DUD OF THE MONTH COLLECTION!
BATTLE ROYALE
(Incredible Tehnologies, 1990)

Intro and story:
It's January right now and if you are a wrestling fan you know it's time for the WWE's annual event the Royal Rumble. Yeah, being a fan of a fake sport can be kind of embarrassing but each year it's just so exciting to see 30 men beat the hell out of one another and then see who will survive and go on to main event Wrestlemania or some of the other Pay Per Views I guess? What could be more fun then knocking a muscle head over the top rope of a ring? That's why I wanted to play this exclusive Turbografx-16 game called Battle Royale here! Wait a minute, how come this really sucks then!? In Battle Royale you get to pick from one of five generic screw ball wrestlers and you mash away at the buttons in hopes of throwing them out of the ring.
The game play and bottomline:  
Unlike other fun wrestling games like WWF No Mercy or even older titles like Nintendo's Pro Wrestling you actually won't be doing a lot of wrestling here. There are no susplexes, no top rope dives, no holds what so ever. Your main goal here is to just punch and kick your opponent so bad that you can have to chance to pick them them up over your head. Once their waistband turn red that's when you can try it.

OK, I don't mind simplified game play especially for the game's key selling point of being a multi-player title but they screwed that up too. Not only do some move require the select button for some stupid reason but even doing a basic move like picking someone up is needlessly complex thanks to all the multiple commands to have to enter. It's not to difficult once you learn it but why make it so difficult in the first place? It's just not a pick up and play game.

Some of the ring girls look pretty hot but the graphics are choppy and way too cartoon-like to be taken seriously and the low key music doesn't help you get into the repetitive action. The basic game play just involves you to strike away and hope you win so the whole thing is seriously lacking depth. After you played it for a bit you'll then quickly turn off the system to play something better.
Here is my 4 minute video review of Battle Royale too!
Warning: there is some swearing in it because it got me pretty mad:
Conclusion:  
Battle Royale
overall rating: 36/100

Find Battle Royale on eBay here!

For 1 to 5 players
graphics: 4/10
sound: 4/10
gameplay: 5/10
replay: 5/10

-StarSoldier
(Ryan Genno) 2009


See other Total Recall duds of the month