WWF Royal Rumble for Dreamcast

THQ has brought so many great wrestling titles to the Nintendo 64 and as the first Dreamcast exclusive WWF game (and the first Dreamcast exclusive wrestling game) to hit the Dreamcast, a lot of anticipation has come along with WWF's Royal Rumble, unfortunately wrestling fans may have to wait a little bit longer for a truely great wrestling title on the Dreamcast because Royal Rumble ends up falling far too short of greatness.

Unlike other past THQ wrestling outings, Royal Rumble has more of an arcade feel to it then trying to manipulate an actual wrestling match. While this new style may appeal to some, more people are likely to despise this new fighting feel as many matches end around in not under a minute flat. One plus side to this new quick arcade style feel is that you get to have a partner on the outside to assist you in some rather impressive double team tactics. There is also a "back stage" mode simlar to that in WCW Mayhem, and Wrestlemania 2000. Except this time it happens almost out of no where. The lights suddenly go off all of a sudden and you somehow just appear into one of the back stage ares. Thankfully these back stage areas are a whole lot of fun to fight in and often have interactive back grounds as well. In the parking lot ou have to avoid passing cars, and in the kitchen you must try to stay away from the passing meat belt.

On one hand though the game does have some newer wrestlers making their first video game appearences. Gamers will now be able to take control of Kurt Angel and the ample backsided Rikishi. With these new wrestlers, comes some returning favorites such as the Undertaker and The Rock. Each character also comes complete with all of their signature moves and taunts which helps give the game a little more attitude. The biggest problem with this is that the number of characters is very limited. Also with no unlockable features of characters the replay value is next to nothing if nothing at all.

The graphics in the game aren't very bad, but at the same time are nothing to be impressed about and don't really show the Dreamcast's power. The character's faces are really nicely detailed, but not all of the bodies are accurate enough to fit their real life counter parts. The crowd how ever still looks like a bunch of card board cut outs pasted onto the back ground. There are also no real ring entrances either. The ring entrances consist of basically the wrestler in the ring doing a ridiculous pose, which is disappointing considering there isn't that many wrestlers and even what was done in Smackdown would have been better. Thankfully throughout the entire game there is no slowdown what so ever, even when many wrestlers ar all beating up on each other at the same time.

The sound is another mixed bad. The sound effects are totally rehashed. All of the unoriginal smacks and slaps that have appeared in every second rate fighting game are abundant which is another let down considering the Dreamcast power again. One nice little feature is that you get a audio warning of a special move about to be performed. There are also no voice overs nor commentary from Jerry the king Lawler (even though you can see him in the back ground). Thankfully that music help boost the sound score a bit. During matches you are treated to some sweet heavy metal type music which sets the perfect mood to powerbomb the opposition, and the wrestler's music plays with absolute perfection after they win a match. It's just too bad you get such a small chunk of their music (even when you access it through the sound options).

The control however in probably the best in any THQ wrestling game, once mastered that is. THQ has thankfully gotten rid of the button that you are forced to use when focusing on another opponent which prevents you from getting clobbered when just trying to turn around. This is most helpful when several wrestlers are in the ring at the same time. THQ has retained the grapple system that has made the company famous. The game doesn't have a training mode but thankfully the controls can be learned and mastered with a few minutes of picking up the controller, and one button finishers make things very simple. One big downside wth the control is that you are forced to use the control pad, with no option of using the analog.

The biggest problem with the game is the lack of play modes. Gamers now come to expect more then just two game modes. There is the exibition mode where you fight though ten matches and, well that's about it. There is also (yes you guessed it) a royal rumble mode where you fight against a never ending onslaught of opponents in an attempt to see how many wrestlers you can knock out of the ring before getting knocked out yourself. One great thing about the royal rumble feature is that up to nine wrestlers can be in the ring at the same time, something which has never been done before. Unfortunately these two modes make the game solely rental material. Where is the career mode? Where is any form of create a wrestler mode? The addition of these two simple features would have possibly made this worth a purchase but with only two modes of play the game has far to little replay value to keep anyone interested for extended periods of time. The game is most likely to be played as a party game where, the most fun is to be had as the game supports up to four players, but the single player experience is just far too short.

While the game may please die hard WWF fans, everyone else will be satisfied with a nice weekend rental. The game does deliver some good fast arcade action but the lack of features drags down the score to an unspeakable low. With the right work done the game could have been more entertaining the watching the people's elbow front row center, but ends up being more painful then a chair shot to the noggin,ouch.