Highlights
- The latest NXT No Mercy event paid tribute to the classic Nintendo 64 wrestling game WWF No Mercy, which still heavily influences modern wrestling games today.
- The enduring influence of WWF No Mercy can be seen in features like its single-player Championship mode, and recent games have tried to recreate its winning formula.
- The throwback intro for NXT No Mercy recreated WWF No Mercy's iconic intro video and character select screen, delighting fans of the game and showcasing its lasting legacy.
Wrestling fans got a bit more than they bargained for with the cold open for the latest NXT No Mercy event, which featured a loving homage to the classic Nintendo 64 wrestling game WWF No Mercy. Released on the Nintendo 64 in late 2000 and still regarded as a high-water mark for wrestling games by many fans, WWF No Mercy’s lasting legacy continues to heavily influence the genre to this day.
Created by Asmik Ace Entertainment and Aki Corporation, developers acclaimed for their work on wrestling games throughout the 1990s and 2000s, WWF No Mercy would become one of the highest-selling wrestling games on Nintendo’s legendary console. The enduring influence of features like WWF No Mercy’s single-player Championship mode, which let players experience a branching story where wins and losses determine the outcome, can still be felt in many modern wrestling games. In recent years games like Hyperfocus Games’ Ultra Pro Wrestling have attempted to recreate WWF No Mercy’s winning formula, offering players arcade-style action with stylized, decidedly old-school graphics.
Showing that love for WWF No Mercy reaches far beyond the world of gaming and even extends to the biggest wrestling events of today, the intro for WWE’s latest NXT No Mercy match paid homage to the beloved game. Opening with a player loading up a cartridge bearing an artfully obscured version of its logo, the footage transitions to a near picture-perfect recreation of WWF No Mercy’s intro video. As the names of modern wrestlers including Becky Lynch and Trick Williams scroll past, swapped in for icons like Kane and The Undertaker from the original, the NXT logo swirls in where the WWF logo once stood.
This delightfully retro callback isn’t just limited to the intro, though. As the trailer shows real-world footage of the various wrestlers taking part in NXT No Mercy’s headline matches, it’s interspersed with the competitors being chosen from a character select screen identical to the one in WWF No Mercy. Completing the clever homage are the bulky and angular, Nintendo 64-era character models displayed for each wrestler participating in the event. Given the fact that many fans of WWF No Mercy still sing the game’s praises, this impressive callback is sure to bring a smile to plenty of people watching the match at home.
The throwback intro for this year’s NXT No Mercy is a wonderful tribute to one of the greatest wrestling games of all time, showing how popular WWF No Mercy remains over two decades on from its original release. And while fans of the title may not see a new No Mercy game any time soon, at least this intro shows its legacy still lives on.
WWF No Mercy is available for Nintendo 64.