WWF Raw

"Not as good as previous wrestling titles on the GameBoy"

Intro:

WWF Raw for the Gameboy is a handheld version of Raw for the SNES. While Raw turned out to be the best WWF wrestler on the SNES the same can't be said about the handheld version. Raw is the total opposite of what a good handheld wrestling game is supposed to be. LJN ( the creator of RAW) isn't new to handhelds. They created WWF: Superstars 2, which turned out to be good, and if you want to know why this one isn't good then read on to find out.

Graphics:

Since the game is on the original Gameboy it's all in black & white. The wrestlers are very tiny. It's hard to see what they're doing in the ring. They are a little recognizable and you wont find it difficult to tell them apart. The ring takes up the whole screen so the camera never shifts. But that's a bad thing because making the ring take up the entire screen makes the wrestlers small. LJN should have made the graphics like their previous wrestler on the gameboy, WWF: Superstars 2. In that game the wrestlers were big and highly detailed. There is a crowd in the background in Raw but they don't move or cheer. The graphics are not looking good in this game.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in Raw imitates it's console counterpart and is the same as WWF: Superstars 2, but not as polished as the SNES version or LJN's last wrestler on the Gameboy. When the wrestlers get close they ''lock up'' and go into a tug-o-war for control and whoever mashes the buttons the fastest gets to pull off a move. The bad part about this is that there's hardly any moves to do. Like previous wrestlers on the Gameboy, if you highlight a character on the character selection screen you can here their entrance themes. There are eight wrestlers in the game. You have Lex Luger, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon(Scott Hall), Diesel(Kevin Nash),Doink, The Undertaker, and Yokozuna. WWF: Raw does have a rather good amount of match types (one-on-one, tag-team, and Survivor Series) If you select 'one-on-one' you can choose a 'one fall', 'brawl', or 'tournament'. The same goes if you choose to go to 'tag-team'. And then there's 'Survivor Series' in which you can choose to do either a 'one fall' or 'brawl'. Each of the three modes have difficulty settings. And new to handheld WWF games is the choice to choose your opponent, which makes the gameplay a little better.

Sound:

Except for the entrance themes, there is only one song that plays through out the whole game. The good thing about the song is that it's the Raw theme that they had back then and it sounds quite impressive. The Wrestler's themes also sound very accurate. You'll easily recognize HBK's 'Sexy Boy' theme and the rest. But the sound of the wrestlers punches and slams are pretty average.

Conclusion:

WWF: Raw is'nt that good of a handheld wrestling game. Especially when previous wrestling titles were a lot better than this one. But Raw does offer some unique things like a Survivor Series mode and the choice to choose your own opponent. But that's not enough to buy this with the horrible gameplay and bad graphics. I can only recommend Raw for collectors or hardcore WWF/E fans. LJN should have made this one like their previous game, WWF: Superstars 2, since that one is basically a handheld version of Raw as well.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/06