WWE Day of Reckoning delivers a surprisingly satisfying wrestling experience on the GameCube. It features a fun, fast-paced combat system that's easy to pick up but offers surprising depth for dedicated fans. The game's unique story mode lets you create your own wrestler and rise through the WWE ranks, adding a compelling element to the action. While the lack of voice acting and limited roster compared to Smackdown titles are drawbacks, WWE Day of Reckoning is a solid choice for wrestling enthusiasts seeking a GameCube-exclusive alternative.
BASS!!!!
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?????
DEATH ROW?!?!?!?!
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?????
DEATH ROW?!?!?!?!
This review contains spoilers
Follows in the path set by WM X8 for the gamecube with obvious improvements to graphics, roster, and gameplay
Followed the smackdown story but based on certain events I feel like raw may be the canon story line (John cean in his heel turn does pretty much the sweet chin music?)
When I finished the story line it had a count of show 35 (@ wrestlemainia) so roughly add that plus 10 or so for matches on heat or velocity and then another 5-10 for the house show matches
I would compair this to roughly the first smackdown vs raw game for the ps2 which I think beats out the first day or reckoning. You have the shop zone which really only contains CAW parts and moves plus some more weapons and arenas
You unlock hidden wrestlers throughout the main story but I don't know how I unlocked them or if I got them just by beating the story throughout, I also don't know if I go back and play the smackdown side would I get different characters or the same ones
There's unfortunately not much to do outside of the main story so unless you have a friend or just like the gameplay of it there's not much here after the fact of beating the main story which doesn't have much replayability outside of picking raw or smackdown over the other
I did beat this on the steam deck emulating the gamecube
Solid game but not much to come back to 3 1/2 ***
Followed the smackdown story but based on certain events I feel like raw may be the canon story line (John cean in his heel turn does pretty much the sweet chin music?)
When I finished the story line it had a count of show 35 (@ wrestlemainia) so roughly add that plus 10 or so for matches on heat or velocity and then another 5-10 for the house show matches
I would compair this to roughly the first smackdown vs raw game for the ps2 which I think beats out the first day or reckoning. You have the shop zone which really only contains CAW parts and moves plus some more weapons and arenas
You unlock hidden wrestlers throughout the main story but I don't know how I unlocked them or if I got them just by beating the story throughout, I also don't know if I go back and play the smackdown side would I get different characters or the same ones
There's unfortunately not much to do outside of the main story so unless you have a friend or just like the gameplay of it there's not much here after the fact of beating the main story which doesn't have much replayability outside of picking raw or smackdown over the other
I did beat this on the steam deck emulating the gamecube
Solid game but not much to come back to 3 1/2 ***
One of the best stories in wrestling games. The game play is solid and feels great. The create-a-wrestler is still good. The music is excellent. The problem is the loading, as changing a single item in the create-a-wrestler takes a good 30-40 seconds. Also, there is a lot of button mashing and it gets infuriating. cage matches and ladder matches are just horrible for this reason, especially with multiple enemies. Its a blast of a game, but its age is really starting to show
Still my favorite wrestling game. Unmatched character creation. I literally made Goku and Darth Vader.
One of my favorite wrestling games of all time. For a Gamecube game, this is probably the most visually appealing game of that generation of consoles. It also keeps true to the old N64 games with the momentum meter.
Astonishing amounts of customization, you can literally spend hours tweaking your wrestlers entrance, choreographing fireworks as they make their way down the ramp!
Able to go so in depth with creating moves you will spend literal hours hand wringing which version of which suplex would be better for your strong grapple!
No matter how hard I try though no wrestler I make is half as cool as Rob Van Dam
Amazing soundtrack that is the peak of the early 2000s I still think of "I'M THE BONE CRACKA I'M THE BACK ATTACK-A"
The gameplay is super fast, hitting a finisher makes the camera go sicko mode and go slo mo for a second so you can really appreciate your own dipshit idea of doing a frog splash to the outside of the ring onto a guy through a table!
This game is still a bench mark in my opinion for what Wrestling Games are meant to be! Stuffed to the gills with options to mess with the set dressing and sheer violence possible!
FIIIIIREFLYYY COULD YOU SHINE YOUR LIGHT
CAUSE I HATE YOUR WAYS
CAUSE THEY'RE JUST LIKE MIIINE!
Able to go so in depth with creating moves you will spend literal hours hand wringing which version of which suplex would be better for your strong grapple!
No matter how hard I try though no wrestler I make is half as cool as Rob Van Dam
Amazing soundtrack that is the peak of the early 2000s I still think of "I'M THE BONE CRACKA I'M THE BACK ATTACK-A"
The gameplay is super fast, hitting a finisher makes the camera go sicko mode and go slo mo for a second so you can really appreciate your own dipshit idea of doing a frog splash to the outside of the ring onto a guy through a table!
This game is still a bench mark in my opinion for what Wrestling Games are meant to be! Stuffed to the gills with options to mess with the set dressing and sheer violence possible!
FIIIIIREFLYYY COULD YOU SHINE YOUR LIGHT
CAUSE I HATE YOUR WAYS
CAUSE THEY'RE JUST LIKE MIIINE!
Skip this one, just play the second.
this game is simply better than everyother wrestling game, even no mercy.
Played as Kurt Angle and got my ass kicked by the ref.
Gamecube exclusive wrestling game with gameplay derived from the N64 AKI classics. Has a cool story where you start as a rookie working your way up through the WWE ranks, joining up with either Triple H or the Undertaker.
One of my fav wrestling games cuz the soundtrack was bussin asf. Shoutout to breaking benjamin fr dawg 😻
This game is literally how I learned about Breaking Benjamin please don't tell my friends that I still bump Firefly and Polyamorous unironically.
No Mercy is great, but Day of Reckoning is almost the perfect clone/successor to the AKI N64 wrestling games, due to the similar control scheme with grapples and strikes and the ability to spam finishers as many times as possible in 30-seconds among other things. It takes the classic AKI game formula and modernizes it by making the DOR games play at a faster pace, allows for any move to be broken up with any move, a momentum shift mechanic where you can switch your health and spirit status with your opponent, and lets you store up to 3 finisher states among other aspects (yeah, you could literally hit 9 finishers on someone!) The enjoyable story mode and great Create-A-Wrestler mode with a Paint tool for creating logos has given me hours of enjoyment.
Biggest drawback is that being a Gamecube game, it lacks in modes and features compared to the PS2 SmackDown games. No championship defenses or title matches outside of story mode. Very limited roster with only 5 or so divas. Limited CAW slots (about 16) and somewhat long load times. Match types are also pretty typical. You have Cage, Table, Ladder, Hell in a Cell and Hardcore which can be played in Single and Multi-man variants, but anything more special than that like Slobberknocker, Backstage Brawl and 3 Stages of Hell don't exist. Amazingly fun wrestling game that would be the G.O.A.T. with the features of a Smackdown game!
Biggest drawback is that being a Gamecube game, it lacks in modes and features compared to the PS2 SmackDown games. No championship defenses or title matches outside of story mode. Very limited roster with only 5 or so divas. Limited CAW slots (about 16) and somewhat long load times. Match types are also pretty typical. You have Cage, Table, Ladder, Hell in a Cell and Hardcore which can be played in Single and Multi-man variants, but anything more special than that like Slobberknocker, Backstage Brawl and 3 Stages of Hell don't exist. Amazingly fun wrestling game that would be the G.O.A.T. with the features of a Smackdown game!
TURN IT UP
BRING THE NOISE
BRING THE NOISE
It's been 16 years and I still think about how horseshit it was when the game put you in the ring against Ric Flair in an unwinnable fight. I could literally kick his ass irl