Years ago, before they got their big boy britches on, the WWE was known as the WWF (World Wrestling Federation). See, the WWE decided to take on someone else that held those initials, the World Wildlife Foundation. The animal rights company won the ownership of the initials and the Federation became “Entertainment”. Anyhow, back in the early 1990’s gamers were privy to a lot of wrestling games. Most were based on either the WWF or WCW (the NWA was never featured in a video game that I know of). WWF Royal Rumble was one of those titles that took decent advantage of the Super Nintendo sound chip.
WWF Royal Rumble a good LJN game
Now, I must say, this is one of the VERY few good LJN games to be released. WWF Royal Rumble featured 12 wrestlers in its roster. Seven of those wrestlers were common between the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis versions:
The Undertaker
Shawn Michaels
Razor Ramon
Randy Savage (RIP)
Crush (RIP)
The Narcissist (Lex Luger)
Bret “The Hitman” Heart
The Super Nintendo version of WWF Royal Rumble featured five exclusive wrestlers, er sorry- athletes:
Ric Flair
Mr. Perfect (RIP)
Ted DiBiase
Yokozuna (RIP)
Tatanka
Missing one key character
If you were a fan of Hulk Hogan and wanted to play with him you would have to wait three months and get the Sega Genesis version. Anyhow, there were some liberties taken in the characters, though for the most part fans will instantly know who is who even with six of them in the ring at once. Yokozuna for instance is not as “big” as he was on television.
Music mattered a lot
The sound in WWF Royal Rumble is awesome when picking your character. After you actually get in the ring it is pretty bare. This was standard for wrestling games of the time though- none really tried playing music or anything during the matches.
Early achievements
The cool thing about the main match mode (there are others) is that when you win, you get a detailed list of opponents you defeated in the Royal Rumble. While that is a silly thing to be impressed with, it is interesting and was the basis of many tournaments as I was growing up.
For fans, WWF Royal Rumble was awesome, small roster be damned. Even though the in game sprites were often quite off (such as Yokozuna) it didn't stop me from enjoying this title. If you are a fan of the 90's WWF then you will love this game.
Grab your copy of WWF Royal Rumble on eBay
or Amazon - we get a small kickback which helps us keep from starting a Patreon and annoying the hell out of you cyber begging. Want to know more about what I think of WWF Royal Rumble? Check out my review.
This review was originally published on Retro Gaming Magazine.