No Mercy Bug, fact or Fiction?

If you ask THQ, the makers of "No Mercy", then the answer probably is fiction. Thousands of wrestling fans have purchased THQ's lastest release, an improvement in the long line of THQ wrestling games, and, those thousands of people have been victim to the infamous "glitch". What is the glitch you ask? Simple, a few weeks after you buy "No Mercy", the game resets itself to the factory defaults. This can be devastating after hours upon hours of character creation, survival matches and single player championship runs. It is a very rare occurrence for a Nintendo game to have any type of glitch, console games are notorious for quality and flawlessness.

So what is THQ's stand on this "glitch"? If you visit www.thq.com this is what they have to say:

Thank you for your interest in THQ's products. THQ is researching this issue. We have yet to reproduce it in our lab, but suggest the following troubleshooting steps as a possible solution:

-If you are using a Game Shark or Non-Nintendo peripheral, please discontinue using it.
-If you have a Controller Pak in your controller, please remove it for the time being.
-Re-initialize the game cartridge. To reset the game to factory defaults, follow these steps:

1) Place the game cartridge in the N64
2) Turn on the N64 while holding the START button on controller 1.
3) Select the "Initialize Game Pak" option.
4) Exit the Controller Pak menu.

Please remember that this re-initialization process will return the game to factory defaults, and will delete any progress or created characters saved onto the Game Pak. -Play through the game to see if the problem repeats.

The first few sentences almost give you the feeling that the glitch is just a rumor. How can they not possibly be able to reproduce the problem after countless people have reported it happening to their copy of the game. Certain retailers have also taken a stand on this issue. They seem to know more about the glitch than THQ cares to divulge. After calling a local Babbages, the manager said that if "No Mercy was purchased before a certain date, then chances are it is glitched. Babbages will accept the return and give you a non-glitched copy. So be warned early buyers, if the glitch has not happened to you, it will happen soon, it seems.

So, what can you do if you buy a glitched version of the game? Here is what THQ suggested after the steps they listed to fix the glitch failed:

Thank you for your interest in THQ products. If you have tried the troubleshooting steps we offered at http://www.thq.com/support/Tree.asp?Node=1078&UPC=30119&SupID=63.80.89.131|36879.3784259259 and they did not work the next step is to exchange the game. Not every game is having this problem and an exchange could very well solve the issue.
You have two options, you can try taking the game back to the store you purchased it at and exchange it there.
If you are not able to do so, the next option is to send the game back to THQ to the address in the back of the instruction manual.
Please include everything that came with the game along with a letter explaining in detail, be sure to clearly label the package and your letter with your name ,address and phone number.

So it looks like a luck game. Keep returning your copy of the game until you get a good one. Any chance of a recall? In my opinion, not a chance. One of the downfalls of cartridge games is their high production costs, THQ stands to lose too much on this deal, so they may maintain the stand that the glitch does not exist, and hope over time that the bad copies disappear into the return abyss of department stores.

There are still many questions consumers have about this bug that may never get answered. If only the first shipment was bad, why were the subsequent shipments fixed if THQ had no idea there was a problem? Is this a hardware problem or a software problem? Guess we will have to wait and find out.