WWF Steel Cage
Reviewed by Dale Kulas
The Game
This game is actually called WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage
Challenge, the same name as the crappy NES version of the
game. If you don't remember that game, I'll some it up for
you with one word: Stinks! It had horrible control, horrible
game mechanics, horrible everything. I don't own a Game
Gear, but I saw this game for sale used for $1.95, and since
I'm a big wrestling fan I couldn't pass up the deal, so I
got to borrow my the Game Gear from my friend. Will this
game manage to be as good as the NES version? Let's get
onto the review and find out.
Graphics
The graphics for the game is somewhat pretty good, all the
wrestlers are nicely detailed to where you can see their
muscles and their costumes are colored exactly the way they
do off tv, but aren't detailed exactly, like IRS, for
example, all you see is a white shirt, and black pants, you
don't see his tie he usually wears, nor do you see the $
sign on Ted Dibiase's tights. But this is all forgivable
because of the Game Gear's capabilities. The crowd looks Ok,
but not one of the best I've seen on a portable game, and
the ring is ok. The only bad thing about the game is the
text looks all blurry, but the text isn't a major part of
this game, but overall t he graphics are just a tad above
mediocrity.
Sound
You get some weird opening tune for the game. All the sound
effects for punching and all are horribly done as little
beeps. The only use of voice from the NES version of the
game was the ref counting the pin, which is replaced here
with a different kind of beep. The only good thing about the
sound here is that you got all the wrestler's theme's in
here, but they all sound really bad any ways, and you only
here about the first 5-10 seconds of each theme in horrible
midi format, heck even the NES midis were better than this.
So overall, sound's really bad in the game.
Game play
First of all, the game controls horrible, the game's
controls are exactly like its NES bad brother where the only
moves you can do or a body slam, and a hurl across the ring,
besides the various elbow drops, and turnbuckle drops. And
worst of all the computer can score a pin fall on you no
matter how much life you got, like once I'm Ric Flair and
I'm going against Hulk Hogan and Hogan gives me a body slam,
and covers me and I lose, and I still had about 90% of my
health left! So the game had just as worst controls and game
mechanics than the NES version! The game did have some nice
modes of play, their was a regular singles match, or cage
match, or championship mode where you can go for the world
title. And the last mode is tag mode, so there are some nice
ways to play here, but the 20-30 second matches won't make
it matter. Probably the best thing about this game is the
roster which features 10 of the following WWF Superstars:
Shawn Michaels, Bret ''Hitman'' Hart, Papa Shango, ''Nature
Boy'' Ric Flair, ''Macho Man'' Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan,
Tatanka, Undertaker, Ted Dibiase, Irwin R. Schyster(IRS).
That's another reason I bought the game, one of my all time
favorites, Ric Flair, was in this game, this was one of only
2 wrestling games he was in(the other being the SNES version
of Royal Rumble). So the only good part about the game play
is the roster.
Replay Value
Umm, this game had so many exciting features and game play
modes that I only ended up clocking in about 32 minutes of
game play before I threw this game in the trash, trust me
that's the average life cycle of an early portable wrestling
game.
In Brief
+: Ric Flair's in the game!
-: Horrible Controls, Horrible game engine, and just about
everything else in the game!
The Final Ratings Rundown
Graphics: 5.6
Sound: 0.9
Game play: 1.4
Replay Value: 0.5
Overall: 2.1
Final Analysis
This game is just as crappy as the NES version of the game,
the game's own engine is just as crappy, and this whole game
just seems rushed overall. Stinky game overall, the only
thing this thing this game has going for it is that the
graphics are somewhat good, and a nice roster, so let me sum
up my review with this synopsis, which is that this game is...
OR
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