holds an unbelievable number of wrestlers from the WWF stables: staples of Raw is War and Smackdown like Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock, Essa Rios and Crash Holly.

For your wrestling pleasure, the game houses all of the house venues as well as the pay-per-view setups like the Royal Rumble, Backlash, and most importantly Wrestlemania. The matches from Wrestlemania 2000 remain (triple threat matches, tag team matches, Royal Rumbles…) with a few 

additions like the amazing ladder matches (can go tag team also to relieve the Hardy Boys vs. Edge and Christian for the tag titles), the Guest Referee singles matches, Last Man Standing matches, and the vastly improved Hardcore matches. In the revamped Hardcore matches, action can now leave the ring and go backstage into locker rooms, a bar, or a parking garage; but most importantly, they fixed the weapons. No more of those hit the guy and the weapon disappears… the weapon falls to the ground to be used again, which is especially fun with the steel stair which you can now suplex people into and hear the metal shriek when it happens. But the best surprise is the addition of breakable tables - nothing quite as fun as pedigreeing someone through a pool table or delivering the Rock Bottom to someone through the announce table.

No Mercy added something, which I believe, was overdue. They addressed the fact that wrestlers have changed clothing and personas over the years by including additional clothing and entrances so if you play as Bull Bucannan, he can be either Bossman's stooge in riot gear or as a member of Right to Censor and appear in a suit and tie. Obviously, the alternative forms of clothing that wrestlers wear are also available in the select a character menu.

The best adjustment to the game is the career mode. Unlike Wrestlemania 2000, where you had to sit through a year of matches with no rhyme or reason, the matches now have a more structured design. You develop enemies and feud with them through a series of matchups where they and you get involved in the others' matches - a much better setup especially with the cutscenes where the wrestlers talk smack about each other.

By playing the career mode you earn money (not real money - I don't think that would be a good business strategy) to spend in the Smackdown Mall. Money can be saved for the create-a-wrestler option where you can buy moves, outfits, and weapons. The career mode is used to free up "hidden" wrestlers like the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels, Andre the Giant, and Ken Shamrock as well as the hidden pay-per-view venues. This addition is much improved over the requirements of remaining undefeated over the last career mode and winning the belt in Wreslemania (I spent the better part of a week to get HBK).

I have only a few complaints about the game - namely the same grainy videos during the entrances, especially when you were slow in hitting the skip button and have to watch the entire movie when it starts. The most distressing gameplay issue is the slowdown whenever more than two wrestlers are in a 

match - the game really tears with just two people, but choose a guest referee match and the action slows down a notch. The music seems to have taken a turn for the worse in this installment - it made me cringe so much that I actually hit mute on the TV, I couldn't find the no music setting on the game. The lack of the Hell in the Cell is distressing especially when it was included in Smackdown 2 for the Playstation (bloody wrong to faithful N64 gamers I tell you) and the absence of the Big Show is wrong, especially if you're going to include that waste of space Mark Henry. No Mercy is fun to play but I wouldn't recommend going out and buying it if you purchased Wrestlemania 2000, the additions really aren't that amazing - just a little more fun.

Reviewed by Tazman