WWF Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

 video game released in 2000

2000 in video gaming

-Events:* May 11–13 — 6th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo ; the 3rd annual Game Critics Awards for the Best of E³* June 26 — International Game Developers Association renamed from Computer Game Developers Association...

 for arcades

Video arcade

An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...

 and Dreamcast. THQ

THQ

THQ Inc. is an American developer and publisher of video games. Founded in 1989 in the United States, the company develops products for video game consoles, handheld game systems, as well as for personal computers and wireless devices...

 released the game for the Dreamcast while Sega

Sega

, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

 released the game for arcades. The arcade version was the first WWF game released to arcades since WWF WrestleMania

WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game

WWF WrestleMania is a professional wrestling arcade game released by Midway Manufacturing Co. in 1995...

 in 1995, and the last arcade WWE game to date. Japanese company Yuke's

YUKE's Future Media Creators

Yuke's Co. Ltd is a video game company based in Osaka, Japan. It was established on February 26, 1993....

, developers of the popular WWF SmackDown! series of wrestling games was involved in the game's development and released the Dreamcast version in Japan. The game is based on the World Wrestling Federation and the company's yearly Royal Rumble

Royal Rumble

The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced every January by WWE, a professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut. The event was created in 1988, with its inaugural event taking place on January 24, 1988 at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario...

event. One of the game's most notable features is support for up to nine wrestlers on the screen simultaneously.

Gameplay

The game has two modes, Exhibition mode and Royal Rumble mode. In Exhibition mode, the player chooses a main wrestler and a partner and wrestles a series of singles matches. The player's selected partner can interfere on the player's behalf on command. These partner moves can be used any number of times during the match, but must be recharged before they can be used again. Matches can end by knockout if a wrestler's energy meter is completely depleted.

Royal Rumble mode involves one multi-wrestler match where the player must eliminate a certain number of opponents from the match within a time limit. The game features 20 Superstars (22 on Dreamcast), but the Royal Rumble match has 30, which results in some superstars appearing twice in the match.

Special moves can be executed by charging up a meter and storing "S" icons.

Reception

Critical and commercial response ranged from lukewarm to resoundingly negative. The biggest complaints were aimed at the lack of modes, and the system of moving backstage against the player's will. Many also criticised the small roster of wrestlers, which often resulted in the same character fighting each other as separate entities.