WWF RAW on the Genesis Looks and Plays Great

WWF RAW on the Sega Genesis is a great-looking game. It still has that annoying tug-of-war control scheme that devolves into button mashing. Thankfully, this is the last time I have to discuss the controls.

There is a lot to do in this game. You have plenty of game modes to keep you busy, and while they all play the same, it can be fun to go through them. Having the option to play with four players is also a fantastic idea.

I liked this version of the game more than the SNES version. There isn’t a difference between them, but I think playing them in order greatly influenced how I feel about things. When I compared the three Genesis games to each other, I think this one is the best.

TLDR: Looks Good, Lots to do, Annoying Controls.

Narrative

Like the other wrestling games of this era, WWF RAW has no story mode. For a series of games based on pro wrestling, it is strange that they didn’t try to put a story into the games.

Gameplay

My opinions on the gameplay are a little mixed. I like how many game modes were added to this game. There is a lot to do, making it fun to play through each of them. However, I wouldn’t say I like the control scheme used. It is also annoying that each character plays the same.

You can play with four players, assuming you have a multi-tap and three friends who want to go back and play 30-year-old wrestling games with you. I didn’t know anyone who owned a multi-tap in the early 90s, but I collected many of them in high school. I don’t remember using any of them because playing the N64 and Dreamcast was more fun.

There is a lot to do in this game. WWF RAW gives you a ton of game modes to play, and from this standpoint, it is the best game on the system. However, I wouldn’t say it is my favorite.

• One-on-one
• Tag Team
• Bedlam
• Survivor Series
• Royal Rumble
• Endurance Match

When you select one of the modes, you’ll sometimes have to choose from another menu. This menu lets you have a Brawl, Tournament, or a regular match. The number of game modes is a bright spot for this game.

The roster is pretty good. It is better than the other WWF games, but I’m still confused by Luna Vachon being in the game. It seems odd to have her here.

• Razor Ramon
• Lex Luger
• 1-2-3 Kid
• Doink
• Diesel
• Shawn Michaels
• Owen Hart
• Yokozuna
• Bret Hart
• The Undertaker
• Luna Vachon
• Bam Bam Bigelow

Each wrestler has the same basic move set. The game is also saddled with the annoying tug-of-war control scheme from the other Acclaim/LJN/Flying Edge games. I’m glad this is the last time I’ll have to mention this.

There are special moves in the game. I only saw the CPU pull these moves off, and they looked very good! There are some other moves you can do, but for the most part, you will be stuck with punch, kick, and grapple moves.

As much as I don’t like the control scheme. It is easy to use. However, the difficulty spikes in this game make it very hard to do many of the moves.

I think I mentioned this with the SNES games, but I want to mention the difficulty setting on this game. WWF RAW and WWF Royal Rumble used a 1-10 scale for a difficulty setting. I guessed that one was Easy and ten was hard. I don’t know why the developers thought this was better than a simple, Easy, Medium, and Hard setting.

You can knock out the referee in this game. I wasn’t expecting this, and it doesn’t do anything aside from giving you the illusion of the rules being broken, but it is cool. It would’ve been interesting if the referee had disqualified me, but that didn’t happen. He just got back up and continued doing his job.

Overall, I’m not fond of the control scheme, but it isn’t that bad once you get the hang of it. There are plenty of game modes to keep you busy for a while, but the lack of a championship to chase after a storyline to follow makes this a tough game to revisit.

Visuals

WWF RAW is the best-looking of the three Flying Edge/Acclaim games. The character sprites have gotten better. It doesn’t look like the developers used the same character model or they did a better job of making changes to the model.

The ring, crowd, and move animations all look very good. However, they missed an opportunity to have ring entrances. It isn’t a big deal until you see how Saturday Night Slam Masters pulled this off. Even the WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game has something close to ring entrances.

This is a good-looking game. The graphics are nice, the characters look good, and the moves look nice. I think it is the third best-looking wrestling game on the Sega Genesis.

7.5/10. I liked this version more than the SNES version. It is a good game, but I didn’t like the control scheme. It is the best-looking of the three LJN/Acclaim/Flying Edge wrestling games.

Pros

• Lots of Game Modes
• Pick-up and Play
• Good Roster

Cons

• Annoying Control Scheme
• No Story
• Repetitive

Conclusion

This is a decent game. It isn’t my favorite wrestling game on the console, but it does have a lot going for it. The graphics are good, the roster is great, and there are plenty of game modes. Not having a story is disappointing but not a huge problem.

I’m still unsure why Luna Vachon was included in this game. It feels very random to have her here. Was there not another wrestler they could include? Why only have one female wrestler in the game? Luna was a great wrestler, but having her in the game feels very random.

I’m glad I don’t have to play these games anymore. After playing the different Super WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and RAW versions, I got sick of dealing with a control scheme I didn’t enjoy. It is a shame because the games look good, but the controls were annoying at best.