By: Gerald Villoria
Design by: Collin Oguro

Introduction

WrestleMania X8 is THQ's latest wrestling game, marking its first squared-circle entry to the Nintendo GameCube. Nintendo systems have had a history of success with wrestling games, dating back to Pro Wrestling for the original Nintendo Entertainment System and reaching their peak with the acclaimed WWF No Mercy for the Nintendo 64.

WrestleMania X8 lets you lace up the boots of your favorite World Wrestling superstar and participate in a huge array of different matches with up to three other friends. Its strengths as a multiplayer party game aside, WrestleMania X8 features a healthy single-player game, composed of the title modes, the path-of-a-champion mode, and the battle-for-the-belts mode. After you've mastered all the wrestlers, you can even get more out of your game by making your own--either original creations or the great wrestlers who were somehow left off the roster.

Newcomers to the genre may get trounced and pinned in an instant by a seasoned veteran of wrestling games, but with this guide, any player will be able to wrestle like a pro and earn the most prestigious of belts.

In this guide, you'll find:

• An explanation of the gameplay mechanics of WrestleMania X8.
  
• Victory strategies for every match type in the game.
  
• Special "painful tips" for players who are challenging the highest-difficulty level.
  
• Individual hints on how to use each wrestler as effectively, and as impressively, as possible, including the hidden wrestlers.
  
• A tutorial on using the create-a-wrestler feature.
  
• Dirty tricks and useful hints for when you need that extra push.