WWF Royal Rumble
Score: 70% ESRB: Teen Publisher: THQ Developer: Yukes Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Fighting
Graphics & Sound: Hands down, WWF Royal Rumble has the best graphics for a WWF wrestling game out there. All 20 different wrestlers are detailed incredibly, with hair, muscles, tattoos, and ring attire. Plus, the ring itself and the other special areas where you can wrestle (i.e. top of the ramp and in the boiler room) are beautifully designed with great realism. The crowd looks descent, but I don't think THQ spent all the time in the world to make it look like true, 3-Dimensional, WWF fans. The sounds, however, were lacking. The theme songs are there, but only as a background noise after you win a match. Plus, there is no commentary at all. The crowd sounds fine, and the match music is pretty good, but all in all, I thought they could have done so much more with the sounds in the game.
Gameplay: Ok, when I first heard about WWF Royal Rumble, and that it was being made by THQ, I was pumped because I was expecting an even better version of Wrestlemania 2000 for N64 or Smackdown! for PlayStation. That is totally not the case. First off, there are only two different matches you can do: Royal Rumble and Exhibition. For those of you that don't what Royal Rumble is, it is where you have a bunch of guys in the ring at the same time, and the purpose is to knock your opponent out of the ring. I had mixed emotions about this because you can have up to nine guys in the ring at one time, which was just awesome. But the fact that there are only 20 wrestlers in the game meant that everybody kept coming back in. That's right, I said 20! No Dudley Boyz, no APA, no Chris Benoit, no Too Cool (although I don't care about them too much), but they do have Kurt Angle, Tazz and Rikishi. The Exhibition I just hated, because the game is an arcade setting. You pick a wrestler, and then someone to be your partner... not to tag in, but to help run interference during a match. Then you go through a series of single matches, and are able to call in your partner to do something to your opponent. And at any random time, the lights go off and you end up in a new place to fight. That I don't get at all. Plus, you may have random run-ins, but I still don't know if they’re there to beat you up or your opponent.
Difficulty: There are three different levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, and Hard. It's almost impossible to survive the Royal Rumble with just one guy, but you get to keep coming back as many times as you want, so there's no problem there. Otherwise, there's not much else to the difficulty.
Game Mechanics: WWF Royal Rumble loads very quickly, and the controls are great and completely easy. THQ copies the controller versions from Wrestlemania 2000 and Smackdown!, with the one button grappling, another hitting, and the direction of the controller along with one of those buttons performing a move. Finding a wrestler is no problem either, just turn and face him. No more with pressing a button three or four times to find the correct guy to face. Also, it is easy to perform your wrestler's signature finishing move with the press of a button, which is recreated well. And regardless of if you have two guys in the ring, or nine, the Dreamcast does not slow down. My final note: Being able to have nine wrestlers in the ring at one time is pretty sweet, but you may get bored of it after a while. If you are in to 3D fighter games (which I am not), then maybe WWF Royal Rumble is for you. But if you are like me, and want something of a regular WWF Raw, which Smackdown! tried to be, hold off on this one. Hopefully, this is just a stepping-stone to something completely great.
-Red Dawg, GameVortex Communications AKA Alex Redmann
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