WWF Royal Rumble

"The name says it all?!"

Introduction
Being a wrestling fan and having heard of this game, I thought I could give it a try, as I had watched the last royal rumble a couple days ago and now I was feeling nostalgic. However, is this one of those games who are only sold because of the title, or will the fans really enjoy it?

Gameplay
When you reach the main menu, you will be able to choose from 4 different modes, but the core of them is always the same, despite some slight differences.

In "One-on-one", you will be just pick a character and fight another one (which you can choose or the console can choose).

In "Tag Team" and "Triple Tag Team" you will pick a set of characters and play with them against a different set of characters.

In "Royal Rumble" (which, by the name of the game, should be considered the most important thing about this game) you will pick your character and you will have to fight against all the other characters, following the rules of the Royal Rumble event.

Each of these modes can be played by 2 players at the same time and be modified with slight differences, but even by being able to control 12 different characters isn't interesting, because of the controls.

Yes, because the controls in this game are quite bad... one key to kick, one to punch, one to run and another to grab. Since grabbing is the main thing of the gameplay in this game (you can easily notice that in the introduction scenes), you could at least expect that "event" to be good, but that doesn't happen. Personally I found it somehow hard to master, and quite random, but perhaps more skilled players may think differently. Plus, if you throw someone into the sides of the ring (or run into him) you will fall to the floor even if you shouldn't, unlike in real life.

Returning to the characters, having 12 characters is not very interesting when all of them have EXACTLY the same moves, except for their finisher. This turns them uninteresting, as the only difference between picking character A or B is just the animation sprites and their finisher.

Finally, you will notice no cut-scenes or anything, and once you complete certain objectives (like winning the Royal Rumble) you don't win anything (not even a static image!), so it may feel boring to finish any of the modes just telling your friends about it. There are some exceptions to this (you seem to get a static image of the cover of WWF Magazine telling about your deeds sometimes), but most of the times they are really not interesting. Oh, and did I mentioned that in this game you can't even see the introduction sequences of the characters, when they are entering the arena?

Story
None. People could argue that fighting games don't need a story, but if you watch the show you will see that there is actually lots of stories in it. There are certain wrestlers who are friends/enemies of others, there are certain story lines which take characters to battle each other, and this game surely doesn't recreate that feeling.

Graphics
Those are not very good, you can see the faces of all the characters in a somehow clear way (well, they are great, considered the console this game was made for!) in the menus, but in the battles you can only recognise them because of some slight details. Also, the chairs (which you can use in certain types of battles) and the scenario are detailed, but the characters are not that good, as you could have imagined from my previous statement.

Sound
Truly, I can say that the sound in this game is awful. Ok, some people may enjoy the theme that appears in the introduction menu, but putting classical music in the menus isn't certainly the best option for a wrestling game. Plus, this could be forgiven if the matches had a good music, but... they have NONE! I mean, while on the ring you will just hear the referee saying the 1/2/3 event or the noises from the crowd... It would be great if they cheered for the characters who are battling, but... that doesn't happen, it is just random noises!

Play Time/Replayability
Ok, this is surely one of the best things in the game, it may be considered to have a huge play time/replay value, but ONLY if you are a fan from the series and you have friends to play this game with. If you don't have more people to share this game with, just consider it's play time/replay value as none, since you won't enjoy it for more than a couple hours.

Final Recommendation
Only true fans from the show who have people to play this with will like this game, and only because they can make tournaments and play with their own favourite superstars.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/05