When THQ announced a wrestling game on the Dreamcast, most people would think little could go wrong. After all, they have published some of the best playing wrestling games ever such as Wrestlemania 2000 and WWF No Mercy. What THQ has opted to do here is port the arcade game of the same name, which is where all the problems lie.

Let's just say it now and get it over with. The game looks amazing. With up to nine wrestlers in the ring at one time, things never slow down and the frame rate keeps up without a hitch. All the wrestlers have their trademark taunts, but the rest of their animation is limited. It's all impressive when running and far better than the games pushed out by Acclaim.

The game's main problems lie with THQ's intentions of porting the arcade game, which to their credit, they did a fine job with. However, they added nothing. The minimal roster of 20 or so wrestlers is not adequate and with only 2 different modes to choose from, there is never a reason to go back to the game. This means there is no create-a-wrestler, PPV modes, tag bouts, cages, etc.

The Royal Rumble is supposed to be the meat of the game, but due to the limited roster of grapplers, the repeating entrants take not only the mystery out of the Rumble, but the fun as well. The game engine is based Yuke's WWF Smackdown engine on the PS One. The moves have been simplified so your list includes little more than standard punches and kicks. All of the finishing moves are included for each character, which adds a little authenticity to the game. The lack or ring entrances or full theme songs shows how little care was put into this title.

With so much potential for the Dreamcast's first exclusive wrestling game, it's a shame THQ failed so miserably. Considering the power of the Dreamcast allows for up to nine characters on the screen at once, future wrestling games could learn a lot from this and use it to their advantage. With that, it basically boils down to a fancy tech demo with an expensive license.