I remember playing the N64 version once. I was Sting, taking on Kevin Nash. Nash kept doing his signature taunt and wouldn't stop, like the game was broken or something, all the while Tony Schiavone kept yelling "BIG SEXY!!!" nonstop everytime Nash taunted. To make matters worse, my guy (Sting) became frozen and I had to quit the match. It was either that or continue listening to Schiavone scream "BIG SEXY!!!" for an eternity.

This game came out 3 weeks before Smackdown 2, a game which has, among other things, more backstage areas.

People can't make an argument about graphics when Smackdown 1 & 2 look so much better than Backstage Assault, with or without upscale.

One thing you’ll never hear in real life ever. That is in this game. “WHAT A MOVE BY DAVID FLAIR!!!”

I thought backstage assault was what Pat Patterson was accused of

I have it for the 64. Many nights I have played this game under the influence of alcohol.

When you showed the Rey Mysterio model, my first thought was “huh, I didn’t know Kurt Angle worked for WCW”

I see this game as a blessing in disguise. While it is godawful, it did make me appreciate certain wrestlers like L.A. Park, Chris Candido, Norman Smiley, The Hardcore Revolution, and Vampiro a whole lot more.

The visual of Jimmy Hart dominating Tank Abbott is almost as hilarious as those crappy wrestler models.

"It's Stoooooooooooong!!!" - Tony Schiavone

My personal expectations for this as a kid were so low and yet they still missed the mark. All I wanted was a more polished version of Mayhem that had Vampiro, Daffney, Crowbar, Lance Storm and so on in it. If they could of just done that- Mayhem with an updated roster and MAYBE some new locker room locations for all the younger siblings who couldn’t seem to keep the match in the ring. But much like the actual WCW, it had no clue how to pull off simple expectations of fans

Such a shame that we didn't get a decent wcw game after revenge. I was a wcw guy from 94-99. I get that we can use mods and stuff but a genuine wcw game, with the full roster, schiavone and brain on commentary, mean gene on mic, Michael buffer the MC in modern graphics would be unreal.

I guessed Chris Kanyons character as the Giant and Vince Russo just scared the Hell outta me 😂

They really should have gone for something similar to Power Stone for a backstage only wrestling game, something quick and arcadey. trying to go the sim route would have never worked.

oh man this game was headache inducing when I played it as a kid. But those t-shirts you're selling look spectacular! I know what I'll be asking for for my birthday in March!!!! thank you for wasting so much of your precious free time to give all of us a solid review of this abysmal game!

So, to unlock Eric Bischoff you have to unlock Vince Russo first and to unlock Bret Hart you have to wrestle 35 matches. Brilliant idea.

An end of life cycle product for both WCW AND the ps1/n64 generation. You've made me grateful i never bit on this one back in the day haha

This is a Certified Hood Classic …….. 🔥

That split second of Stacey Keibler unlocked some very, very special memories. God bless the Miss Hancock storyline.

I had this game on a copy and paid £5 for it. I still felt like I got robbed. And I was a die hard WCW fan. I do remember hearing the game was developed in 6 months by a tiny group of people and they copy and pasted the credits from Mayhem, when in reality it was only developed by a small team.

That's a good-looking handheld device you got there. Looks smooth. 😮

I do like how they went for true authenticity and gave Nash his tiny skinny chicken legs like he always had IRL.

15:05 this freeze frame has to be soul crushing for Lance Storm.

I play this game before I thought it was gonna be the greatest game ever and after I finished I questioned my life choices

Had it on N64. Hated how editing a wrestler took up a CAW spot. I had to leave DDP wearing slippers.

I remember when this came out as a kid, even though it was a terrible game, I actually really enjoyed it and completed it too. Also, 'Stong' haha.

To quote a video game poet: What were they thinking?

7:40 "Heres Scott Oh Jesus! Heres Scott Hall..." 😂😂😂😂😂😂

My jaw dropped at Vince Russo. That looked horrible and I’m fairly sure that’s not even his face for the scan.

Imagine asking for No Mercy and getting this.

The Vince Russo character looks like Bone saw in Spider-Man

Since it’s life cycle is coming to an end it would be great to see you talk about wwe 2k19

How can I forget about WCW Backstage Assault? It was one of my Christmas presents, from back in the day. Granted, it wasn't one of my favorites, but still...

To think how much better Yukes’ “outside the arena” areas in Shut Your Mouth and Here Comes The Pain were, and they were _optional_ .

Vince Russo being included in the game or any game for that matter is hilarious.

Me and my friends had so much fun with WCW vs NWO on N64. It was awesome lol

Man I must have been really patient to complete this game 100 percent lol

I remember buying this with my own money. 50$ I played it and then cried to my mother and told her what they had done to me and she gave me my money back and I never played the game again. That ugly blue cartridge got tossed in the closet.

I didn't even bother looking at this game. I was playing Wrestlemania2000 and No Mercy.

This was…strangely one of the first Wrestling Bios videos I ever watched like a year ago. Suggestions brought me to it again and as far entertainment value, it’s still one of my favorites because of your reactions to the gameplay and graphics. Hall and Hogan’s appearance reactions are just gold, brother.

I can tell you, the N64 version is a dumpster fire...I got it at a game store for $1 and the guy working told me "you're over paying for this game by 99cents."

Your frustration in this video is hilarious, I love it 😂 I remember playing this when it came out, clearly I blocked out that memory 😂

Kevin Nash stick legs got me dyin'

I guessed Kanyon correctly. But I thought Rey Mysterio was Tony Atlas and had no clue who the rest were.

I thought Shane helms was billy Kidman

The roster is unique. There are plenty of wrestler who only appear in this game like Daffney, Johnny Stamboli or Russo.

I remember burning this game back in the day. After playing it for half an hour I realized that I had wasted a blank CD.

The Last Ever WCW Video Game I had this on N64

I await the day Wrestling Bios reviews the Simpsons Wrestling Game...... probably wishing Homer did a Simpson Stunner or Milhouse made his entrance like Shawn Michaels or something like that.

I'll never forget the review I saw in a playstation magazine at the time that referred to it as WCW backpassage assault

Hogan going into a rainbow epileptic fit is the best thing I've seen today!

This just needs to be remade to be redeemable lol. I played with my mom on the N64 and she said what a waste of money and took the game out of the console put it on the floor grabbed a hammer and smashed the cartridge right in front of me lol.

I completely forgot about Stong. Big ups taking the time to recreate such a sorely underappreciated wrestler in this masterpiece

It was supposed to be a PS2 game, but WCW was being sold. The game was rushed.

Character models in this look like the developers made them as CAWs on Attitude first, then imported them into their own bleak ass game. Such a shame, I would have loved a decent late stage WCW game with that roster back in the day.

I will be 100% honest, this game is more playable than wwe 2k20🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

More like Backstage Ass. This game assaulted both my eyes and my intelligence 😠

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. This was a perfect representation of where WCW was at the time.

I never thought I'd see a wrestling game that made Vince Russo look like Steve Lombardi

Welcome back! I’ve been waiting for the new videos. Thank you!

I owned it. It was great to pass the time

I got this game after watching WCW Halloween Havoc 2000, was advertised a lot, played it on PS2 and hated it, did the story with Booker T and couldn't get passed Scoot Steiner 😞

I've got a copy of this game (still sealed) on both PS1 and N64, I don't plan on taking them out of their containers unless I feel like destroying them due to their tainted legacy.

To be fair, the Bam Bam Bigelow character looked pretty cool looking. 19:36 I practically FORGOT he was EVEN in WCW during that time period... 🤔

I remember getting this 1st day and playing my dream match at the time Mike Awesome vs Scott Steiner and thinking it can’t get any better then this lol

4:44 wow Vince Russo as a playable character. Anyone know of any other game that has Russo in it?

I remember having this game and I was talking to someone from a game store (Electronics Boutique IIRC). Got into an argument with the employee because he swore this game did not exist even after I told him I literally played it before coming in there. I obviously see now the EA MIB completely neuralyzed the poor bastard!

I thought Vince Russo was Bunkhouse Buck from just the screen shot.

why don't i remember scott steiner coming down the ramp with a tiger!?

This is coming off the heels of wCw vs. nWo and wCw/nWo Revenge! HOW did this game HAPPEN?!?!

Cool to see you're into Anbernic devices - you have the exact same color and model as me! Good taste.

Hilarious to hear Bischoff bragging about getting a deal with EA. Dude had no idea WCW already had by far the best wrestling franchise with AKI, which then went on to work with WWF and get better and better.

Best part of this era in WCW was Stacy Keibler existing.

I remember one of the reviews for this game at the time referring to it as back passage assult

Where do you get the handheld from ,it would be great to take on a flight if Boris lets me go on holiday

Recently played WWE2K Battlegrounds and it definitely be in the conversation of worst wrestling game ever.. just a terribly bland and boring game.

I like the way they just lob the weapons into the air like catapults.

Kevin Nash looks like a oversized Keiji muto with a blonde wing Ric flair looking like a shirtless kurt angle with a rich boy haircut

At the time I was only allowed to get 1 game per year, thank god I chose No Mercy.

My god, you just brought back the frustrating childhood memories 😂 excuse me, I'm gonna go play Revenge to make up for it!

Great job on the game review as always! Would love to see another review in the same as vein as the EncyRAWpedia if you can actually find some sorta wrestling non DVD/Game media

Jeff Jarrett looks like a Slap Nut in this

I had this game on N64 as a kid and I genuinely loved it. I loved the variety of different locations you could unlock, and seeing all the different weapons they had. I used to laugh my ass off tearing toilets off the walls in the bathroom and beating people with them. It sounds weird to say this about a wrestling game of all things, but this game has a lot of really good atmosphere. All the different areas are actually very well detailed (if not necessarily of high graphical fidelity), have unique ambient soundscapes, and the audio work in general with the reverb on the sound effects and grunts really helps sell the sense of place. Really cool game to play if you're a fan of liminal spaces. I'm also slut for that Y2K edgy drum n bass/industrial aesthetic, which late WCW was drenched in even more thickly than Attitude Era WWF. Even the menus in this game and the music that plays in them is wonderfully Y2K, and I also love all of the weird, creepy original designs for the custom parts you can use in create a wrestler. I remember there was this one mask that looked like a skull, crossed with a hockey mask, crossed with something from Silent Hill. Also, the reason that the character models in this game look so much worse than Mayhem is because they made it so that all of the wrestlers' clothing and details are editable, like in the AKI games. In Mayhem the character models were each uniquely textured, which allowed them to put a lot of character specific detail into each model. In Backstage Assault the characters are made up of various separate generic parts, so each wrestler only has as much detail as a create-a-wrestler would. And although they may look aesthetically worse, they are on a technical level a lot more demanding of the hardware. You can actually see a similar (though not nearly as drastic) drop in texture fidelity between WCW/NWO Revenge and WrestleMania 2000. In Revenge each wrestler could only have their clothes changed between pre-set outfits, and their heads/faces were totally static. The texture work on the wrestlers is a lot more complex Revenge for this reason. They could put in a lot more detail because they didn't have to worry about how tons of different parts and layers would interact. If you look at WrestleMania 2000 and No Mercy, all of the faces in those games are completely monochromatic. Just translucent grayscale textures applied over the flesh tone models. In Revenge the faces have color detailing and generally had more care put into how they were mapped over the models. Now, none of that is to say that the graphical fidelity of the wrestlers in Backstage Assault is acceptable. But there IS a reason. It was a very poor implementation, likely due to lack of time (and possibly budget) for a complete overhaul like that. They clearly put the most effort into the locations, which was probably the right call given that they're the central focus of the game.

Wrestling games were pretty good in '00s especially the smackdown vs raw series

"Look at his hair, brother!" 😂

I remember that for some reason they didn’t have the actual theme songs for everyone. Like Bret Hart. Hart had lie 1 of the 2 or 3 generic songs that was made for the game.

As a kid, I always wanted to pull off Goldberg's devastating Trip And Fall Down finisher

I was such a big fan of WCW that I really wanted to like this game. It had a great roster and accurately reflected WCW in 2000 but that’s the only compliment I could give it. WCW Mayhem was by far the better game and it simply astounds me that an entry in a gaming series can go so far below what the game that came before it was. WCW Mayhem was far from perfect but it got a lot right and had EA simply modded that game with the updated characters and backstage environments to go along with the actual ring, I think it would’ve been a great game. I was disappointed when WCW went out of business and we didn’t get to see if EA improved the PS2 WCW game sequel. My brother and I still joke about this game to this day. We’re big fans of “The Karate Kid” and we always joke about the line where they say “the enemy deserves no mercy” and I always say “no they don’t, enemy deserves backstage assault”. 😂

The N64 version on actual N64 hardware is faster than the ps1 version. Other than loading into the match, load times are almost nonexistent. Plus it feels a lot better. It’s definitely better than Nitro on ps1 or N64.

Flawed game, but I loved it back in the day and still do. It had a very original idea and was a ton of fun. Loads of unlockables too.

I got this used in like 01, loved it lol, unlocking stuff by simply playing like it'l pop up "wrestler unlocked" after throwing opponent into a crate. I liked it can't deny, played through and unlocked every wrestler on n64 in 2016 and I'll play it again

WCW Nitro was worse than WCW Backstage Assault in my opinion. Granted, WCW Backstage Assault is already far from being a good game. WCW Backstage Assault has some pretty crusty looking visuals even for its day, the UI is tedious to navigate, and the collision detection in matches barely works half the time. Absolutely not worth playing.

3:47 Man, Breat Hart lookes as Happy as Usual on his Photo

Look at the Hulkster throwing a Dropkick at 3:12. For this alone that game is worth it 😂

It’s a funny coincidence. I was just watching WrestleGamia’s video about this game and then this video came in my feed. Nice.

The game was ill-conceived from the start with it's focus only on backstage areas with no rings or audience anywhere. No wrestling fans would want that.

This game makes WWE 2K20 look like WWF No Mercy.

Surprisingly I always found this game somewhat fun to play even though the graphics stunk. It was more fun to play just exhibition matches though. May have to go dig it out and give it another go after many years of not playing it. Could be a good stress reliever 😂

🥵🥵 BEHIND THE SCENES REASON WHY BACKSTAGE ASSAULT CAME OUT SO SCREWED UP 🥵🥵According to articles online: "WCW did not intend to make their game for the PS1 or N64 in 2000. The idea was to make WCW Backstage Assault for the newly announced Playstation 2. Huge plans were made to give the game a full script, top-of-the-line graphics, a story mode, interactive areas, and innovative hardcore matches. When it seemed like WCW was not going to survive to see the Playstation 2, the developers shot out an emergency game to the last generation consoles. Kodiak Interactive picked up the slack and this abomination was born.". While the Playstation 2 came out in October 2000 in the U.S and November 2000 throughout Europe, Backstage Assault wasn't suppose to come out till much later during 2001 for the Playstation 2. As early as holiday season of 2000, there were rumblings that WCW was in very serious trouble due to the amount of money they were losing combined with AOL / Turner merger that took place earlier in 2000 and rumblings of them wanting to get wrestling off of TNT and TBS. EA didn't want to take a chance of WCW going under before the game was released (very wisely so because WCW ended during March 2001 and the game they had in mind for Playstaton 2 wouldn't have been released till later in 2001) and EA pretty much said "screw it, forget making this thing for Playstation 2 with a 2001 release, just quickly throw it together for PS1 and N64 for the 2000 holiday season so we can make a quick cash grab and call it a day". WCW Backstage Assault for Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64 came out Novemember 8th, 2000 (almost an entire year ahead of the original development schedule). Developers were told to QUICKLY throw it together and were given only a FEW WEEKS to make PS1 and Nintendo 64 versions of a game that was suppose to come out a year later during 2001 exclusively for the next gen Playstation 2. I don't know how many weeks, but it wasn't much (some claim that development of the Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64 versions started sometime during September and they were forced to throw out what they had by early November). The developers didn't have enough time and had to slap it together due to the higher ups at EA telling them to. If WCW had survived, Backstage Assault would have had an entire year of extra development time and released exclusively for Playstation 2. Sadly, we didn't get that and we got a very poorly slapped together version of the game developed in only a few weeks.

Omg i love the Lance Storm theme remix! Is there any way i could download it?