DREAMCAST
Published by THQ
Reviewed by Dale of GameCritics on 9/12/00

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First Impressions:

Graphics:

Royal Rumble's most obvious weakness is in the poor visuals. Aside from well-done facial textures and large character models, the graphics look like they were taken right out of the PlayStation version -- only now they are rendered at a higher resolution. Everything else in the game looks well below the graphical benchmark that Dreamcast games have set since the console's launch. It's as if Yukes was unaware that it had the machine's processing power and 1 GB of disc space at its disposal.

Sound/Music:

The audio throughout the game is substandard. Granted, the sounds of wrestlers beating up on and throwing each other around the ring are well done, but aside from that there isn't anything to get excited about. Each wrestler's intro music -- for the few seconds its even played -- is drowned out by crowd noise and other music played in the game is pretty forgettable.

Gameplay:

The Exhibition mode is as close to a tag team mode as you will get in this game. A single wrestler is chosen and taken into the ring, but before that a "partner" is selected to stand at ringside to offer temporary assistance when needed. At first this seemed to be a weak trade-off for not having a tag-team feature, but after playing for a few minutes it is easy to see its advantages. Each wrestling partner comes with three sets of three potential team moves to choose from. Each set can consist of purely offensive attacks, defensive tactics, or a combination of the two. If for instance, I chose Tazz as a partner, then I could become an offensive juggernaut, but if I chose one of the Hardy Boyz, I had more defensive moves to choose from. It all came down to my individual preference. That easily makes this option the game's brightest achievement, as it plays pivotal roles in the outcome of every match.

As is customary with Yukes' games, pulling off moves is a snap. Everything from grappling, to throws, to running moves are all executed with simple button combinations that usually involve the D-pad and one of the four face buttons (X, A, B, Y). The same goes for the team moves as well, with the only limitation being that they become momentarily unavailable after each use. That usually meant I had to make each use count, because once they were used, I had to go back to using standard wrestling moves -- it was a compromise, but one that enriched the gameplay. If I were ever being dominated by a computer opponent -- or in some rare cases, Chi -- a few choice double suplexes or double leg drops could swing the match back in my favor. Another benefit of these tactics was that they were just plain cool to pull off on an opponent. For full effect, the camera would switch mid-action and show off a pre-recorded animation routine that was made solely to "sell" the move. Considering how many times I cheered or cringed -- depending on whether I was dishing out or on the receiving end of that punishment -- I think it is safe to say they were successful.

I cannot stress enough the visceral pleasure I got from throwing an opponent around with the help of a partner, but that wasn't the only beneficial element to the game. Royal Rumble comes with a "specials" meter that is filled with every body slam, suplex or whatever moves I use on an opponent. Although, a full specials meter allows a special move to be executed with a tap of the R button, there is more to it than that. Offering temporary immunity or last ditch maneuvers, the specials meter serves a defensive purpose as well. The specials meter could be filled as many as five consecutive times, with each full meter signified by an S icon. I could then choose to either pull off a powerhouse move like The People's Elbow, or in the case that I was being pinned, I could use up one of the specials for a desperation kickout. Success in a match can be predicated on whether care was taken with this technique. If I mistimed or missed altogether with a special move, my entire special bar would be wiped clean. This left me to start over from scratch, and that is something I didn't want to do with only seconds left in a match.

It's ironic that the main event, the Royal Rumble, was the one that I found to be the most underwhelming and demonstrative of the game's shortfalls. Each match starts with four wrestlers in the ring -- this is a multiplayer arcade game after all -- and additional wrestlers enter the ring every couple of minutes. Just as advertised, it is possible for as many as nine wrestlers to be in the ring at once. However, the action doesn't seem to be that much better than any other Royal Rumble effort. Having that many bodies working independently is a sight to see, but this was the extent to which the game innovated. Case in point is their incredibly short attention spans. Many were the times when I was left dizzy after a flurry of combos or hanging onto the bottom ropes on the verge of being eliminated, that my attacker or attackers would simply stop their assault and move onto a far more healthy target.

Enjoyment:

Royal Rumble seems to stumble in every other aspect of the game, and unfortunately, a lot of that has to do with laziness on the part of the developer. There also seems to be a dearth of wrestlers available (a mere 20), which leads me to wonder how a nobody like Tazz could make it into the game at the expense of established favorites like the Dudley Boyz. And why are wrestlers in their old costumes? Many of the wrestlers like The Undertaker and Mankind were stuck in their old gear long after they made the change, but Yukes didn't bother offering alternate costumes -- something that is the cornerstone of these types of games. Don't get me started on the fact that wrestlers don't even enter the ring with their trademark music? I mean, come on -- even Capcom's Saturday Night Slammasters gave you that, and that game is over 10 years old!

Yukes did try to add some interesting elements to boost the variety in the game, but ultimately they all fell short. During any exhibition match, for instance, as many as three wrestlers can run to ringside to interrupt the action and pummel the combatants. I'm sure this looks like a great idea on paper, but seen in action, it has serious flaws. The randomness of their appearance was never shielded, and they always seemed to come into the ring at the same exact time from match to match. What was worse was that they would often spend more time beating up on me than my computer-controlled opponent. Needless to say, I turned off this little novelty as soon as I figured out I could. Another potential selling point was to be the randomly changing settings. Almost halfway through a match, the wrestlers are teleported to one of six different locations. This could including anything from a kitchen to a parking garage and steel cage. The problem is that although these other areas offer easier access all manner of foreign objects, I had more fun in the ring. Many of my superstars' special moves, as well as their double team moves, look better when done within the confines of the ring. These gimmicks ultimately cannot hide that Royal Rumble is really low on things to do and does not offer enough to hold my interest.

Multiplayer:

One of Royal Rumble's strengths is its multiplayer feature. Taking on a friend and his ringside partner in Exhibition mode equates to an unbelievably good time. As I said earlier, the technique and strategies that having a partner afford each player the opportunity to make the miraculous comebacks so common in the real-life wrestling matches. Often the winner is determined by who was the smartest, but also the luckiest because everything is so well balanced. The Royal Rumble mode is like any other self-respecting Royal Rumble mode that comes with all wrestling games. With this Dreamcast version, it's especially fun to take on three buddies and five computer controlled opponents. The level of chaos that ensues is unprecedented and weak computer AI aside, this part of the game is always fun.

What hurts the multiplayer mode is the deficiency of wrestlers to take into a match. As much fun as I had in the beginning, I soon grew tired of the selectable wrestlers. Usually I could turn to my create-a-player mode when I tired of the stock catalog of wrestlers or visa versa, but alas such an option was not available. And as a result this leads to one of the stranger parts of the game. By default the Royal Rumble consists of 30 wrestlers, but with WWF Royal Rumble's 20-wrestler roster the only solution was for Yukes to recycle wrestlers to make up the difference. Stranger still is that I could set the maximum number of wrestlers taking part in the match to as much as 60. Watching the same wrestlers reappear in the ring time after time got to be a bit irritating.

Overall Impression:

WWF Royal Rumble is the perfect game if you have a dollar to blow and half an hour left on your lunch break. Its entire design is such that it can be picked up quickly and mastered before it is over. It also features some great body crunching action that has been missing in the wrestling games of late. However, such a scarcity of features need to be balanced by a lot more than Royal Rumble has to offer when it comes to the home market. The Royal Rumble is repetitive and uninspired, and though it showed flashes of ingenuity, the Exhibition mode could be easily beaten leaving less and less reason to continue playing after a few sittings. It is a fun game for a day or two, but it soon wears thin.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

We shouldn't kid ourselves. This is wrestling, and more to the point, it's WWF wrestling. It is heavily geared towards a male audience, and while the scantily clad women are not in the game, they still manage to make appearances in the game's introductory and ending video sequences. Perhaps the lack of female exploitation would make this particular game more appealing, but I doubt that was THQ's intention.

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