WWF Raw

"Despite the age of the game, it still has the fun factor it had in 1994..."

WWF RAW for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System arrived 1994. It was the sequel to the popular WWF Royal Rumble, which was released a year prior. This game promised an updated 12-person roster, and atleast 1 new mode. At the time, this impressed people. WWF Royal Rumble exceeded beyond WWF Wrestlemania for SNES, so fans were looking forward to more improvement on this game. They definitely got it.

Now before you read the review, it is 2002, and this was indeed released 8 years ago. Consider this review of the game the review of a person who had just played this in 1994. I know this game can't compare to today's generation of wrestling games, but instead of bashing it for not having gimmick matches, I'm writing the review as if it's 1994, and I had just bought the game.

Despite it's age, it still impresses, and offers the same fun factor it did 8 years ago. With a roster of such superstars such as: Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon(Scott Hall), Diesel(Kevin Nash), 1-2-3 Kid(X-Pac), the late Owen Hart, Yokozuna, Lex Luger, etc, etc, fans were excited for the new possibility of matches at their disposal.

Gameplay
The game is a very simple take on Pro-Wrestling we see today, the grapple button puts you in a small tug-of-war with your opponent, and requires you to tap a certain button faster to pull off a move. To pull off special maneuvers, you tap a certain button in a grapple, or in some cases(like Bret Hart and Owen) you go up to a body part, and tap that button. Very simple, and lets anyone, pro-wrestling and non-pro-wrestling fans get into the game with no fuss. Although the game isn't as deep as today's generation of wrestling games, and you couldn't put on excellent matches, it still had the fun of just playing around with the limited arsenal of moves, and pulling off the secret super maneuvers. Simple, arcadish type of action, which was accepted at the time of this release.

Control
For the SNES controller, the controls were pretty good. I haven't played this in awhile, so excuse me if I don't know the exact buttons, but the 4 main buttons(A, B, X, Y) performed certain maneuvers. I believe tapping X allowed for a supelx, Y for Irish Whip, B for Piledriver, and A escapes my mind. L and R performed Eye Gouges, and Chokes respectively. I believe tapping a certain button(again I forget) when your opponent's health meter is at red allows for you to pull off a special maneuver. Pretty good controls.

Sound
The sound isn't as good as expected, the SNES had some good games with awesome sound, but this doesn't offer much aside from the background music in selecting modes, and the wrestler's theme playing when you're highlighting them in the character select theme. The grunts and groans when wrestling were pretty annoying at the time, so I'm not too impressed with Sound.

Replay
This game doesn't offer much replay. You could play with 4 players in a certain way, and just playing 1 on 1 with a friend, and doing funny stuff was good. But aside from that, there's nothing much to offer or unlock. Very low...

Overall
Aside from the low Replay, and the low sound, the control and gameplay make up for this. Don't bother playing with the idiotic A.I, and play with some friends. It offers much more fun. A good game in 1994, and an average game today...

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/02, Updated 07/19/02