History of WWF/E Games Part 32
WWE Crush Hour
Release
2003
Format
Sony Playstation 2
Nintendo GameCube
Time to look at the last Twisted Metal with a WWE twist.
Background
WWE Crush Hour was the first of what would be four games to have the WWE name that were released in 2003. Yes, you read that right, four games in one year. This one however was different. It was a racing game and not a wrestling one. It was what I guess you could call a battle racing game. I think that Twisted Metal is probably the games best comparison.
There was an version for the Xbox in development also, and it must have made it pretty far into development as much of the early advertisements for the game had the Xbox logo on them as well as the Playstation and Nintendo logos. No real reason was ever given as to why the Xbox version was canned.
Presentation
WWE Crush Hour is one of those games that does not look bad, but at the same time it does not look that great either. The wrestler character models from the character selection screen range from poor to average, but as they are in vehicles its kind of petty to really criticise this.
The cars however look really cool. Each one really does fit the wrestler that accompanies it very well. The story of the game is actually quite fun. Vince McMahon the owner of the WWE wants to take over all forms of entertainment, and to do this he is going to put his wrestlers in various different TV shows. One of his ideas is to have the wrestlers battle each other in vehicles with numerous weapons. It sounds silly and it is, but its also really fun.
The sound and over all look of the levels again is nothing to brag about, but at the same time despite this being a racing game they have captured the feel of the WWE very well. One particular thing I got a kick out of was how the wrestlers even though they were in vehicles, still had there entrance music.
Game Play
I really enjoy WWE Crush Hour, but at the end of the day I think that enjoyment may partly be because I had my WWE goggles on when I played the game. I am sure that if you were not a WWE fan then you may not enjoy it as much. Do not get me wrong from a game play point of view its really fun, but it is not going to blow anyone away.
Like I said the best way to describe it is Twisted Metal meets the WWE. You need to pick your chosen wrestler and try and destroy or do whatever the goal of the particular mode is to win. There are a great variety of game modes; most of which you would expect in a game like this, but they have been given a WWE twist, and most of the modes are based on WWE match types. “Survivor Series”, “Gauntlet”, and “Hell in a Cell” to name a few. My favourite mode was the capture the flag type mode, but here it is called “Hardcore Championship”, and the idea is that you get the Hardcore Championship and need to hold onto it until the time runs out. In multi player this mode is a ton of fun.
The game play I felt was very tight and I really have zero complaints from a game play point of view. Like all racing games there will be certain characters you like to use and others you have a real tough time with. I have heard many people criticise the controls, but I never had any issues. To be fair I am not a hardcore racer fan, but I still found this game easy to play. One downfall WWE Crush Hour does have is the weapons. In a game as over the top of this you would think there would be a ton of weapons at your disposal. Well sadly there is hardly any. Mater of fact the very first Twisted Metal game even has more weapons than this.
Final Thoughts
While not a wrestling game WWE Crush Hour is a lot of fun. I am sure if your a WWE fan you will get much more out of it than a non wrestling fan would, but who knows, maybe if you had zero interest in wrestling you might get a different experience out of it. I would love to hear the if any non wrestling fans ever gave this game a try based purely on it being a racing game.
To check out addition WWE game reviews: Click Here
Join the new Gamester81 forums: http://dev2017.gamester81.com/forum/
