WWE Crush Hour

Written by Bart Skinner on 8/28/2003 for PS2  

Well it’s been a long time coming but I still don’t know what to say about WWE Crush Hour. I can’t believe THQ made a game with WWE superstars in souped-up vehicles to race around and shoot each other a la Twisted Metal.

They have many superstars included in the game such as Test, The Rock, Trish Stratus (only picked her to see the intro), Big Show, and many others. Every wrestler has their intro from the TV shows, but that’s probably the best feature of the game. All the arenas except one are way too big compared to the cars. The cars feel like tiny RC cars comparatively. Another drawback is there is a limit of 4 cars at a time. Most of the arenas could hold several more. With the large arena settings, you’d think THQ would include more than four measly cars to combat.

There is no real strategy to this game other than shoot and ram enemy vehicles. You start out with a standard machine gun that everyone else has too. There are packs of special weapons lying around such as the ridiculously named “Twisty Rockets”. If you think that’s bad, it’s even worse when the announcer says “Trish Stratus has the Twisty Rockets”. I mean that’s quality right there. For some reason, you do more damage ramming vehicles than shooting them with rockets. Go figure.

There are several play modes: Exhibition, Season, and Multiplayer. ***SPOILER WARNING**The season just consists of series of exhibitions matches that add up and in the end you get to fight big, bad Vince McMahon. ***END SPOILER WARNING*** Some of the game types you’ll play during the season is tag team, last man standing, king of the ring, and some others. For example, in king of the ring, you have to grab a crown and race around for 30 seconds and survive. Seems simplistic enough but I found it to be the most challenging match. Though that’s not saying much since I blew through the first 12 or so matches of the season in about 2 hours.

There isn’t much to talk about with the graphics in this game either. They are passable but nothing to write home about. When you hit the turbo button, the arena stretches around you to make it look like you are going faster. I actually found this feature really annoying because it makes it harder to steer. The lights and explosions were ok but they seem to consist of sprites, not polygons. The sound is about what you would expect, with taunts from other wrestlers while they shoot or ram you. The Jim Ross commentary is decent but gets repetitive after about the 4th match.

So why THQ would stray away from making good wrestling games to churn out this tripe is beyond me. I was angry after I lost 2 hours of my life playing this game. The game play has no imagination, the AI is terrible and the graphics and sound are barely passable. I don’t understand what they were thinking when they made this game. I guess their excellent wrestling games don’t make enough dough, so they thought they could venture out into another genre. However I’m pretty sure they will lose money on developing this title as it’s not even worth a rental. Stick to the wrestling games by THQ as they’re great to play. This game, on the other hand, is one that I ask you stay away. Even WWE fans will not enjoy this attempt at a car combat game.