I took this off another forum. It makes some points I agree with.
I don't think I've ever played a more overrated game in my life, and I'll be damned if I don't take some shots at this piece of **** (yet still somewhat addictive) game before anyone else is fooled into playing it. Let's just say, this thread has been a long time coming.
Frame Rate
The two previous THQ/AKI wrestling games, WCW/nWo Revenge and WWF WrestleMania 2000, both turned in a consistent frame rate of 60 FPS. At 60 FPS, the action was smooth, and the controls were responsive. WWF No Mercy, however, ran at an underwhelming 50 FPS. For every minute that passes on the game clock, over a minute passes in real life. It is painful to play at this rate, and the slow-down makes all of the moves in the game look just plain ugly. It wasn't just in ladder matches, either. Single matches were capped at this rate as well.
Character Models
For being the two men that carried the WWF in early 2000, The Rock and Triple H have some of the worst face models I've seen in any wrestling game. While the face models in WWF WrestleMania 2000 were by no means perfect, they gave a better representation of the wrestlers than the mutants of WWF No Mercy. Seriously, go back and look. Triple H looked like he was 70.
Entrances
In WWF WrestleMania 2000, not only did wrestlers come down the entrance ramp, they had an in-ring entrance taunt as well. This was missing for no apparent reason in WWF No Mercy, and it made the entrances from The Rock and HBK look especially bad, considering how ****ing awesome they looked on the previous game.
Branching Season Mode
By converting from the calendar season mode of WWF WrestleMania 2000 to the branching title season mode of WWF No Mercy, THQ/AKI made one of the worst mistakes one can make in a video game. In order to unlock the different paths of the season mode, it wasn't about decision-making, it was about winning and losing. You shouldn't ever have to throw a match or two or five just to progress in a game. It's just plain shitty. The calendar season mode is the greatest type of season mode in wrestling video games (a fact SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain would later reinforce). Rather than improving on an already good season mode by giving us branching storylines based upon decisions, WWF No Mercy forced me to wait five minutes until Terri Runnels put me in a pin so that I could hold the down button and not kick out.
Ladder Matches
The big feature to WWF No Mercy was the introduction of the ladder match. Rather than make it really cool, the game made it have more or less the same controls of the cage match. There was never a point to splashing someone off the top of the ladder, because in the amount of time it takes to get to the top of the ladder, you might as well have it underneath the briefcase.
I took this off another forum. It makes some points I agree with.