Not everyone wants to admit it, but we've all tried wrestling at some point. How many times have you put someone in a headlock, dished out a Chinese burn or even tussled underneath the duvet?

Some nutters crank it up to another level - maiming each other using baseball bats, barbed wire and flaming tables. Violence is the bottom line here. There's no ring, very few grappling moves and absolutely no rules at all.

You'll realise within minutes of firing up the disc that this is barely a wrestling game at all, rather a poorly executed beat 'em up. Punch, kick and wave weapons menacingly until the fickle collision detection decides you've landed a hit. There's not much more to it.

Each of the 30 backyard wrestlers has only four moves. With the exception of the finishers, which are fairly impressive, most of the grapples are poorly animated. Since when did every move in wrestling begin with a headlock? You'll start to feel the monotony all too quickly. There are a bunch of weapons dotted around the arena but they disappear as soon as you've used them once. They even respawn back at their start position, making it far too easy to use the same one over and over again.

Reversing attacks is great when it works, and sometimes the holds can go back and forth two or three times. It's extremely difficult to perfect though, because every move must be reversed at a different time. Unless you play for hours against the same opponent, you won't learn the timings correctly.

Still thinking it could be fun? Well how about battling a computer opponent who knocks you down and keeps you down permanently by chucking the respawning weapons? If you're lucky enough to stand upright, the projectiles actually home in on you as you try to run away. Turn the tables and you can stop your foe from recovering with a simple kick combo. Just boot him in the head every time he stands up and there's nothing the Al can do to counter your attack. You can complete the entire game with this one combination.

Some wrestling titles compensate for poor gameplay with numerous match types and multiplayer laughs. No laughs here, only tears. There are only three special match types and you can't even play with more than two players.

A stirring soundtrack featuring Machine Head, Insane Clown Posse and Sepultura is the game's only redeeming quality. You can even download tracks to your hard disk for use in other games. Common sense dictates, though, that if you like the music you should buy a (D instead. Don't try this at home... in fact, don't try this at all.

1. Interactive environments
2. Ace finishing moves

1. Extremely poor AI
2. Temperamental collision detection
3. Two players only, no tag teams

Power
Glitchy graphics. Grapples often go completely wrong. Characters have the same moves/animation.

Style
Awesome soundirack. Unlockable footage of the hot backyard babes (pity they look so awful in-game!).

Immersion
Doesn't really play like a wrestling game. Moves are limited and you don't have to pin anyone.

Lifespan
You can finish the story mode in about two hours using the same move over and over again.

Overall It's been ages since a wrestling game set the world alight and this s a real step backwards. Deserves to be slammed.