Get ready to.... fall asleep.

WWF Road to Wrestlemania for the Game Boy Advance is a game I suspect only real fans of this highly theatrical form of wrestling will enjoy. It features all the stars of the game – characters who apparently go by names such as “The Rock”, “Cold Stone Steve Austin” (or something like that) prance around the ring in shiny outfits, occasionally throwing each other over their shoulders. You might think from that description that I’m not a fan of WWF – and you’d be right. But that didn’t necessarily mean I wouldn’t enjoy the game, I remember a wrestling game on the old NES that was quite fun. Sadly, that clunky old 8-bit game beats its flashy 32-bit successor hands down.

I only came to have this game because it was thrown in for free when I bought my GBA second-hand. (I actually bartered the price down by saying I wouldn’t have that game but they threw it in for free anyway – I guess that should have been my first clue…) There are many types of tournament that you can set up, from a single exhibition match to a full season or even your own “Pay Per View” tournament. The myriad options in the start menu should keep even the most hardened WWF fan happy. Each wrestler has their own intro sequence and music – which looks quite flashy and presumably is authentic (I have absolutely no desire to find out by watching the real thing!) The digitised music is quite good and there’s even a bit of speech scattered here and there. So far so good…

… but it’s when you actually enter the ring that things all go pear-shaped. There’re plenty of moves you can do when you learn how but the bouts are just so boring. (It didn’t help that I was absolutely useless at the game either!! However I did refuse to review this until I’d at least beaten someone… took me about 6 goes to get my first win.) I felt absolutely no desire to practice and get better at the game though, it was just so dull. That’s my overall impression of the game – dull and boring. The graphics were quite nice, the animation fairly good, and the sound crisp and clear, but the game just failed to invoke any excitement whatsoever.

Fans of WWF may find they have the patience to give it more of a chance, get better at it, and be rewarded for doing so. My advice though would be to stay well away from this. You have been warned… (My only positive comment about the gameplay is that if you linked 2 GBAs and played against another human, it might be quite fun – for a while.)

(Incidentally, we took it down to Gamestation and got £3 for it as a trade-in, so I guess that for a freebie it wasn’t a complete disaster!)

Final Ratings
--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--

Graphics: - 77% - pretty good in all honesty, animation was detailed although a little slow.

Sound: - 86% - good, crisp sound effects and music

Playability: - 45% - stab some buttons, get bored…

Longevity: - 20% - stab some buttons, get bored…

Replay Value: - 15% - stab some buttons, get bored…

Value For Money: - 10% - stab some buttons, get bored…

Overall Rating: - 18% - stab some buttons, get bored…


See also my review of the Game Boy Advance