When it comes to the Gameboy Advance and wrestling games, there is one title that will always be king in my eyes: Fire Pro Wrestling. WWE Survivor Series is hardly anything more than WWF Road to Wrestlemania with slightly 'improved' graphics and it's because of this reason that I'll be putting WWE Survivor Series up against Fire Pro Wrestling more so than Wrestlemania X8. Developed by Natsume (known for their fantastic farming simulators), Survivor Series leaves a lot to be desired, including a create-a-wrestler mode, good gameplay and fun.

Fire Pro Wrestling is a game that 'gets' wrestling; it understands it and offers one of the most fully fledged wrestling experiences anywhere. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a WWE logo slapped on it, thus sales aren't nearly as good as the lackluster WWE GBA titles. WWE Survivor Series (which, not surprisingly, does not feature any Survivor Series style matches) instantly will cause groans because it does not feature any creation mode, while Fire Pro allows you to have nearly a hundred custom created wrestlers complete with hundreds of moves, in-depth AI logic and a robust appearance and colour system. Survivor Series has just 16 wrestlers with very limited move sets (most of which are almost identical to other wrestlers) and none really show much difference from each other in terms of how they play.

The story mode is where most of the replay value comes from in Survivor Series, though if the gameplay is no good then neither is the story mode. In it you select one of the shows, RAW or SmackDown, then select one of the 8 stars on the show and fight your way up to win championships in a variety of matches including cage, royal rumble, tag-team and lumberjack. Short cut-scenes with a manager's face appear often to guide you in the right direction and Natsume's intentions were good by creating a system where your performance is judged based on the variety of movies you pull off, using a finisher and letting the enemy have the upper hand once in a while. Still, this is nothing compared to Fire Pro Wrestling's much more in-depth, challenging and demanding performance systems.

The game often feels sluggish and repetitive, plus you'll probably be struggling with your wrestler to get him to do what you want for awhile. Unfortunately, pushing the direction pad in the opposite direction of your opponent causes your wrestler to turn completely around instead of simply backing up, which hurts things a lot when you're trying to put some distance between you and your opponent but still be prepared to attack. The AI doesn't do anything surprising most of the time and if your opponent attemps to say, grapple, but you simply strike him before he can, he still continues to attempt it multiple times, allowing you to stand there and beat the hell out of him easily.

The grappling system is very basic, giving each wrestler only a small handful of moves to pull off, whereas Fire Pro has a deep grapple system including light, medium and end of match grapple moves. In Fire Pro, attempting to pull off a powerbomb in the start of a match never works; you have to start light and work your opponent down. Survivor Series lets you pull off any big move at any time except a finisher, which are saved until your meter is full.

The wrestlers that are included here have their most popular signature moves and they actually don't look that bad either. The character models have a bit of a 3D look to them and move quite fluidly. In fact, this game features some impressive animation for the GBA. However, the wrestlers' faces seem to be oddly pasted onto the bodies and often look really out of place. I would personally prefer a 2D style wrestling game on a limited handheld like the GBA but this game really does try its best. Furthermore the arenas are littered with fans holding up signs but the colour palette for the audience is a bit limited, making the backgrounds look more like a comic book, however they are at least doing something and not just sitting there hopelessly bored like I was whilst playing this.

Nothing worth writing home about is found when it comes to the sound, there are a couple of forgettable and generic music tracks and basic sound effects for punches, kicks and grapples but the sound could probably be a lot better, even on the GBA. Those looking for the wrestlers' themes will find midi-versions of them that are semi-recognizable for the most part, though some don't really sound like they should.

Once you come to grips with the dire gameplay, you shouldn't have much of a problem winning matches. You'll probably feel wrongly cheated out of a match because of a finisher move resulting in an instant pin more than you will because of good AI. Again, in Fire Pro Wrestling you win matches by wearing down opponents, finding weaknesses and strengths and really working a good match; in Survivor Series you hit your finisher. I strongly feel that this game is not necessarily a wrestling game but a WWE game instead, as there is obviously a big difference. If that is what you want, feel free to give it a shot, but there is hardly any improvement over the last WWE game on the GBA.

For those of you who think I'm being unfair by comparing this game so heavily to Fire Pro Wrestling, well why shouldn't I? WWE Survivor Series is not a good wrestling game, however those of you that just want a WWE game for your GBA may find some enjoyment here. Having said that, the gameplay is incredibly dull, so even the biggest fan may not be able to put up with this offering. And, for the record, Fire Pro Wrestling comes complete with look-a-like WWE wrestlers whose names can easily be changed to the real things; in fact, these wrestlers play and act more like the real WWE stars more than any of the Survivor Series roster does and there are literally hundreds of worldwide wrestling stars included with that game from the start, each neatly divided into different brands. There really is no excuse, if you want a good wrestling game, you know where to look and it certainly is not here.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).