WWF Royal Rumble (2000 video game)

WWF Royal Rumble

Arcade flyer art featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.
Developer(s) Sega
Yuke's
Publisher(s) Dreamcast: THQ
Yuke's (Japan release)[1]
Distributor(s) Sega
Platform(s) Arcade
Dreamcast
Release date(s)
  • NA August 1, 2000
  • EU September 22, 2000
  • JP April 26, 2001
Genre(s) Fighting, Sports
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer
Distribution GD-ROM (Dreamcast)
Cabinet Standard upright, two-screen version
Arcade system Sega NAOMI
CPU Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC CPU
Sound ARM7 Yamaha AICA 45 MHz
Display Raster, medium resolution

WWF Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling video game released in 2000 for arcades and the Dreamcast. THQ published the title for the Dreamcast while Sega released it for arcades. It is based on the World Wrestling Federation professional wrestling promotion and its yearly Royal Rumble event.[2] Yuke's, creators of the WWF SmackDown! series developed Royal Rumble, which had several unique features including support for up to nine wrestlers on the screen simultaneously.[3]

The Dreamcast version was released to mixed reviews that faulted its small roster and lack of gameplay modes.

Gameplay

Royal Rumble mode allows for more than eight characters on screen at once, including multiple instances of one wrestler; in this picture there are three Steve Austins.

The game has two modes, Exhibition and Royal Rumble. In Exhibition mode, the player chooses a wrestler along with a partner and wrestles a series of singles matches. The player's partner can interfere on the player's behalf on command. These partner moves can be used any number of times during the match, but must be recharged before they can be used again. The object of each match is to wear down the opponent using various attacks and grappling maneuvers, decreasing their life bar before ending the match by pinfall or knockout.[4]

Royal Rumble mode involves a multi-wrestler match in which the player must eliminate a certain number of opponents from the match within a time limit by sending them over the top rope and onto the floor. Eliminating opponents adds more time to the player's clock; eliminating larger wrestlers offers a higher time bonus. Due to size of the game's roster, wrestlers appear multiple times in the same Royal Rumble match.[4]

Each player has a super meter that fills up during the course of the match. When it fills up, the player receives an "S" icon, which can be used to instantly recover from pin attempts in Exhibition mode or re-enter the ring during a Royal Rumble match.[4]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings60.43%[5]
Metacritic66/100[6]
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame[7]
Computer and Video Games7/10[8]
Electronic Gaming Monthly5/10[9]
Famitsu30/40[1]
GamePro[10]
GameSpot6.5/10[4]
GameSpy4/10[11]
IGN5.2/10[3]
Maxim8/10[12]

The Dreamcast version was met with average to mixed reception upon release; GameRankings gave it a score of 60.43%,[5] while Metacritic gave it 66 out of 100.[6]

One of the biggest criticisms was of the small number of playable characters, which IGN called "paper thin" and GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann called "confining." The game's lack of modes was also criticized. IGN recommended other Japanese Dreamcast wrestling titles such as Toukon Retsuden and Giant Gram over Royal Rumble.[3][4] The earliest review came from PlanetDreamcast, which gave it a low score of four out of ten over a month before the game was released.[11] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 30 out of 40.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "ドリームキャスト - WWF ROYALRUMBLE". Famitsu 915: 53. June 30, 2006.
  2. ↑ "WWF Royal Rumble (Arcade)". Killer List of Videogames. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Dunham, Jeremy (August 15, 2000). "WWF Royal Rumble (DC)". IGN. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Gerstmann, Jeff (August 14, 2000). "WWF Royal Rumble Review (DC)". GameSpot. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "WWF Royal Rumble for Dreamcast". GameRankings. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "WWF Royal Rumble for Dreamcast Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  7. ↑ Ottoson, Joe. "WWF Royal Rumble (DC) - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  8. ↑ Key, Steve (2000). "Dreamcast Review: WWF Royal Rumble". Computer and Video Games (Official Dreamcast Magazine UK). Archived from the original on June 24, 2007. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  9. ↑ "WWF Royal Rumble (DC)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. 2000.
  10. ↑ The D-Pad Destroyer (August 15, 2000). "WWF Royal Rumble Review for Dreamcast on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on February 7, 2005. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Mr. Domino (July 3, 2000). "WWF Royal Rumble". PlanetDreamcast. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  12. ↑ Boyce, Ryan (August 4, 2000). "WWF Royal Rumble (DC)". Maxim. Archived from the original on June 26, 2001. Retrieved February 28, 2015.

External links