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Ultimate Fighting Championship (DC)
by shaneo632
By now, in 2009, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is a pretty hot commodity - it currently has a higher buy rate than alternatives like the WWE, although back when this game was released on the Dreamcast, they were still struggling with their violent reputation and trying to become recognised as a legitimate sport. Nevertheless, they ... managed to get licensed for a game.
At the time of the game's release, UFC went by a mostly "anything goes" rule, and aside from crotch shots and hair pulling, they still let a lot go (although had to make some concessions to the Nevada State Athletic Comittee to get legal status as a sport) - you can pummel your opponent in the face as much as you like, and the referee will stop the fight if the opponent defend yourself. Also, a fighter may tap out or call "stop" if he wants the fight to end. Sadly, too many of the real UFC fights do simply end in a judge's decision, but in the game, this is rare - it is far better tailored to the audiences who just want to see someone get knocked out, and whilst solid in this regard, it's still a mildly flawed game that isn't quite as satisfying as it should be.
You can just do normal exhibition fights either against the computer or a buddy, or you can put yourself into UFC Tournament Mode, where you will have to plough through a number of opponents to become the UFC Champion.
Whilst it's not a particularly comprehensive game, and you'll get pretty sleepy with the lazy presentation (particularly that there's just one arena, and the crowd pretty much always look the same), what the game succeeds with best, though, is the visual package - even 8 years later, it still looks pretty good, and the entrances as your fighter enters the octagon is rather pleasant to look at.
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ECW Hardcore Revolution (DC)
by shaneo632
Acclaim were a very strange creator of wrestling video games back in the day - after Midway gave it a very arcadey approach, they decided to opt for a more refined approach that requires you to think about the match and press special combos to pull of moves. The only problem is that it becomes rather mechanical, and of course, most ... people aren't going to remember any of these, resulting in both players pressing pause every few seconds to figure out how to do a dropkick. WWF Attitude was well crafted enough that I let them get away with it, but ECW Hardcore Revolution is a pretty naff addition to the wrestling game genre.
The reason why Acclaim tackled ECW was because their license expired with the WWF, and presumably they couldn't afford to renew it, so they close the sloppy seconds that are ECW. It's not so much that the game is terrible - it has a fairly large roster considering how few ECW wrestlers there actually are, and all the favourites such as Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman are in there, but the controls are just too cumbersome for the casual viewer that it's really a rather awkward and not too satisfying experience.
The only real spice of the mix is the new Barbed Wire Match mode, although sadly that's all that's new - it wasn't until the later game Anarchy Rulz was released that insane modes such as Inferno matches were added. Sadly, aside from that, it's as though, aside from bringing in Joey Styles to do some admittedly fairly decent voiceover work, they've just overlaid the ECW wrestler details over WWF Attitude, changed some of the visuals and added some new music - even when it was first released, and I was about 12, I wouldn't have been suckered in by this. A very crude cash-in if I've ever seen it, and a disappointment considering what could have been.
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WWF Royal Rumble (DC)
by shaneo632
I've played virtually every wrestling game that has ever existed, and whilst the Dreamcast's Royal Rumble isn't jam-packed with the vast options that the Smackdown series of the same generation did, it had one killer feature that blew the PS2's wrestling games out of the water - the ability to have up to nine wrestlers on the screen at ... once, a mind-blowingly astounding achievement that really still hasn't been bettered, even on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
The game is very minimalist aside from this, though - there's an exhibition mode where you can pick any two wrestlers and have a brawl, and then there's the icing on the cake that is the Royal Rumble which, without this, the game would be a good-looking, but rather mediocre title. One notable feature, though, is the ability to get a manager to interfere during a singles match, which hadn't really been done prior to this, and no doubt influenced the use of it in the later Smackdown games.
One considerable weakness of the game is that the Royal Rumble match itself has 30 competitors in it, with you seeking to survive the match by throwing the other wrestlers over the top rope. However, the game only has 22 wrestlers, leaving a surfeit of 8 wrestlers, meaning that those 8 will simply be repetitions of wrestlers that have already entered, which seems rather daft. I'm sure the Dreamcast could have accomodated another 8 wrestlers, and if not, then perhaps it explains how they were able to have 9 wrestlers in the ring at once!
It's no masterpiece, and were it not for the impressive Royal Rumble mode and stellar graphics, few would even remember it - it's a revolution in some aspects, but also a grave disappointment in others. An interesting experiment more than a great game, it's still worth playing if you're a wrestling fan, perhaps for a rental (at least back in the day) more than a purchase.
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