There comes a time in every video game series when its developers
want to take their product and fly off on a tangent. Look at
Super Smash Brothers Melee, for instance. Within the game, you
have a bunch of Nintendo?s major corporate symbols, such as Mario,
Donkey Kong, and Samus Aran, who are the main characters of
adventure games. Now, instead of having them save the
princess/banana horde/galaxy, they are kicking the crap out of each
other using special techniques from their respective games.
Nintendo?s little experiment turned into one of their best takes in
the fighting game genre.
Now does this mean that any game series can deviate from its
vintage path a make a smash hit with an entirely different premise?
THQ put this question to the test and blended the superstars of the
WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) with hard-hitting combat racing
in WWE Crush Hour.
Here?s the story: Vince McMahon, the owner of WWE, has finally
bought out every major television station in existence. With some of
that space, he decides to place his wrestlers in a different type of
battle arena?a high-powered demolition derby of death and
destruction.
Yeah, THQ really had some time to kill, didn?t they?
Gameplay WWE Crush Hour plays very much like any
version of Twisted Metal you?ve played. However, after a few
play-throughs of this game, you?ll want to dust off good ol? TM
and probably apologize to it.
At the onset of the game, you have a wide selection of vehicles
to choose from, each driven by a WWE superstar. The style and
attributes of each vehicle reflect the wrestler driving it, such as
Brock Lesnar?s massive tank-like car, which doesn?t move very
quickly, but packs a hellified punch. Jeff Hardy drives a souped-up
station wagon that, when properly operated, can stick and move like
Jeff would in the ring.
There are various modes of play and arenas to crash around in.
Crush Hour gives the player modified versions of classic WWE
match types, like the triple threat, lumberjack, and hell in a cell.
All in all, Crush Hour provides a slew of options and
modes of play, but falls a taste below average in gameplay
mechanics. Too bad this is the games highest attribute, because
there?s not enough to compensate for the sound and graphics.
Graphics and Sound Here?s where the game take a downslide.
The in-games sounds are a real pain in the ears, especially the
commentary. You thought the play-by-play in the Smackdown games were
lame, wait?ll you hear the garbage Jim Ross spits in Crush Hour.
Allow me to give you a comparison. Remember Joe Montana?s Sports
Talk Football for the Sega Genesis? Remember how delayed and
spaced-out each spoken sentence was? Okay, take that and mix it with
some typical Jim Ross commentary. It was killing me to the point
were I almost broke the mute button on my television remote control.
Graphically, the game?s an eyesore. In all seriousness, I haven?t
seen such dull colors and graphics since Summoner. From what I?ve
seen, all aspects of visual sharpness were spent on the video
TitanTrons played during the entrances. The worst examples I?ve
noticed were in the vehicle selection menu, which shows a
three-dimensional shot of the car and its ?driver?. Every single
vehicle looks like a weather-beaten shell of its former self, you
know, before all the munitions were welded on. And the wrestler that
poses beside his/her automobile looks like something out of WWF
Warzone ?graphically primitive. A waste of space, in my opinion.
Crush Hour is an audio and visual mess, bottom line.
Replay Value Even though Crush Hour has lots of goodies to
unlock, like more combatants, arenas, and match types, its replay
value is very minimal. Let?s face it, car combat games are a dying
genre, if not a dead one. To put it simple: you?ll get your money?s
worth.
Crush Hour?s twenty-dollar price tag is a plus and a
minus. The positive end is obvious: twenty bucks is dirt cheap for a
video game, and anyone who?s a fan of the WWE can easily get sucked
into it. On the negative end, any game that costs that much can?t
possibly sound promising.
Conclusion If you like this type of car-crunching action
but are sick of Twisted Metal?retire the genre altogether because
you will not get much satisfaction from WWE Crush Hour. If
you?re a huge WWE fan, still save the twenty bones and get something
worthwhile?you know, like a Steve Austin bobblehead or something.
