Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home

"Backyard Wrasslin'- A MUST for Juggalos and Wrassin fans"

People that think the wrestlers in WWE, ECW, or WNA TNA are hardcore are in for a rude awakening. Normal wrestlers on television use chairs, tables, and even ladders to give them the hardcore image. Backyard wrestlers use baseball bats with barbed wire, bricks, and fire to give them the hardcore image. Brock Lesnar would not last one minute in the backyard with any of the wrestlers in this game.

First off, there are seven different areas to fight in; some being a backyard, strip club, or a dangerous truck stop. There are also two ways to beat your opponent by either pinning them the old fashioned way, or going hardcore and knocking them out. In all of the different areas to fight in, there are significant amounts of weaponry to slaughter your opponent with, such as fluorescent light tubes, tables that are on fire, bricks, knives, bottles, chairs, shopping carts, bicycles, and flaming torches. There are at least two special areas in each place of fighting to use to seriously injure your opponent, like the gas pumps in the truck stop. In the truck stop, there are gas pumps that can be used to throw your opponent into and send them flying while on fire after the pump blows up. In the backyard, there is a mattress that can be set on fire to ignite your opponent. There are different modes of play, either exhibition mode, story mode, or survival mode. Exhibition mode is just pick a wrestler and go at it until only one person is victorious. Story mode is just what it is called. It is made up as a talk show, and the player is in it. The wrestler that is chosen has to face up to three opponents at a particular scene, or fighting area, to move on in the game. Every time a scene is beaten, a feature is unlocked. At the last match, when the player wins, a movie or a person is unlocked. It depends on which wrestler wins to determine what gets unlocked. Survival mode is basically to see how many wrestlers can be beaten in one try. The more wrestlers that the player can beat, the harder the AI gets.

The fighters in the game are mostly real wrestlers, with some made up wrestlers. There is even an option to create your own wrestler. Some of the wrestlers include MDogg 20, Josh Prohibition, Karnage, Rude Boy, and the hardcore rappers Violent J, Shaggy 2 Dope, Jamie Madrox, and Monoxide Child. All of the wrestlers have their own apparel that they wear. The rappers are all from Psychopathic Records, so they wear their gold chains with Psychopathic Hatchetman charms, with their jerseys promoting their merchandise. MDogg 20 wears the same thing that he wears while he wrestles, that being no shirt with puffy white pants, and the Backyard Babes wear their famous apparel, a bikini and a thong. Each wrestler has their own finishing move, as well as their own style of using the weapons. One wrestler might swing a bat like a baseball player, but one might swing it like they are trying to knock their opponent's head off of their shoulders. Their fighting styles are completely different than those of professional wrestlers. Professional wrestlers grapple, throw, and pin. Backyard wrestlers grapple, beat senseless, and then knock out their opponent. Eidos did an excellent job at grabbing every detail of wrestling, from quick, smooth animation, to every drop of blood that is lost from an opponent.

The audio portion of the game is outstanding. Every gamer that listens to music while they are playing wishes for one thing, and that would be uncensored music. Eidos did just that. Over 40 songs, each and every one of them is uncut and uncensored. The FCC was not as powerful by the time this game was made, so there is not one thing that is censored, from the music to the unlockable videos featuring the Backyard Babes. Some of the bands featured in this game are Twiztid, Insane Clown Posse, Rancid, Machine Head, CKY, and American Hi-fi. The choice of songs can be chosen while you are wrestling by simply pressing two buttons, L1 and L2. You can fight to either friendly music like Juggalo Homies, or go hardcore with Chicken Huntin'. All of the songs featured in this game are complete songs, not just little snippets or samples. Eidos now has my respect.

The graphics are great in this game. The look of all seven levels of fighting are highly detailed, from roofs to climb on, trees to climb up, and vehicles to jump off of. The weapons have a level of realism to them, like when the fluorescent light tubes get used, they shatter or break in half. The ignitable mattresses, tables, bails of hay, or torches are great for adding that element of danger. There are throwable bricks, bottles that shatter on impact, basketballs, tires, and even bicycles. Almost every item in the level is either throwable or can be picked up to be used for inflicting pain on your opponent.

Overall, this game is great for anyone looking to smash someone up after a long day of putting up with people at work, or just relieving stress of everyday life. This is definately a game that you should own and not rent. Once someone has played this game, they will not want to go back to WWE or any other kind of wrestling again. WWE is the bottom rung of the hardcore industry known as wrestling.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/10/04