The Curious Case of WWF No Mercy USA-1 (and EUR-1)

In the late days of the Nintendo 64, two titles shared the same unfortunate fate of game‑breaking bugs that required rare replacement cartridges. The first was Turok: Rage Wars, released with a co‑op glitch that made the game impossible to complete. Acclaim offered affected players a fixed replacement but kept the program concealed. The corrected version was issued in a gray cartridge, instead of the standard black, making it easy to identify, but extremely rare.

Just a year later, WWF No Mercy suffered from its own serious flaw. A faulty on‑cartridge save system caused players to lose their data unpredictably. Publisher THQ launched a replacement program, issuing fixed cartridges with subtle identifying differences. Unlike Turok, replacements included the full box and manual. In 2014, leftover copies surfaced when a former THQ employee posted them on eBay.

Both games still stand as prime examples of rare, patched variants.

NOTE: While the European variant, EUR-1, is also patched, another change to the title was the removal of visual blood. Rumoured to align with the, then many, European ratings. Before PEGI launched in 2003, Europe did not have a single, unified video‑game rating system. Instead, ratings were handled country by country, often using a mix of national boards, film classifiers, or voluntary industry labels.