WWF Rage in the Cage

"Brace yourself for the ultimate World Wrestling Federation slugfest!  From punishing powerslams to cranium-crunching piledrivers... it doesn't get any better than this!"

A variety of modes are available - a simple one fall match, brawl (no rules), tournament (one player only),  and the titular cage match.  The absence of a tag team mode is a major oversight, especially as this means there's no 2 player co-operative mode, only 1 vs. 1 combat.  Then it's time to pick from a selection of 20 wrestlers, each with a signature move.  The player select screen has reasonable portraits but needs you to scroll up and down the list, which could become a chore if your favourite fighter is right in the middle.  Hitting A on any wrestler will bring up a brief clip of their special move, but sadly in the same small, monochrome window as the introduction movies.  Once in the ring a six button pad is almost essential, although the full range of moves are available with combination presses if you're stuck with 3 buttons.  The controls are context sensitive depending on the position of your wrestler and your opponent, and whilst a table in the manual gives clear listings if you want to get the best results you'll have to sit and learn the grid rather than jumping in and randomly bashing buttons.  Having said that, you'll find the repertoire quite limited, with half the match spent in standing grapples that require you to - you guessed it - hammer one or more buttons.

The developers seems to have tried to make use of the CD, with the video clips, background music and sampled speech from both the announcer and a short taunt from each wrestler before the match.  Graphically there's nothing to set the game itself apart from the many WWF cartridge games (although this one is CD only) though everything is reasonably fluid and responsive.  Fights feel slightly two-and-a-half dimensional though, the viewpoint makes the ring look much wider than it is deep, and this means that moving vertically or diagonally is much slower than moving horizontally, and it seems that some moves can only be performed when both wrestlers are on the same plane.

Wrestling games seem to occupy a strange place in the games market - popular upon release but very little second hand demand or value.  Prices for this one occasionally go crazy, even topping £30, but one third of that should easily secure you a copy.

The game title does not appear on any of the four printed spines of the inlays, making it look rather odd on the shelf.