Raiders of The Lost Media - ECW: Anarchy Rulz - The N64 Port

 

Not an actual cover for the N64 port.

Welcome to a brand new edition of Raiders of The Lost Media. This time around I look at another lost (or supposedly lost) video game. So let's dive in.

Part One - Extreme Championship Wrestling

To understand this supposed video game we first need to under the company it's based on. I'll try to keep this history lesson as brief as possible.

ECW was founded on Feb 25th, 1992, but at that time it was called Eastern Championship Wrestling and was a governing body for another company that being National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Fast forward to somewhere in Sept of 1993, original booker Eddie Gilbert would depart from the company and businessman/wrestling manager Paul Heyman would take over as the book and assumed full creative control. Then on Aug 27th, 1994, the company's name would be changed from Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme Championship Wrestling. At the same time, ECW would no longer be affiliated NWA.

Under this new extreme direction, the company would feature more hardcore matches featuring things like matches with weapons, more usages of tables, ladders, and chairs among other hardcore elements. This new direction also featured wrestling styles from different countries most notably from Japan and Mexico. Another element was storylines would not only feature more violence but vulgarity and sexual content as well.

Sadly in during the early 2000's the company was having financial troubles, because of this ECW would have no choice but to shut down. Their popular show ECW: Hardcore TV would air it's final episode on Dec 31st, 2000 and on Jan 7, 2001, the company would air it's last pay-per-view that being Guilty as Charged, two months later ECW filed for bankruptcy with the company finally closing down on Apr 4, 2001.

During the later years elements of ECW would makes its way to WWE. One of those was from May 28, 2001 to Nov 18, 2001, ECW stars along with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) stars would be part of an invasion storyline in WWE, but from what I've heard it wasn't a very good story arc. In Jan 28th, 2003 WWE would buy assets of ECW that they weren't able to own because HHG Corporation held those rights. Then starting in 2005, WWE would an ECW event titled One Night Stand before that series of pay-per-views would be canceled in 2008. Then during the year WWE would turn ECW into their third brand along side the existing brands of Raw & Smackdown. This brand got a show called ECW on Sci-Fi. This third brand would last until Feb 16th, 2010 and would be replaced by NXT.

Part Two - From Revolution to Anarchy

Before Anarchy Rulz was a thing, ECW's first video game was Hardcore Revolution and it was released on Feb 17th, 2000 for the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and Game Boy Color with a Dreamcast port released on Feb 29th, 2000. It was the first pro wresting game to receive a Mature rating expect for the Game Boy Color version which was rated Everyone. Hardcore Revolution got mixed reviews at best but sold over 600,000 units, because of how much the units sold this would inspire Acclaim to quickly develop a sequel, that sequel being you guessed it, Anarchy Rulz. The game taking its title from the short lived pay-per-view of the same name.

Anarchy Rulz was released on the PlayStation on Aug 15th, 2000 with the Dreamcast version released on Nov 28th, 2000. Reviews for the game were much worse than they were for Hardcore Revolution, with the general reception being universally negative. A matter of fact, the Dreamcast version had way more negative reviews than the PlayStation one. Anarchy Rulz would be the second and last video game based on ECW before the company closed down.

Part Three - The Nintendo 64 Port

I could provide a story of the N64 port but the truth is the existence of this thing is a mystery.

The Apr 2000 issue of Nintendo Power reported that Anarchy Rulz would receive an N64 port in September. GameSpot would later try report on Nintendo Power's claim, but when GameSpot tried to get in contact with an Acclaim representative for confirmation but the company refused to give details surrounding the game or confirm of an N64 version was being developed. People assumed details would be given during E3. But the E3 event would be very odd, because only the PlayStation verison was shown. There was no info on an N64 version. Hell the Dreamcast verison didn't get a formal unveiling and Anarchy Rulz was actually released on that console.

Part Four - Status

As of writing this there has been no new information both from Acclaim or other sources. Even if development happened we still to this day have no footage or screenshots of this verison of the game. The only thing we got is the Nintendo Power issue briefly mentioning it. Other than that, the existence of this is unconfirmed.

That's all for now. Come back on Saturday, Jul 18th, for my review of Christopher Nolan's newest film, The Odyssey. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.