WWE Crush Hour - Gamecube

WWE Crush Hour by THQ Taking their WWE licence in a new direction, THQ have released a fast-paced action driving combat game featuring everyone's favourite wrestlers from the WWE, but can this new direction make for a playable game...? The game kicks off with a brief intro video setting the story for the game. In the near future, the WWE empire has expanded and has taken over all of television. Now, WWE stars can be found in adverts, game shows and pretty much every TV show you can imagine. Not satisfied with this, WWE owner Vince McMahon decides to take the WWE franchise one step further taking his wrestling superstars into high-octane arena-based vehicle combat... and that's where the game begins. Once you have chosen your WWE superstar, you take your vehicle into one of a number of themed arenas - each based on a WWE show or type of event - and enter combat with three other drivers. You have a basic weapon on your car, and you can ram your opponents as well, but if that's not enough, you can pick up various extra weapons and power-ups including rocket launchers, mines, shields, extra health, and turbo boosts, all of which can be used to take your opponents out faster. Each car has a limited amount of energy and this depletes each time you take a hit or someone crashes into you. Once this reduces to zero, your car is destroyed, your opponent scores a point, and you re-start from your entry point back into the arena. The matches carry on until one player has reached the objective for that level - in most cases, it's the first to score a set number of points, but others have their own unique twists... There are a variety of game modes on offer, and a range of arenas to battle in. The arenas are mainly based on WWE shows and events - Raw, Smackdown, Royal Rumble, The Bottom Line, King Of The Ring, and Survivor Series - with a few others thrown in for good measure. The games themselves vary depending on the arena chosen and the type of match selected. As well as the basic game where you have to reach a set number of "hits" before your opponents can, there are other games as well. For example, in the "Lumberjack" matches, you have to collect a number of gold stars scattered around the arena before your opponents can. All of these additional modes are still set against the combat backdrop so you can still blow your opponents away while trying to achieve the level's objectives! Others, including the Cage Match, revolve around trying to collect specific objects and holding onto them for as long as possible or returning them to a fixed point in the arena. Then we have the season mode, and in this you take your chosen wrestler through a number of stages, working towards unocking different arenas for the single play mode, and new wrestlers to add to the starting line-up of 23 superstars, including Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon. Each wrestler has their own unique vehicle with it's own attributes and weapons. These attributes - handling, speed, strength and defence - all have a bearing on the way you will have to approach the game. Some of the vehicles seem to be natural fits for the wrestlers - a monster truck for Stone Cold Steve Austin and a truck rig for the Big Show, but some do seem a little bizzarre (Rikishi turns up in a steam roller!). It all adds an extra level of longevity to the game. The game is really easy to control and the cars handle extremely well. Within a matter of seconds, you'll be used to the controls for driving around, and by the time you've notched up your first kill, you'll have mastered most of the games controls. If only all games could be like this! Each wrestler enters the arena in their custom car, accompanied by their usual Titantron entrance video and music and being introduced by WWE announcer Howard Finkel. While the video footage is a little grainy, it's been recreated faithfully. Sadly, one or two of the music themes have been altered, but it doesn't spoil the game too much. The graphics aren't Crush Hour's strongest point. Some of the arenas seem to have fairly harsh edges, and the cars themselves aren't brilliantly detailed or well animated, but it still works well. The explosions and effects give a great sense of satisfaction as another one of your opponents bites the dust, but it's never going to win any awards for its visuals. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are generally good, but they're not exceptional. The sound is probably Crush Hour's greatest strength. There is an ample array of wonderful sound efects from engine noises to the sound of metal grating again metal as the cars collide. There is music in the game but, apart from the wrestlers entrances, this is nothing spectacular. However, this is nothing compared to the rest of the sound. Throughout the game, there is full commentary from Raw's commentator Jim Ross - the first time for a WWE game on the Gamecube - and he is talking throughout the game. During the intro sequence, there is a brief speech segment from regular WWE presenter Jonathan "Coach" Coachman, and if that wasn't enough, all of the WWE stars in the game have provided voiceovers for the game when their characters can be heard taunting their opponents when they score points or pick up weapons. It's quite a strange game in a number of ways. While the vehicle combat isn't an original concept, it's certainly a new idea as a WWE title. The "kill" total system and extra weapons makes it more reminscent of Quake's "deathmatch" modes more than anything else... not that this is a bad thing. This really is a fun game to play. When I heard about Crush Hour, I was expecting little more than a cash-in on the WWE licence, but I was pleasantly surprised. The game really does feel as if it is a part of the WWE programming, the vehicles all reflect the superstars well, and the themed arenas really do add to the game, and the speech and commentary is just the icing on a very tasty cake! It really does feel as if it is a genuine WWE product, and it makes a change from the usual first person shooters. It's a faced paced and fun game, and because no two games will ever play the same, you can guarantee that this is a game that you'll keep coming back to over and over again. The game isn't without its faults. Sometimes, the difficulty curve in the season mode can jump suddenly without warning, and with some of the wrestlers entrance music being replaced (as it was in Wrestlemania X8) it can spoil the game at times. Still nothing's perfect! This is one game that WWE fans will love, and even if you are not interested in wrestling, you'll find a fun driving combat game underneath the licence and at a bargain price of £19.99, no wrestling fan or action game fan should be without this. Overall - 81% - Reviewer: Simon Plumbe