WWF Royal Rumble on the Sega Genesis looks good. The gameplay is still repetitive, and I don’t like the control scheme. The control scheme doesn’t ruin the game, but it is annoying.
The bright spot in this game is the graphics. It is a good-looking game, even if it has flaws. This game looks close to the SNES WWF games but doesn’t look as good as Saturday Night Slam Masters.
The Royal Rumble match is the big thing in this game. It is easy to throw people out of the ring in this game. While I wouldn’t say I like this match in video games, it is nice that the controls allow you to toss people out of the ring.
TLDR:
Narrative
There is no story mode or storyline in the game or manual. You can make a story around some game modes if you get creative.
The game does have tournaments and the Royal Rumble. You can use these matches to make a story for the wrestlers if you want to. However, you don’t have a create-a-player mode, so you need to use the available roster.
Gameplay
The gameplay is disappointing. Much like when I played the SNES games, the controls got worse with each new game. This is no exception.
WWF Royal Rumble has plenty of game modes, and the controls are easy to learn. The same control scheme is carried over from Super WrestleMania. If you liked the control scheme, then it is good. If you didn’t like it, like I didn’t, it is annoying to find it got a little worse.
The one thing I do like about the controls has to do with the Royal Rumble match. I usually don’t like this type of match in video games. However, once I learned the controls, tossing people out of the ring in this game was a little easier. It is still annoying, but it was a little bit easier here.
This game has a great roster! It is much better than Super WrestleMania. Here is the roster from this version of the game:
- Randy Savage
- Bret Hart
- Hulk Hogan
- The Undertaker
- Crush
- Jim Duggan
- Lex Lugar
- Shawn Michaels
- Rick Martel
- Papa Shango
- Razor Ramon
- IRS
There are a few game modes in this game. The big one is the Royal Rumble, but there are others. Here is the list:
- One-on-One
- Tag Team
- Tripple Tag Team (Six-man Tag Match)
- Royal Rumble
Within each of these selections. You have a Brawl and a tournament option as well. I do remember this from the SNES version.
It has the same 1-10 difficulty rating. I’m not sure why I was expecting anything different here. Still, I’m not too fond of this and prefer a simple, Easy, Medium, and Hard option.
Much like the games on the SNES, it feels like the controls have gotten worse. Even though they use the same tug-a-war grapple system, it is worse in this game. There is so much more button-mashing in this game for less payoff.
You can do more moves in this game, but the control scheme is worse. It is a shame because there are some great things in this game. In some ways, the developers built on the previous game.
Overall, the gameplay is a little worse than the previous game in the series. It is weird, and it made me wonder if my controller broke when I was switching cartridges somehow.
Visuals
The graphics are better in this game compared to Super WrestleMania. The sprites are more detailed but use the same model for every character. The animations are great, and the rest of the game looks good.
Like the games on the SNES, each character is a graphical change to the same model. This will also probably be a problem in the last game in this trilogy. It is the only thing I can point to as disappointing with the graphics.
How the characters look is much better than in the previous game. They look better, even if they use the same base model. There isn’t much to complain about, as they somewhat resemble how the wrestlers looked in the early 90s.
Overall, the graphics are one of the bright spots in this game. The character sprites look much better than Super WrestleMania and are close to the SNES WWF games. It is a good-looking game.
6.5/10. I’m giving this game the same score as Super Wrestlemania. I feel that the improved graphics, larger roster, and more game modes kept this from being lower than Super WrestleMania. I don’t think WWF Royal Rumble is a good game, and from a control standpoint, it is worse than Super WrestleMania.
Pros
- Good Graphics
- Good Roster
- Pick-up and Play
Cons
- No Story
- Annoying Control Scheme
- Repetitive Gameplay
Conclusion
This is one of the games that I would’ve liked more in the early 90s. It isn’t as bad as some of the NES wrestling games, but it has flaws that become more apparent when compared to the wrestling games on the PlayStation and N64. Also, I’m not too fond of the button-mashing control scheme that the developer uses.
The graphics are much better than Super WrestleMania on the Genesis. Even though the developers reused the same character model, they are very detailed and better than the previous games. They look closer to their real world counterparts than the previous game did.
I’m trying not to compare the wrestling games on the Genesis and SNES to the wrestling games of the mid to late 90s. It is hard to do as I have more memories of playing those games. I’m finding that nostalgia plays a part in these games, and I’m doing my best to ignore it.