WWE Crush Hour

"A surprisingly good game at a surprisingly low price"

Twisted Metal meets the WWE. What could THQ possibly be thinking? Well to be honest whatever they were thinking has turned out to be pretty good.

I had heard about this game coming out a while ago and was a little skeptical at first. The thought of a game like this was daunting to me since these style of games normally give me a headache due to motion sickness, but being a WWE fan I had to check it out and I must say I am not disappointed.

So I ventured to play this and was impressed at how visually stunning it is and how seamless it appears to be. I was so happy at the fact I did not get a headache and still haven't while playing this, even sitting close to the screen.

The roster has impressed me as it is up to date but what I am not happy about is the characters you can unlock. In my opinion, some of the characters you start with should have been left to be the unlockable ones.

You start with some big name characters like Austin, The rock, HHH, Angle, Brock... Etc. These are the type of people I would have made unlockable while leaving people like Jeff Hardy, Jericho and kane playable from the start.

Each character has his or her own unique vehicle that handles in different ways, where some are nice and fast they may be blown up very easily, whereas some are well armored but they are slow and very prone to easy attack.

Each character has his or her own music and Titantron, albeit some are a little outdated, like kane for instance but its not big distraction.

Each character taunts on a ''kill'' too, using some very recognizable comments or sometimes they will say something you wouldn't expect to hear from them.

I really do not think you would be doing yourself any harm in purchasing this game since it is so cheap. Prices range from 20 British pounds to 40 Canadian dollars, you really can't go wrong.

So now onto the scoring.

Graphics: 8/10
Very detailed cars (or bike if your playing as Taker), arenas are very detailed to, they even include Titan Trons which show the action in play. I am impressed with Taker and the rock as you can actually see their character while playing as them or against them.

Sound: 7/10
Music is very clean and crisp especially during a Titan Tron entrance, With Howard Finkel doing the introductions and Jim Ross commentating, it makes you feel just like your playing a wrestling game and not a car game. Even Michael Cole pops up too. Comments from each wrestler after a ''kill'' can either be funny or make you very angry, making you want to target that character and forget about all the other dangers on screen.

Playability: 8/10
Control commands flow easily without any thought about what you need to be doing. The game is so visually stunning you will just want to come back for more just for the eye candy.

Lastability: 7/10
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I believe I will be playing this until Crush hour 2 (I hope) comes out, or atleast until Smackdown 5.

Overall: 8/10
Great game, Great playability, Great Graphics, Just all round Greatness. Oh yeah and at a rock bottom price its just that damn good and that's the bottom line

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/25/03, Updated 03/25/03