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THQ and Natsume team up to bring a portable grappler to the GBA. The game is a throwback to the wrestling games of the SNES and such, and includes a decent story mode and acceptable wrestling gameplay.
You’ll spend most of the time in WWE Survivor Series in the game’s story mode, which is easily its best feature. In it, you control one of the 16 WWE wrestlers (sorry, no create-a-wrestler feature) as he moves up from a lowly newcomer to picking up a number of belts for either the Raw or SmackDown! groups. Once you control one faction, you can try and do the same for the other. Match types in story mode are quite varied and include hardcore, submission matches, royal rumble, and cage matches in addition to the typical single and tag-team matches.
The game also has a number of stand-alone modes including many I mentioned above like cage, hardcore, single, tag-team but also additional matches like the four-way free for all, triple-threat match and royal rumbles. Additionally, support for up to four players is included in multiplayer but each player must own a copy of the game.
The game’s actual gameplay just isn’t exciting. You’ll find the typical, simple grapple system alongside a number of jabs and kicks and takedowns in the game but they are all rather repetitive. Each wrestler does have his own unique finisher, as in real life, but these don’t add much to the game’s limited repertoire of moves. You’ll also be able to pick up weapons in Hardcore matches, which adds a bit but not much to the overall gameplay.
The game’s visuals are pretty good though. The wrestlers’ models are excellent and you’ll have no trouble telling them apart since Natsume used digitized images and added a number of animations so the limited number of moves at least look good. The arenas are a bit simpler, as is the crowd, but overall the visual fidefilty is certainly there.
The game’s audio is less impressive. The soundtrack is repetitive but is initially gratifying and fits in well with the game. The game’s sound effects are pretty average as well, consisting solely of the expected effects for the moves and the three-count.
Overall, WWE Survivor Series is a squarely average wrestling game. If you were looking for a new wrestling game for the GBA, this is your best bet since they’re quite rare on Nintendo’s handheld. -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- Nov 3, 2004
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