| Introduction:
The Royal Rumble is an event in the WWF where 30 superstars duke it out in a battle royal fashion. However, a Royal Rumble is different than a battle royal, as in Royal Rumble you start off with two wrestlers in the ring at once. Every two minutes a new wrestler enters the ring, and there are 30 total. The same rules apply to the battle royal, when a wrestler goes over the top ropes, he is eliminated. This conitinues until there is one man left, and he is declared the winner. The SNES game is different from the actual Royal Rumble, as there are only 12 particiapants instead of thiry. The game only has six wrestlers in the ring at once, and when one is thrown out, a new one comes in, so the two minute thing does not apply in the SNES game. The game also has single, tag-team, and even triple tag-team matchups. You can even try to win the WWF Championship belt or the WWF Tag-Team Championship belt. The 12 wrestlers in the game you can choose from are Randy "The Macho Man" Savage, "Mr. Perfect" Curt Henning, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, The Undertaker, Crush, Tatanka, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, Razor Ramon(now known as Scott Hall in N.W.O.), Shawn Michaels, "The Narcissist" Lex Luger, and Yokozuna.
Graphics [7/10]:
Although the characters may look large and seem detailed at first, I don't think the graphics are that stunning on this game. For one thing, the animations in this game are very jerky and are not smooth at all. They did do a good job on the character's costumes, but if you couldn't go by the costumes, I doubt you could recognize some of the characters. The faces on each character is rather blurry and they do not look like the wrestlers they are supposed be at all in most cases.
Music and Sound [10/10]:
This game does well in as far as music and sounds are concerned. The opening theme for this game is great! What I really like about this game, is when you are choosing the wrestler you want to be, you can stop on a wrestler for a second and it will play his actual theme song. If you are a fan of one of these 12 wrestlers, it will thrill you to hear their real theme song and not just some cheap imitation. The sounds in this game are good to. You can hear everything from punches and kicks connecting to your opponent, wrestlers groaning when hit, the sound of a metal chair when it hits somebody, to the sound of a wrestler hitting the mat. These sounds make you feel like you are actually involved in a brawl. LJN did a good job in this department.
Gameplay [8.5/10]:
The only thing wrong with the gameplay on this game is when you lock up with a human opponent, you spend forever hitting buttons as fast as you can before one person performs a move on the other. This can get rather tedious, but outside of that, this game is a blast to play and excels in the gameplay department. The Royal Rumble is a cool feature, despite the fact that it is different than the real one. There is nothing better than whoppin on five other opponents, using your special move(yes, all wrestlers have their actual special moves on this game, and they are easy to pull off), and then launching them all out of the ring so you can be Royal Rumble Champion. The crowd then goes wild and your theme song starts playing. You can play one or two player, and there are 10 different difficulty settings, numbered from 1-10(1 is easiest, 10 is the hardest). Yes, you can tell the difference between setting 1 and setting 10 easily. You can also go one-on-one, brawl(first person to run out of stamina loses), tag-team, and triple tag team. In all the matches listed previously, you can use a chair located outside the ring without penalty, and this is a blast to do! You can also compete for the WWF Championship title or the WWF Tag Team title. All the moves, including each wrestler's special move, are easy to pull off. This is a fun game that will keep you entertained for awhile.
Challenge and Replay [9.5/10]:
This game isn't too hard unless you set it on 10. Even then it's not too difficult. This game does have high replay value because of the different modes(Royal Rumble, one-on-one, tag team, and triple tag-team) and you can crank it up to a harder setting once you beat a mode on an easier one. If you win the Royal Rumble on level 10, it gives you a different message when you win. It's fun to play the Royal Rumble mode even after you have won several times to see how many people you can eliminate total, and how fast you can finish. It keeps track of time on the Royal Rumble. When it is over, it tells how long the whole thing lasted, and how long everyone stayed in. The other modes are fun to because you can use the chair as much as you want without being disqualified. If you are quick enough, you can even knock out the referee. Then you are free to use choke and eye gouge moves on your opponent and you can stay outside the ring until the referee wakes up and starts counting.
Conclusion/Overall [9.5/10]:
If you are a wrestling fan, this game is a must have. The Royal Rumble feature is a blast that will keep you coming back for some more. You will also get a kick out of using chairs on your opponent without any penalties. It's great that they have each wrestler's theme song and special moves on this game. Who needs those overrated fighting games? This game is probably the among the best fighting games I have played. This game has a high gameplay value with many cool features that will keep anyone entertained for a long time.
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