10 Landmark Wrestling Video Game Firsts
4. First To Achieve A Mature Rating (ECW Hardcore Revolution, 2000)
By the time it had hit shelves, ECW Hardcore Revolution was already behind the times. That's wholly ironic, because the source material was edgy, cool and felt like the future of pro wrestling. The original Extreme Championship Wrestling would never get a video game that could do it justice, but Hardcore Revolution did have one thing to brag about.
Despite using a creaking game engine and looking inferior to the SmackDown titles put together by THQ, Acclaim's ECW game became the first to receive an 'M' rating before release. This was strictly for a mature audience only, something advertising pre-launch boasted about as though it was a badge of honour.
A Barbed Wire Match was available from the off, the regular ring ropes being replaced by the flesh-tearing steel. This did little to help the core gameplay (Hardcore Revolution used the engine most had witnessed in older WWF games like War Zone and Attitude), but the more gnarly nature of the ECW branding forced the adult certification through.
ECW Anarchy Rulz was soon released mere months later, and proved to be almost an exact replica of its predecessor.