WWF No Mercy

Gameplay

Some of the features included in WrestleMania 2000 were removed from No Mercy. First, wrestlers' entrances were cut short to showing the wrestler only appear on the stage/entrance ramp, and players never see wrestlers actually enter the ring (despite early screen shots showing full ring entrances). For example, Triple H is shown spitting water at the crowd upon entering the ring. The belt options were also changed; rather than creating a belt from scratch, players now have to complete a story mode to win a title.

However, No Mercy features a much more extensive Create-a-Wrestler mode with more moves, more customizable body attributes, better-organized clothing options (No Mercy utilizes descriptive categories and titles for each clothing item, whereas WrestleMania 2000 simply numbers items), and the ability to create female wrestlers, which is nearly impossible in WrestleMania 2000. Each wrestler in the game has four different ring attires that could be independently edited, and each attire can be completely changed including name, height and weight, body parts, and music, technically allowing four different wrestlers per slot, although they must share a common moveset. Several of the game's unlockable wrestlers used this feature, such as Taka Michinoku who has his partner Funaki in two attire slots. The graphics also were improved significantly over the game's predecessor, and various match types made their Nintendo 64 debut in this game, including ladder matches and special referee matches. The game also marked the first time on the system in a WWF game that players could fight backstage and also the first time moves can be done on the announcer's table. Many parts of the backstage environment are usable, such as being able to hit the opponent with a pool stick and driving them through the pool table in the bar/lounge.

The Championship mode is more extensive, compared to WrestleMania's career/Road to Wrestlemania mode. Each WWF title features a unique story. For the WWF Championship, players can choose any wrestler to reenact the classic feud between Mankind and Triple H that dominated the WWF in early to mid-2000. Other angles include Stone Cold Steve Austin's feud and The Rock's temporary alliance with Vince McMahon. After winning a title, the player can replay the story mode and defend the newly acquired belt in a variety of new storylines. Also, unlike future wrestling games, players are allowed to fight for and defend any championship in the exhibition mode, a feature that was not included again until Smackdown Vs RAW 2006.

The story mode's depth is due in part to its branching storylines that develop based on the outcomes of the player's matches. In WrestleMania 2000, if the player lost a match in the career mode, the game only allowed the player to retry the match, rather than adjusting the storyline accordingly. No Mercy's story mode offers branching storylines based on the outcomes of matches. The player has to actually play through each story several times and lose matches in order to achieve a 100% completion rating.

Another notable feature that was added to the game is the "SmackDown! Mall." With money earned from winning matches in story mode and playing the Survival mode, players can purchase unlockable characters, clothing, wrestling moves, props, tattoos, weapons, and venues.

Memory issues

Launch copies of No Mercy suffered from a bug which erased saved content, including created wrestlers, championship story modes, and game saves. The bug was corrected in later production runs.

Reception

The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.

Game Boy Color version

A sister game also titled WWF No Mercy was planned for the Game Boy Color (GBC). The GBC version was planned to utilize the N64's Transfer Pak to help unlock more features. This included an extra unlockable CAW slot and an extra GBC option in Championship mode. Unlike the GBC game for WrestleMania 2000, the GBC version of No Mercy was planned to be developed by AKI, rather than Natsume. The game was eventually canceled, but the modes can still be unlocked in the game through a cheat device. A similar idea of linking a portable port to the console port would eventually be used in WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006, for unlocking Jake "The Snake" Roberts on the PlayStation 2.