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WWE Survivor Series

I remember when I was a kid and I enjoyed professional wrestling. All the acrobatic skill and personality the wrestlers possessed was the perfect match for a boy that age, and to this day most likely still is. My favorite wrestlers had always been Jake the Snake and Hulk Hogan, each appealing to my inner sensibilities in some indecipherable way. We had our ups and downs, as I watched Hogan beat Andre the Giant and years later lose to the Ultimate Warrior. Today, wrestling is very different. On the professional level there is only one organization(WWE), where wrestlers are assembled into two different groups: Smackdown! and Raw. Both are actually the name of a show, each appearing on a different night of the week. Wrestlers take on opponents in their own shows, only bothering to take on wrestlers from the rival show at the monthly pay-per-view event. Survivor Series is usually the name of the event held in November.

The biggest appeal in this title is the inclusion of a Story mode, which was unavailable in the last WWE installment for the Gameboy Advance. While it’s a nice addition, it’s rather bland, making it unable for the player to find anything here that’s going to make them raise an eyebrow. Picking one wrestler from the sixteen star lineup, you choose to enter one of the shows. From there, the GM of said show will start you on a road that takes you through an assortment of matches such as single, tag, cage, submission, hardcore, and royal rumble. Before each match the GM will give you a stipulation that must be met to advance(aside form just pinning your opponent), gradually sending you up the ladder for a shot at all 3 title belts(not all at once silly), allowing you to move on to the other show after doing so.

Winning isn’t the only thing, however, as your popularity plays a role in this mode as well. After every match, you are given a number of points that apply toward your popularity rating. The amount of points you receive is dictated by the variety of moves you use during the match and whether you win with your finishing move. The use of a finishing move is gained by building up your momentum bar at the top of the screen. Every positive move adds to the bar in their own respect, whether it’s just a punch or a powerbomb. Once full it will flash, signalling the time is ripe for you to put the hurting on your foe with your finishing move.

Getting the bar full can be a bit difficult though. The problem doesn’t really fall on the bar itself, rather in the grappling system. If you’re familiar in the least with wrestling games then you should have a general idea of how this goes, but I will break it down for you in the interest of those uninformed folk. Basically, the A button works as your grapple button, allowing you to get a hold on your opponent. Once latched onto them, pressing a direction on the d-pad along with either the A or B button at the same time will perform a move. Simple, right? Well, the problem is that about 9 out of every 10 times the CPU will break your grapple, making the game very frustrating. I’ve been in matches where I’ve done 3 finishing moves to the CPU and have them STILL do this. As if that wasn’t a big enough flaw, every wrestler in the game has the same generic moves, only differentiating themselves through their outfits and finishing move. So whether you’re Chris Jericho or Rey Mysterio, up and A will make you do a suplex. Combine that with very slow gameplay and you get a gigantic amount of points deducted.

Aside from Story Mode, there is Multiplayer and Exhibition. In Exhibition, you can set up an exhibition, tournament, royal rumble, or team battle match using any of the rules from the Story mode. Pretty standard and any wrestling enthusiast will feel at home here. As far as the Multiplayer, 4 players can hook up with their GBAs if they have the game and participate in any of the aforementioned matches.

The graphics are pretty par. The background is comprised totally of sprites and never changes, while the wreslters themselves look a lot better being digitized images. No visible clipping or hit-detection issues arise, at least giving you one aspect of the game that is interesting. Ring entrances are pretty crummy, however, as only a MIDI song plays while you watch the wrestler slowly walk into the ring.

The sound is just plain. A straight MIDI soundtrack, you’ll find each wrestler’s theme music recreated faithfully(as much as can be through MIDI). The problem is the same track is looped over and over and over during every match while the action goes on, becoming quite annoying rather quick. As far as the sound effects, that department is ok. You’ll hear grunts and slams at the right spots, although they aren’t the finest of grunts or slams to cross your ear drums.

This game is really just boring. I can’t sum it up any better than that. With the lack of blocking, any speed, and a balanced grapple system, WWE Survivor Series shouldn’t be in anyone’s library unless they are the most diehard wrestling fan or a young child that won’t need a full-priced console game to feed their wrestling lust. I think THQ really needs to evaluate their flaws and improve on them before putting out another title for the GBA.

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Tags: WWE Survivor Series

Posted by David Hinkle on Nov 3rd, 2004 and is filed under GBA Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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