ECW: Hardcore Revolution

All right, let's see how many of you can answer the following question – what do Rob Van Dam, Justin Credible and Mike Awesome all have in common? Unless you're a total die-hard wrestling fanatic, you're probably scratching your head without the foggiest idea of who those three blokes are. Well, the answer is that they all wrestle in Extreme Championship Wrestling (or ECW for short). Still none the wiser? No, we didn't think so...

You see, despite the fact that lots of folk think it's nothing more than a bunch of men running around in tight lycra shorts, wrestling is growing more popular by the day. More and more people are tuning in to watch The Rock lay the smack down, wearing T-shirts with Sting's face on and playing games with all their favourite wrestling characters in... which is where the problems really begin. As companies scrabble to get their mitts on the biggest wrestling licences of all, there's ultimately going to be a loser as the names run out. Once you've lost the WWF and WCW, where do you go from there? Why, the ECW of course!

Sorry, Who Are You Again?

The ECW is the darker side of professional wrestling – appealing to a more specialist audience, it focuses less on story lines and characters and more on realistic action and violence. Sadly, you can't actually see it outside of the US because of the small-scale appeal; that's why you've probably never heard of it. Still, ECW's popularity is growing and so it's ripe for a videogame licence such as this... at least in theory (and America) anyway.

However, let's ignore the fact that Hardcore Revolution contains people you've never heard of (after all, it's not like that affects whether people buy it, eh? Yeah, right...) and concentrate on the game itself. Much like every wrestling game coming out today, Hardcore Revolution comes to us bursting with more features than a large, bulging box with 'Features' stamped all over it. There are a stack load of characters to choose from, ranging from big fat blokes with beards to muscle-bound women with tattoos (if that's your thing), all with their own moves and finishers with which to mangle their opponents. There's also a massive list of playing modes, ranging from classic one-on-one and Tag Team to Elimination matches, three-on-one and the ever faithful 30-man Battle Royal.

No Pain, No Gain

The thing that stands out more than a sausage at a vegetarian banquet is the violence factor of the game. Real-life ECW bouts makes any other wrestling match look like a playschool pillow fight, and it's this violence that Acclaim have tried to convey into Hardcore Revolution. Want to bash your friend's brain in? Then have a go at a Deathmatch and use those weapons to crack his skull open. If you really want to dish out some punishment on your opponents though, you'll want to try the Barbed Wire match – replacing the ring ropes with coils of barbed wire is bound to lead to some major injuries. There's plenty of blood and it's a laugh to watch, but sadly the whole thing loses its appeal all too quickly.

There are plenty of diversions from the basic game, designed to keep you playing when your interest wanes. Not only is there a Create-A-Wrestler option, but there is also a Pay-Per-View mode. Both of these give you the chance to make your own characters and events and basically re-create your favourite scenes from the wrestling world. There's nothing quite like beating up your mates with a scaled-down version of yourself, is there? It doesn't take long to knock together your own creations, but again while it's something that while nice to have, it won't keep you transfixed for long.

Haven't We Seen You Before?

However, there is a major problem here which really needs to be addressed (and we're hoping that Acclaim is listening, because something should be about it). Hands up if you've played WWF Attitude, Acclaim's last wrestling game? Considering it was such a success, we'd say that it was quite a lot of you. Well, if you did, that means you've already played Hardcore Revolution... at least in principle. You see, while this latest title claims to be a totally new game with a new hardcore 'edge', it isn't. In fact, it is Attitude with different graphics and a few extra bells and whistles on it.

Yes, we'll admit that it's not exactly the same – you've got the different wrestlers and their finishing moves, new arenas and some other miscellaneous bits and pieces, but overall it's just a case of 'rename' rather than 'replace'. Take the game modes, for example; despite being called things like Deathmatch or Street Fight, they're just like the old Hardcore and No DQ matches. Only the Barbed Wire match is original, and that's rubbish! All the options and menus are the same, the Create-A-Wrestler and Pay-Per-View options are practically identical... heck, even the fonts are the same! Shamefully, there's virtually nothing new here. But they couldn't have done that... could they?

Exhaustive Cash-In Wrestling

Well, they have. The wrestlers still move about like they've got constipation, all the moves look as painful as a slap from a nine-year-old Brownie and the crowd is still made out of paper-thin cut-outs. Everything looks so similar as you go through the game, it's like a bad case of deja vu – to be honest, there just isn't an excuse for it. When companies can't even be bothered to create something new, instead of just banging out the same old guff again and again with slightly different features (FIFA, anyone?) then you know they're just after a fast buck. It's the sloppy details which give this away as a rehash – they've even kept the same crap voice from Attitude to count the pin, for goodness sake!

Unless there are far too many 'stupid' people out there who buy this simply because they can't tell the difference, Acclaim is going to learn the hard way that it isn't just wrestling that sells. It's either an enjoyable game or the WWF logo that brings in the hard cash, and sadly ECW Hardcore Revolution has neither. While Attitude was good at the time, it's been far surpassed by Wrestlemania 2000. It would have taken more than a few, mostly cosmetic, changes to successfully update Attitude, so it's no surprise that Hardcore Revolution just does not cut the mustard any more. Ring the bell, ref – this one has had more than enough already.

Gone are the days of slow, technical mat grappling. Now pro-wrestling athletes do things that send shivers up gymnasts' spines and juice more blood than a GWAR concert. Like it or not, wrestling has turned extreme baby, and it doesn't get more extreme than ECW: Extreme Championship Wrestling. Now you can enjoy all the blood, violence and vulgar language of the first "M"-rated wrestling game with the debut of Acclaim's latest game franchise, ECW: Hardcore Revolution for the Sega Dreamcast.

To say that ECW:HR doesn't bear a passing resemblance to WWF Attitude is like saying Goldberg doesn't look like Austin. Now this may start chants like "You suck, you suck!" but don't throw your drinks at the ring just yet. A tweaked version of the Attitude engine powers ECW:HR and it allows for faster gameplay and smoother animation. The Dreamcast's extra muscle puts out higher-res textures and poly-boosted wrestler models, making the game look more realistic. And to make it more like EC-Pn-W, the wrestlers bleed and bleed often.

Acclaim is hoping to get a good pop from the crowd by adding new modes and improving on existing ones. In Career Mode, players build their reputations by defeating jobbers (wrestlers born to lose) before taking on over 40 ECW superstars (in everything from cage to barbed-wire matches) and finally claiming the ultimate prize: the heavyweight championship title. But the game doesn't end there. You can still play as the champ and defend your title against all challengers. The Create-A-Wrestler Mode has been to the gym and pumped up some. Players choose what their wrestler looks like, from tattoos to tights, then build a move set for their wrestler and adjust attributes like speed, strength and agility. That's not all. Within the Create-An-Arena Mode, players design their own arenas with options to change mat and ring apron textures, arena lighting, banners and background graphics.

It'll be interesting to see if Acclaim will keep their baby-face image or turn heel with the release of ECW:HR. If the game gets a good reaction from the crowd, this could turn into a new franchise.

The PS version of ECW Hardcore Revolution retains all the vulgar language, blood and chairs of the N64 version, while adding some FMV intros and CD audio. The graphics seem slightly sharper in this version than in the N64, but everything else is the same. Players will have plenty of opportunities to juice when Acclaim ships ECW:HR on Hardcore Thursday, 2/17/2000.