DESCRIPTION

Acclaim is following up their initial Dreamcast wrestling game with another along the very same lines. Less than four months after the release of their first wrestling game, WWF Attitude, ECW: Hardcore Revolution follows closely on its heels. The engine running both games is identical so expect similar things from both titles. The additions, other than new characters and a new wrestling league license, are based more on blood, gore and vulgar language than on actual gameplay.

ECW wrestling is famous for its hard hitting no holds barred extreme action. The game follows in that same path offering vulgar crowd chants, tons of cheap shots and low blows and of course plenty of blood. The addition of barbed wire ring ropes is a symbol for what this game represents.

The game features over 40 ECW wrestlers, including Rob Van Dam, Sabu, and New Jack. Each wrestler looks like the real life counterpart and comes along with the actual voices from the real wrestling stars. Joey Styles brings the ring commentary to you, an actual commentator in the ECW itself.

Starting the game and after selecting your wrestler there are six initial options. Deathmatch offers weapons to the wrestlers while the Cage match confines the action to a steel cage. Selecting Last Man standing is similar to a boxing match in that if floored for a count of ten the match is over. The Toughman match will require you to pin more than one opponent and the Barbed wire match is self-explanatory as the ring ropes are replaced with barbed wire. Selecting the Streetfight option will enable your wrestlers to fight both in and out of the ring.

Once the individual match type is selected the gamer is brought to another section of options. These are the win modifiers and will effect the way in which matches are won and lost. The Iron Man Match will require a wrestler to pin his opponent as many times as possible within a selected time limit. The, " I quit" match requires the wrestler to force his opponent to submit. When selecting the First Blood option the wrestler who first has his flesh pierced is the loser. The Finisher Only option requires that the wrestler use his finishing move to end a match. The last win modifier that can be selected is called "2 out of 3" and is self explanatory.

After deciding upon an initial type of match and selecting a win modifier there are still more game options to choose from. Choosing whether the action be manually controlled or simulated will be the first to be selected. The arena type is next, which is followed by selecting the time limit. There is an option to turn TKO's on or off and ultimately you are left to decide whether or not you would like to listen to the ring announcer during the action.

When embarking on a career even more options become available. All of the following are included: Pay-per-view, Living Dangerously, Anarchy Rulz, Guilty as Charged, Hardcore Event, November 2 Remember, and Heatwave. All of these scenarios duplicate their real life events. There is also a Tag team mode and Tag team career. The tag team options are Original, Tornado, 1 on 2, Lumberjack, 3 Way Dance and Battle Royal.

Lastly there are options to create your own wrestler and arenas. Wrestlers can be designed physically, named and given a specific personality (borrowed from a list of 40 real life wrestlers). There are attributes such as strength, toughness, speed, recovery, charisma, and mat skills that can be manipulated. Editing the arenas is also thorough. Selecting the stadium, ring lights, ring mat, ring apron, pad color, post color, rope color and banners are all required if you would like to make your own arena. All of these settings as well as careers can be saved to the VMU.

The game plays in almost an identical manner as its WWF Attitude counterpart from Acclaim. Energy meters will highlight the players remaining stamina and a ring timer will display the time remaining. The moves are input via chain of commands similar to that of most fighting games. An example of this is pushing the D-pad left, left, and then down while pressing a button at the same time to execute a move. Simple punch and kicks can be executed with the touch of a button while more difficult moves will require this type of command input. ~ Jonathan Licata, All Game Guide