WWF Royal Rumble

You've seen one on one, tag teams, doubles, and whatnot, but this is crazy! In WWF Royal Rumble, you'll get yourself into a brawl simultaneously involving up to nine wrestlers and one helpless referee (with this kind of fighting, what power are rules anyway?). This free-for-all madness even spills out of the ring into the parking lot, where you'll have to avoid getting hit by passing cars. Developed in tandem with the coin-op version of the same game, WWF Royal Rumble is free of career managing and wrestler creation and concentrates instead on dynamic group mayhem. Go ahead and punch one wrestler and then leave him to put another in a lock; it's entirely up to you. You can even partner with another wrestler and have him execute moves on your behalf--valuable when your face is being pushed into the canvas.

Dreamcast fans have been waiting to come off the top rope for quite some time, and now they have their chance with WWF Royal Rumble for the Dreamcast. Last year's WWF Attitude title for the Dreamcast was mediocre at best, as the characters moved like robots and the control was very cumbersome. WWF Royal Rumble changes all that, with excellent animation and solid controls. This is a perfect translation of a concurrent arcade standup (so save those quarters for more important things--like laundry!).

Nine characters can fight it out in the ring at any one time, making this game a showcase for the power of the Dreamcast. The action turns into quite the melee as over 20 of your favorite WWF superstars (the Rock, the Road Dogg, Kane, D'Lo Brown, the Big Show, for instance) take to the squared circle in a battle of epic proportions.

Like its arcade cousin, the Dreamcast version features controls that are easy to learn and a breeze to execute. One button is used for attacking, another for grappling, and a third for pinning, running, and climbing the top rope. Use the directional pad when tapping the buttons to determine which special move you will perform on your opponent. A double button press during a match causes your partner to toss in a concealed weapon, do a run-in attack, or maybe even perform a double tag-team move on your opponent.

Each time a wrestler takes damage or delivers a special move, his or her special meter increases. Once the meter is filled, an S appears next to the meter. The letters allow signature moves to be executed, or they can be used to escape or hold a pin. The more Ss you have, the more power you have in a match (you can save up to five of these important letters).

The single-player mode gets old quickly, but add two or three of your friends and this game becomes amazing. For some, WWF Royal Rumble will be a button-mashing masterpiece. --Todd Mowatt

Pros:

• Up to nine wrestling characters at a time
• Perfect port of the arcade version
• Special meter allows you to save up for special moves

Cons:

• Limited fun for the single player