Ultimate Muscle is not the spiritual successor to No Mercy, Revenge, or any other wrestling game, AKI or otherwise.

It's just not, so don't go in expecting your proficiency with reversals and taunting will get you anywhere. This is a fighting game, and gamers who want practice before trying this would be better served playing as Muscle Power in World Heroes than as Hollywood Hogan in any wrestling titles.

If you'll be going in with any preconceived notions, pay attention to the license, not the developer. Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation is more about bringing the animated series to life than perpetuating the legendary AKI engine.

"Wonder how this one's gonna turn out?"

Ultimate Muscle (Kinnikuman in its native Japan) is the story of a wrestling league of costumed super-beings with an incredible tolerance for pain and a remarkable propensity for dishing it out. The characters first came to prominence on these shores with the emergence of the tiny pink M.U.S.C.L.E figures of the early Eighties, and today a new series is shown on Fox on Saturday mornings. With both nostalgia and a high-profile show working for it, a wild multiplayer Bandai game was a natural fit. Delivering the rights to AKI was an inspired decision, despite the confusion it has caused.

The game is a frenetic cascade of color and sound that will sweep you into the loser bracket fairly quickly if you take a slow, deliberate approach. While not entirely a button-masher, UM rewards your caffeine buzz with its machine-gun chains and leaves the technique-minded ring generals flat on the mat. The action plays like a kind of projectile-less 2D fighter, with much of your time spent jumping and attacking to knock back your opponent and set him up for the grapple. You can move around and try to fake out your rival, hoping he will miss a grab and furnish an opening, and you can counter moves, but even if you perfect your timing, you'll find that the best strategy is a strong and unrelenting offense. Indeed, reversing moves here is a lot trickier than you might expect, due to the rapid-fire gameplay.

"The scrap of the century . . ."

What differentiates this from the average wrestling game?

The major distinction is the fact that there are no pins or submissions. Everyone gets an energy bar and once it is depleted, the fighter falls uselessly to the mat. The best wrestling games allow you to "tell a story" in your match. Fire Pro, to cite the finest example, encourages you to start out slowly, mix up moves of differing potencies, wrestle in various positions (bouncing off the ropes, jumping off the turnbuckle, grappling on the mat), build up to your big move, then tie it all up with a satisfying conclusion. Conversely, in Ultimate Muscle, you will frequently see a match end with a weak strike or other simple move. Considering the level of punishment these guys are used to taking, ending it accidentally with a swift kick to the shin or slap to the chest is particularly frustrating.

Especially disappointing is miscalculating the amount of damage your super will deliver then having the opponent get up with a sliver of energy. In another game, you might punish him for "no-selling" your finisher by taking him to the outside and going at him with a chair or putting him through a barrage of submissions or power moves that take him right to the edge of defeat before you pull him back for more. In Ultimate Muscle, all you can do is either just put him away with a standard move or let him smack you around until you earn another special. Going to the outside is not permitted. Choices? Yes. Satisfying choices? Not entirely.

Of course, turnbuckles are present, but you can't climb them. Some wrestlers have a corner-specific move that uses the turnbuckle, but the leap off the top is all part of the animation - you can't ascend at will and wait for your opponent to get in position. You can use the ropes to add elevation to your aerial attacks by simply jumping on them and springboarding off - it's akin to a wall jump more than anything else. Remember, the focus here is on speed and aggression.

The grapples themselves are mostly authentic wrestling moves, ranging from body slams and suplexes to a brutal F5 (executed the way Brock Lesnar should). Holding down the appropriate button will result in a stronger strike or grapple and holding the analog stick in a direction results in a different move. There is a command list available off the pause menu, but that is more useful for learning the moves' names than anything else. Irish whips are replaced by power strikes that launch your opponent off the ropes and back at you (and on to the ropes behind you and back to the ropes on the first side, if you chose to move out of the way). Besides flinging your foe from side to side, you can also propel his body straight into the air, jump up behind him, and pull off a mid-air grapple with an immensely satisfying crash or thud at the end. In both instances (off the ropes and in the air) you have a choice of front or rear attacks.

It is possible to chain together some very impressive combinations, and the devoted player will probably find himself showing off before long, but don't expect Street Fighter-like displays of ferocious mastery. No matter how good you get, the "wow" factor in Ultimate Muscle will always flow primarily from the game itself, not your skill in it. The engine is just not that deep.

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