Come on. Be serious. Tag Team Wrestling? What next? Women's International
Soccer? Formula 3 Grand Prix. Wimbledon Mixed Pairs? Table Tennis? (Erm,
well... Ed).
The idea behind Tag Team Wrestling is like something you'd expect to
find as extra feature on a standard wrestling game; you control a pair
of wrestlers, swapping between them as you feel like it (when the one
in the ring is knackered seems a good time; you always get the best tips
in CF).
And, er, that's it. Basically, it's just another wrestling game.
Okay, the concept might not be in the Theory Of Relativity league, so how
does it fare against the other wrestling games in the market? Let's
see what it has to offer. Seconds out, round one.
Well, for a start none of the wrestlers are based on real characters
but with names like Jurgen Meatball, Baby Face and Missing Link they're
true to the spirit of the sport.
The mug shots of the wrestlers are suitably cartoony as well, if a bit
small. There are options for one- or two-player matches, the two-player
mode being a good place to practise moves, because your opponent won't
fight back.
Matches can be set to two, three, four or five minutes per round, though
all matches are slugged out on a best of three basis. However, you can choose
whethet you want to get pummelled for a single bout or a whole tournament.
And if you want an on-screen explanation of what you have to do
with the joystick to achieve the moves, you've got it. So you're faced
with more options than an aardvark at an ant convention, but what about
the bouts?
Ah, that's where the problems start. The zeps have made a brave attempt
at introducing a less waggle-like-mad-and-hope-type control system but,
frankly, it's clumsy.
Most moves involve holding down Fire, moving the stick then letting go
of Fire. Okay, this isn't too much hassle, but it does make each move
a three-parter which can be awkward.
Worse are the tussles. When two wrestlers get close enough they grab
each other. After a couple of seconds an indicator appears on-screen; the
first player to hit fire wins and slams their opponent to the floor.
Fair enough, but there are two problems. First, the computer cheats -
it's impossible to beat unless you try to guess when the indicator is going
to appear.
Second, if you hit fire before the indicator appears your controls
are frozen which is downright annoying if you were in the middle of a move
(in other words, you were holding down the fire button) when you go
into a tussle.
And while the general presentation is good the graphics during the bouts
are pretty grim. The sprites in particular are hopeless and don't look
anything like their mug shots.
Played against the computer, Tag Team's pretty grim. But in two-player
mode, when you and a mate both have to struggle with the control system,
at least the odds are evened up a bit.