Previous Next

You can really get off to a flying start with this one. Despite claiming on the box that it supports the 520 ST, WWF European Rampage Tour is, in fact, a 1MByte-only game. Some people would argue that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Why? Well, probably because ST owners who haven't upgraded won't run the risk of being tempted to buy this lump of unmitigated trash.

With a game like this, it's difficult to know where to start. You can always take it apart on its merits as a game - not a difficult one, this. WWF European Rampage plays like it was written - with a beat-'em-up construction kit. The gameplay consists of walking up to your opponent and hitting the Fire button to punch him a few times until he falls down. You then stomp on him a bit, and then a bit more, and you keep on going until his energy level is sufficiently low for you to flop down on top of him, and pin him down for three seconds - winning you the match.

The tag-team aspect of the game serves only to drag out each bout for twice as long - if your opponent escapes to his corner, he can tag his partner who then comes in which a full energy bar. This forces you to start the tedious process all over again.

You might wonder about brightening up the game by using the more complicated moves. To be honest, they are quite difficult to perform properly, and are totally unnecessary since the very easy "punch and stomp" sequence is much more effective.

Well, alright, so the gameplay is pathetic. Surely this means that the programmer has been concentrating on the soundtrack and graphics? Nope. Your little sister could do better than this with a set of crayons and a Bontempi organ. So zero gameplay and crap graphics. As the first WWF game proved, however, that's not necessarily enough to prevent the game from becoming a huge success - we live in a very sad world, you know!

Fanatics of these games usually lap up anything that carries the official WWF logo on it - so let's take a look at how European Rampage fares as a WWF licence? Not very highly, that's for sure. You get a strictly limited selection of WWF wrestlers to choose your characters from, many of whom are hopelessly out of date. None of the characters boast any of their real-life trademark moves or characteristics. The atmosphere-building insult-trading section of the first game has gone, and there's none of the showbiz razzamatazz that's the real secret of WWF's success as a spectator event. The "tour" aspect of the game consists of repeating the same three bouts - you always have to fight the Nasty Boys, the Natural Disasters and the Legion of Doom in different European venues. These are all exactly the same crude arena, with different flags and banners - this is unlikely to make you want to play on.

So the gameplay's useless, it's unbelievably repetitive, and it's got next to nothing to do with the WWF. What's left? How about the success of WWF European Rampage Tour as a quick-buck, lazy, cash-in rip-off aimed at separating ST users from outrageous amounts of money? Well, that one's up to you to decide, folks!

Last year, Ocean released a game only slightly less appalling than this one. A lot of people ended up with burned fingers, however, and a strong disinclination to fall for it again. This year they've upped the price - £30 for a two-disk travesty like this, cut their costs - no "free" video this time round, and produced a game that's quite tangibly and unarguably dreadful.

None whatsoever.

No gameplay, looks and sounds awful, no WWF feel, ridiculous price tag... need I go on?