Royal Rumble for Sega Dreamcast

The Royal Rumble is a special event in the eyes of professional wrestling fans. It begins the "Road to Wrestlemania," the build-up to the biggest show of the entire year, Wrestlemania. Traditionally, the pay-per-view (PPV) event is held every January and features a 30 person over-the-top-rope battle royal match in which the winner earns a shot at the top title in WWE.

This match type is generally in every WWE game in some form, from the arcade classic WWF Wrestlefest to the recently-released WWE 2K16. But in 200, THQ published a game for the Sega Dreamcast that was built entirely around the premise of the Royal Rumble match. On paper, this sounds like it could be a blast! Unfortunately, being the wrestling connoisseur I have been for a good portion of my life, I actually played it.

So while you get ready to watch the 2016 Royal Rumble event later this evening, please proceed with caution if you decide to hype yourself up for the event by playing the game based on the event.

Read on for more.

The standout feature of this game was that it was able to handle up to nine characters on screen at the same time. Anyone who has played wrestling games over the years could tell you that this is a rare thing, since many games struggle to handle more than 4-6 characters on screen at once.

On paper, once again, this sounds like an excellent feature, since the Rumble match features 30 participants at once. But in practice, you realize that is a total train wreck to try to play.  Trying to keep up with your ugly, blocky character in a sea of other ugly, blocky characters is trying at times and the sloppy controls don't help much.

As I mentioned earlier, the Royal Rumble match typically features 30 superstars that participate. The problem with that in this game is that there are only 21 characters in this game. You would think that if they were making a game based around a 30 person match type they would put 30 characters into the game. This results in characters returning to the ring just minutes after being eliminated. How many chances at being the number one contender is Al Snow and the Godfather going to get?

The only other mode in the game besides the Rumble match is an exhibition mode where you seem to pick a partner that acts as your manager who you can summon into the ring to attack your opponent. This doesn't make much sense, but whatever.

I hope this post serves as a warning to all who wish to explore WWE's video game past in preparation for the pay-per-view event that is just a few hours away. Just stick to No Mercy and you'll be okay.