Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home is a wrestling game. Actually it is more like an all out fighting game, but it does have a lot of wrestling values... Let me break it down for you.

Gameplay:

This is the most important part of this game. If this part doesn’t fly with you, just take the game back. Oh yeah, if you don’t know the point of wrestling, this game also isn’t for you. Want to know the story? Two people fight each other. The only story I can tell you about is all the extra Juggalo infested extra content about this game... The control in this game is near perfect. Nothing is hard to do at all and there is not a single complex combination you have to know. Melee fighting, Running, Grabbling, Picking out weapons, and Pinning (who pins these days? Screw that, knock them out!). To do moves while in a grabble you press one button and a certain direction. There should, however, be more choices on your control pad. Sure a three hit punch or kick combo is great, but that’s the only one you’ll ever see with that character. Now I have played both the PS2 and Xbox Version of this game, the controller for Xbox itself makes it harder to control.

The way things are pulled off, even the most what seems like complex stuff, are simple. There is not a single thing you can’t do if you think about it. The reversal system is way too easy. All you have to do is tap two buttons when your character blinks and you either escapes or counter it. This is a button masher’s paradise, something that ruins games in my opinion. For the normal ground running, it is OK. But your character does run a little odd... Almost like he ate a bad taco or something. What else is lame is that any player you pick, he or she runs the same speed as the others person. This means that means a fat guy in chaps can chase down anything. When you pick up a weapon, such as a wooden bat, you walk like you got a charlie horse in the hip piece. There is no “climb” button, you just run into things. Want to climb up that set piece? Well run into it. Want to ascend that ladder? Well just walk into it. Speaking of ladders, once you start climbing up one, you can not change directions at all. The feature was only surpassed by Double Dragon on the regular Nintendo, more than ten years ago.

The combat was made more for fun and novelty purposes than actual balance. First off, this game does show off almost all back yard wrassl’n has to offer. Smacking people in the face with a florissant light bulb, power bombing someone from a roof top into a table, and Irish whipping your back yard buddy into a TV (or a box, or a huge stereo bass, or a huge fish tank...). There are various problems with this part... The moves in the grapple are good looking and look like they hurt more than real life, but the damage done by these moves are almost all the same. Not only that, there is absolutely nothing hard about pulling off these moves. Sure this is great for noobies, but you shouldn’t be able to pull of a characters finish by pressing just two buttons at the same time. The finishers are lame in my opinion. They all display different variations of physically impossible to pull off special moves that consist of jumping in the air or suplexing someone three times. Not only that, they most all do the same damage and have this over done slow motion Matrix crap. Not like the Matrix sucks, it just shouldn’t be in this game. It is funny how they have their own little remarks to say... “You’re about to get your neck Twiztid” (if you can’t figure out who would say that, you shouldn’t be playing this game.) Picking up weapons and fighting is fun, but when you throw something, it tracks in front of them... Like you have a Firing Control System in your robotic wrestler’s brain... It is a chore in this game to get up without getting cheesed. One very funny part is how people standing in the back rounds will cheap shot you... like the butler will crack you up side your head and say “Good day sir” god that cracks me up.

Other than one on one fighting with a friend (how this game should be played) you can go through a Talk Show mode. This is basically a fighting game’s token “mission” type game seen all the time these days. There also is a fun king of the hill game.

Graphics:

The graphics in this game are average for a next generation console. But I have to note some things. Like, the way your character bleeds... Through out the fight you will have a red face full of blood. Yum, how’s that for you? True it is a little too much, but it looks way ahead of Mortal Kombat.

The Characters all look great and some wear clothe with a lot of detail. You will see what I mean when you see Shaggy’s nice Jackal Bother Jersey or people wearing the Wraith (which is funny since there is a poster of it right next to the TV and I was like “Woah they actually look alike”).

The level design is freaking awesome in this game. First off, every level is packed with things to do. Whether it is the cow’s head in the slaughter house or how you can knock down the bikes and piss off a biker in the gas station. It looks like the developers put the most work into this part of the game. There is only one big problem. There aren’t a lot of levels so things get repetitive really quickly.

Sound:

What can I say? If you actually hate this music, why would you be playing this game? The game has great songs like stuff from ICP and Twiztid, but the game also has a couple lame punk bands that ruin this game... Also the title music is very hillbillyish. I now have “Homies Homies” stuck in my freaking head... True this game isn’t the same as being smashed for five days during the gathering, but it does great. It would be perfect, but lame bands hurt this game, in my opinion and should not be in this game at all.

Longevity:

This game does get very repetitive and this hurts the game a lot. Only a few different places to fight in makes this worse. Most of the characters aren’t that different from one another and is mainly affected by how much you like the person. The Create a wrestler is pretty crappy. You only get like 15 different bodies and 12 colours of the body, not in depth faces or effects like other wrestling games.

Round up:

I haven’t really mentioned that this game is really a marketing decision. The main reason most people bought this game is because there favourite Juggalos are in it. Nobody can honestly say they bought this game for its break through in game play... So being that I am not a Psychopathic fanboy and don’t wuv them, I can give an accurate review. I can see through hype and sniff the smallest amount of BS, and I came to the conclusion that this game deserves a nice big juicy six.

Pros:

• Great if you are a Juggalo that plays video games
  
• Great music
  
• No kiddy stuff
  

  Cons:
  

  • Repetition is an issue
    
  • Sometimes matches are won when someone first hits the ground
    
  • No real noticeable uniqueness between all the different players