WWF In Your House
Release
1996
Format
Sony Playstation
Sega Saturn
PC
Time to look at the last WWF game to use digitized graphics.
Background
While the reaction to WWF Wrestlemania the arcade game was mixed. The good people at Acclaim decided that there should be a sequel. While Wrestlemania was a fighting game it still did have some wrestling roots. A decision was made that the sequel was to be even more over the top than Wrestlemania, and thus “In Your House” was born.
In the WWF Magazine they heavily hyped this game. They had really cool pictures of various wrestlers performing the motion capture for the game, and a whole lot of information. Some of which never happened, such as weapons being in the game, and outside interference. This was the last game of this type before Acclaim would move into making 3D wrestling games.
One of my fondest memories of this game was that a gaming magazine here in the UK posted this bogus cheat code that let you unlock Razor Ramon and Diesel. Well I must have tried to put that damn code in a million times. The next month the magazine pretty much admitted it was not true, and I am still pissed now thinking about it today.
Presentation
I feel like they really did try to give us something different with In Your House, but for me personally it just lost a great deal of the charm that made Wrestlemania special. There are ten wrestlers in this game, and the roster is really good. Each wrestler also has their own arena or stage if you prefer. While you still wrestle in a ring, the ring is no longer in a arena. For example British Bulldogs is set in England, Bret Harts is set in the famous Hart Family dungeon, Undertakers is in a mausoleum and so on. I can appreciate what they were going for, but I kind of just wish each wrestler had a basic wrestling arena with there own logos all over the place. I should probably add that in addition to the ten character specific stages there is also a real In Your House arena.
The digitized sprites somehow look worse than in Wrestlemania. They are really pixilated and blocky. The moves are pretty well animated, and the arenas do have some people in them that move around. I don’t know what it is but there is just something off about the whole thing. One really cool thing that I loved was the FMV video that would play at the start of the game. Also each wrestler had there own FMV video ending as well. Sound was really good, and all the wrestlers had there real theme songs, and the commentary was solid too.
Game Play
It is very similar to Wrestlemania, but it isn’t. I know that does not make much sense but its how I have always felt about this game. It controls the same, but it lacks the soul that Wrestlemania had. I loved how all eight characters really felt different in Wrestlemania. Here they all just feel the same. For example only certain wrestlers could lift people above there heads in Wrestlemania, but here everyone can do it.
The moves are even more over the top here. There still are wrestling moves, but there is more over the top crazy stuff. You will be doing moves like Bret Hart shooting lasers from his glasses to Owen Hart having a gun that shoots playing cards. I get what they were going for I really do, and if the game felt the same as Wrestlemania, then I would have loved it. There was also power ups that would land in the ring at random points. Silver ones would give you a boost, filling your combo meter for example. Red ones were bad, and would maybe take some of your life away.
One big feature this game introduced was the fatalities that were gong to be in Wrestlemania, but were cut. Each wrestler has there own fatality, and some of these are quite amusing and well thought of. Others are just weird, but truth be told I really love this feature. Undertaker will literally bury his opponent. Shawn Michaels will drop the set of his Heart Break Hotel on his opponent. You would perform these the same way you would a fatality in Mortal Kombat.
Intercontinental and WWF Championship mode would return from Wrestlemania, and they would follow the exact same formula. There was also a mode called “WWF Season”, and during development it was said that this mode would feature interviews and stuff like that, but this never happened. All season mode is is just a one on one match against the rest of the roster. Once you beat one of these modes you get a cool little FMV video of your chosen wrestler. I t was a nice ending that made you want to play through with everyone.
Final Thoughts
They really did try with In Your House, but it just is not as good as Wrestlemania. It’s nothing to do with it being more over the top either. Its just not as much fun to play. Perhaps if they had taken a bit longer to make the game things may have turned out a little better. I would not say I dislike this game at all, but given the choice I would much rather play Wrestlemania than this. At the time little did we know that it would be the better part of two years before we would get another WWF game.
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