After playing this religiously during my childhood, I recently bought this game again and remembered how great it was.
Thats why I STILL love this game and STILL play it. It's simple. yet complex gameplay, the nastalgia and the fact that my favorite wrestlers were in this game with a huge roster for that time period that still matches current WWE games with around 60 superstars. These things make it a classic to me.
The gameplay is solid but is starting to show age, as it should this game is from 1999. Counter with L and R, A to grapple, B to attack. Its easy to pick up and play but there are more complex controls like rolling over a downed opponent, dragging them etc.
Graphically this game wasnt the best around at the time, WWF Smackdown, WWF War Zone and WWF Attitude was much better visually but this game excelled were the other three didnt, Gameplay. This game is just smoother, faster paced and all around fun. Playing with 3 friends was always a blast and we would spend the whole day after school playing Royal Rumbles and trying to unlock everything. We created our own superstars, fought for belts, made pay per views and played the championship modes. This game's appeal really lasted long. Even after I eventually got a Playstation and WWF Smackdown 2, my friends and I would still play this game for hours.
Till this day this game was the most complete Wrestling game around in my opinion. I loved WWF Smackdown Here Comes the Pain, but nothing in my opinion ever consumed our time like WWF No Mercy. It was a great time for Wrestling and a great game to capture and replicate the time.