Game:

WCW/nWo Thunder (1998)

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Playthrough of WCW/nWo Thunder on PSX as Bret "The Hitman" Hart on the WCW World Heavyweight ladder. In 1080p because yeah this game apparently needed it. Also, I once more get Hollywood Hogan as the final boss of this ladder, brotherdudejack.

Thunder is a direct sequel to WCW Nitro in that it is almost exactly the same game, just dressed up in WCW's Thursday night B-show nobody liked. There's a roster update too, new faces were added or pushed to the forefront. But the roster update does mean one important thing: the Big Bad Booty Daddy Scott Steiner is a playable superstar. Wish I chose him now because Unintelligible.gif.

Everyone also gets "Allegiances", translating to different costumes/colours. By default, for example, Sting's got that ugly red Wolfpac facepaint and only changing his alignment to the Four Horsemen do you get his classic black and white Crow facepaint.

Sadly the Irish Whip exploit was fixed, but at least now there's a proper grapple system in place, sorta. In that you can do all the previous moves like Triangle-Circle Piledrivers from the grapple position. The CPU also falls for these grapples a fair bit too. Weapons are also introduced but good luck trying to hit the AI with them, they almost always back away when you swing at them like their AI was coded by the old Mortal Kombat team. So I couldn't tell if I'd get DQ'ed for weapon use or not. Its dumb too, the AI tends to fall for simple things but get a weapon and suddenly they're unfuckingtouchable.

Cage Matches were added, though without an escape win condition so they're regular matches with added claustrophobia. There's also Battle Royals too which work as you expect. Eliminations are via being thrown over the top rope but you can leave the ring and not get eliminated too. Hey you're not going over the top rope by your own volition, right?

As for sound, the lame Thunder theme is in, submissions don't sound like apples anymore and there's a lot more commentary, albeit with Bobby Heenan gone and replaced with Mike Tenay.

Otherwise its very largely the same game with a roster update including the finisher system. In this case Bret's finisher, the good ol' reliable Sharpshooter, is a guaranteed win if you pull it off, and the CPU is nice enough to stay down long enough for me to try to perform it.

Wrestler entrance videos were added along with a VS splash screen which serves to prolong this 1CC arcade run compared to Nitro. Sadly as a consequence I think the individual post-arcade highlight reels got taken out. Love how I bet the game as Bret Hart and I get a generic compilation vid where he's in it for like a second. Which sadly is in line with how WCW horribly misused him.

The arena set dressing was improved though! Now every arena has a unique backdrop (Hope you like Road Wild tho!) instead of sharing the Nitro set. Speaking of though, no Nitro arena but I imagine they didn't want to curse us with the upcoming WOW war crime of a logo that was to come just yet.

The famous "Pick Me" promos return too. Now there's promos for 32 WCW superstars, not just the first page of them! Sadly none of the unlockables get them but yeah if you ever want to hear Jim Neidhart go psychotic, Sting accept WCW's fate and not even try, or Goldberg roaring while trying not to wake mummy and daddy, there you go.

Actually the pick me promos are part of why I picked Bret instead of Nash again. The same Kevin Nash who in the last game begged you to pick him, now says you're not good enough to play as him and to bugger off. So yeah if he doesn't want me using him I'll not. I chose Bret instead, giving him a better WCW run than WCW themselves gave him.

I think the removal of the whip exploit plus Thunder's lameass theme compared to Nitro's and the lazier ending is kind of why I prefer Nitro to this. Nitro's funnier.

Also did you know Nitro got an N64 and PC port that were just reskinned versions of Thunder? Maybe I'll look at them one day!

Anyway:

MEMORABLE MOMENTS:

*The very first match is Chris Benoit and I dread everything. Its sad too, I hear Bret and Benoit had some good work together back then.
*03:32 Bret lugs a CRT overhead like it was empty and futilely tries to hit Crispin with it.
*11:32 Big Poppa Pump runs in to save Curt Hennig. Yeah, at least I got the IRL Legendary Super Saiyan in this vid in some fashion.
*15:46 Bret futilely tries to brain Paul Wight with a barstool and gets Mortal Kombat AI'd for it.
*19:55 Ultimo Dragon suddenly barges in to save Booker T from Bret's wrath and nearly costs me the match. At least Thunder has a targeting system but that's TWO playthroughs where a Booker T match sees run-ins that nearly ruin my arcade run! How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice? And Ultimo Dragon's not even with Harlem Heat and Booker's never been at Toryumon!
*Hollywood Hogan as the final boss tapping out to the Sharpshooter. In real life that would not work for Hogan at all, brother. Remember WrestleMania 9?