3. WWE Betrayal
WWE Betrayal is a truly odd entry in the WWE series of games. For one, it was another game that didn't follow the trend of being a traditional wrestling simulator. Instead, Betrayal is a side scrolling beat 'em up in the style of Streets of Rage or Double Dragon. In fairness, WWE games on portable devices had been disappointing to that point due to the limitations of the consoles, so it was a logical decision to try a new approach. Unfortunately it was another case of the game creators failing to understand what made these other games popular, instead churning out a substandard product that couldn't hang with the competing games in the genre. Betrayal's storyline was loosely based on the Corporate Ministry storyline that had happened a few years previous, revolving around the fact that the "Billion Dollar Princess" Stephanie McMahon has been kidnapped. Instead of getting the police involved, Vince decides to instead offer the reward of a WWE Title shot to whoever can save his daughter. Step forward Triple H, Stone Cold, The Rock and the Undertaker who are the playable characters you can choose from to play through weird WWE styled levels to retrieve Stephanie from her captors. For a Game Boy Color game, the graphics were quite decent but unfortunately that's where the praise ends. Despite being based on characters who have very well known move sets, attacks were limited to boring kicks and punches and one finishing move for each character. This made progressing in the game a tedious affair as you used the same dull attacks over and over to take out referees, ring crew and other wrestling related enemies who for some reason are part of the evil plot against Vince. On top of everything, it was as easy as it was monotonous meaning that in the rare event someone enjoyed it, the experience didn't last long. Career Modes in later games came back and toyed with the beat em up approach but it proved to be another failed experiment in WWE gaming history.