WWF Wrestlemania 2000

I have to admit, wrestling is the biggest it has ever been ¿ even bigger than that glamour 80s era when Cindy Lauper got in on the act, and Rowdy Roddy Piper scored his biggest role in They Live.. You can't buy a game system without seeing a wrestling title for it, and the Game Boy Color's no exception. Thanks to THQ's recent 10 year deal with the WWF, we get the next in line wrestling game featuring Stone Cold, The Rock, Vince McMahon, and a heck of a lot more of the bad boys from the World Wrestling Federation in WWF Wrestlemania 2000. The problem here is the sense that these fighters are brawling in slow motion. In other words, you're not going to get the same excitement you get by watching these adrenaline-soaked athletes on pay-per-view.

Features

• 16 wrestlers
• 5 wrestling modes
• Biographies for each wrestler
• Link cable support for two players
• For Game Boy and Game Boy Color

This Game Boy Color game features 16 wrestlers to grapple in five different game modes. Steve Austin,The Rock, Ken Shamrock, Val Venis, Jeff Jarrett, Billy Gunn, X-Pac, The Big show, Triple-H, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Kane, Big Boss Man, Road Dogg, Mankind, and even Vince McMahon go at each others' throats in single match (Vs.), championship mode, tag-team mode, three man team mode (Survivor Series), and the Gauntlet mode.

The game, like most wrestling titles, depends on how well you can control the grapples of your wrestler. If you're the fastest on the buttons, you'll be the one to pull off the devastating move after the grapple. You can throw each other off the ropes, pull off piledrivers, body slams, Atomic Drops...whatever will whittle down your opponent's health. When you get him all the way down, pin the guy for a three count to win. Battles can also take place out of the ring ¿ but only if you manage to throw or be thrown past the ropes.

The game is easy to control, but it's very sluggish and not nearly as intense as the N64 version of the game. Like many console-to-handheld translations, the Game Boy Color rendition of WWF Wrestlemania gets the short end of the stick when it comes to frills. If there's one thing I've learned from my three year stint at IGN, it's that wrestling fans are adamant about attention to detail. Unfortunately, in the Game Boy Color's case, you're not going to get much. Player models are reused for multiple wrestlers (McMahon's sprite is nearly identical to The Rock's, for example), and each fighter pretty much has the same common punch, kick, and grapple attacks ¿ the only difference is the finishing move you can pull off when your biorhythm is at its peak. And entrances might come through that Titan Tron thing, but the entrance music is just the generic battle tune, not the actual wrestler's theme.

On the plus side, you can take on a friend if you've got two systems and a link cable ¿ I've said it once, I'll say it again...Game Boy games are better when linked up. The action will indeed heat up between systems, so be sure to wear the appropriate safety gear.