Ok folks time for another review for this one I present a game that still holds a place in my heart and that I have on a SD card in my ATGAmes Portable Genesis I present WWF Royal Rumble for the Sega Genesis/Super Ninentdo. This game was Developed by Sculptured Software and was Published by LJN(SNES) and Fling Edge(Genesis)
This was the first WWF wrestling game of the 16 bit era and IMO the best of the era. This was named after the WWF PPV of the same name that started with a USA Network TV special in 1988 and was made into a PPV for the first time in 1990. This PPV to this day continues to be a Hallmark of WWE and always one of the most anticipated events they have every year. There are few 16 bit games that I've played as much over the years as this game. And I still love it to this day. Let's break it down.
Graphics- As you would imagine the graphics in this game are a definate upgrade from the 8 bit era. I would even consider them almost beautiful. The Sprites have a lot of detail to them the costumes are 100% accurate. The wrestler selection screen is really nice looking with great pics of each wrestler. The Ring is presented in Great Detail of a WWF show from the era.The Backround crowd looks good and you even get little sprites of Vince Mcmahon and Bobby Heenan at a table.
Sound-As you would expect nothing really that special here for sound your basic crowd noise,Sounds of punches,kicks,and Slams, But the Theme Music in the wrestler selection screen does sound nice.
Gameplay-This game ushered in a new gameplay mechanic call the Tug of War Grapple system and some people liked it some people hated it. Me?? I didn't mind it you just have to have extra stamina in your fingers lol. Every wrestler has moves they share like punches,kicks,Suplex,Bodyslam,Dives off the top rope and running drop kicks, But every wrestler also has their own Finishing move and for the first time they have their REAL finishers what a relief. The moves and moving around the ring are pretty easy to learn and pull off.Another cool thing in this game is you can hit the referee which is funny to do. And there is also a Steel Chair outside the ring you can pick up and use. You have a scale of difficulty settings for your matches from 0 to 10 which is nice. You also have the option of either selecting your opponent or opponents or having the cpu do it for you. As for game modes you have your standard Singles match, Tag Match, 6 man tag match,Brawl in singles and tag where you win by draining your opponent's health bar completely. And of course the Royal Rumble where you participate in a Over the Top Rope Royal Rumble match which is cool but tough to win. You also have a one player tournament mode to win a Championship Belt.
Roster-Now this is where things get Great IMO. One really cool thing they did here is each version of the game both SNES and Genesis had Exclusive Wrestlers. I really liked this concept. The games share the following wrestlers Bret Hart,The Undertaker,Shawn Michaels,Razor Ramon,Macho Man Randy Savage,Crush and The Narcissist Lex Luger.Pretty awesome roster by itself. But The SNES version also has Ric Flair,Mr.Perfect,Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase,Yokozuna and Tatanka, And the Genesis Version has Hulk Hogan,IRS,The Model Rick Martel,Jim Duggan,and Papa Shango. All awesome selections for the time.
Well there you have it folks Royal Rumble for the Genesis/SNES here is the final grades,
Graphics-A
Sound-B
Gameplay-B+
Roster-A+
So the final grade is around a B+/A-
Up next I'm thingking of doing WWF Raw for Genesis/SNES but if there is something else you'd like me to review let me know.