It's hard not to write the same review for this game that's not the same as my WWF Attitude review (
http://www.epinions.com/game-review-15A2-138A74B2-39453A72-prod1) I mean ECW Hardcore is almost exacly like WWF Attitude that if Acclaim can get away with pawning this off as a "new game" then I can re-hash my Attitude review for this game. I won't tho. You people deserve better, even if Acclaim doesn't feel the same way.
ECW stands for Extreme Championship Wrestling. The wrestlers in this league take more bodily punishment then that time you wore a pink button up shirt with white ruffles on the cuffs to your first day in a new school.I should also mention that I really like ECW when it's not printed on a Dreamcast disk. Trying to capture the hardcore feel of the real ECW into this game is done horribly. It's as if you tried to tell your friend a story about a bar room brawl in a strip club using no adjectives and water color paintings. Your friend is going to have no idea what your talking about and neither will anyone that doesn't know the real ECW.
The graphics on this game make you wonder how many people got fired and now have to turn to a life of crime to survive. All the ECW favorites are here including RVD (Rob Van Dame) this federations answer to "The Rock" or Goldberg. They look enough like the real people for you not to stick your CD in the microwave but there are plenty of other reasons to nuke the disk. One of the big selling points for this game was that it said it had blood in it. Imagine...cracking a head open and seeing them juice all over the mat. It's almost good enough for me to get excites. Instead of looking like blood it looks more like his opponent drew on him with a fat red magic marker. The blood always comes from the same place on the body too. No horrible random cuts and gashes, it just gets brighter the more there is. It really doesn't matter because the only one bleeding will be your controlled wrestler, much like if you threw a drink on Mike Tyson in his hometown bar on his birthday.
The crowd animation is horrid and that's being kind. They look like those 20 dollar cut outs in a comic book store window in a poor section of town. No matter what you think you know about how to play video games ECW Hardcore proves you wrong. No, wait. It doesn't just prove you wrong, it embarrasses you for even wanting to play it.
The sound is almost as annoying as the stiff movement of the wrestlers. The pre-match smack talking has all the people's classic lines but the delivery is way off from the mouth movement. You probably won't hear this too often because it's after one of the slowest painfully long ring entrances for each wrestler ever. Sure they have the music for each person but the length of time it takes them to get to the ring is like in the opening ceremonies at the Olympics when every country with a population of more then 10 people come into the main arena waving a flag and smiling. I'd rather watch that because it's shorter. The crowd cheers and boos the combatants but I'd rather have a better control system then hear some drunk hill billy hoot and holler.
The control. You would have a better chance of beating Larry Bird in a 3 point shooting contest with a backpack filled with bricks and old Atari cartridges then you would trying to learn the way the moves in this game are done. By the time you even get a hold of your opponent he's already given you so many slaps you'd think you were Tina Turner after throwing out Ike's mail. The game does pack in alot of weapons to make your attacker fall into submission but the truth is you'll be the only one getting a beating and any contact with a guy your facing off agianst is compleatly coincidental.
I don't really like giving out "1's" to products but Acclaim deserves it for making me play the same game twice. If WWF Attitude is a steaming hot cow pie then ECW Hardcore is a steaming hot cow pie somebody is trying to shove in your mouth.
