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Let’s face it, we’ve all been wrestling fans as kids, many had grown out of it (such as myself), but some still watch it (while others have gone more interested in MMA).
I’m finding it difficult to like wrestling as a sport, today it’s more smack talk than the actual sport, and I don’t find the new wrestlers any more likeable than the ones in days of old. given that Rey Mysterio is quite talented but then so is every other professional Luchador wrestler.
By now you should realize I’m one of those who have grown off of wrestling, I was really into it as a kid then just stopped as it got less interesting, though to be fair there have been some really fun wrestling games out there, who remembers Wrestlemania on the SNES, PS1, Mega Drive and the Sega Saturn?
What does that Wrestlemania on those systems have to do with WWE All Stars you ask? well, let me explain. See the thing is there are usually two sets of licensed sports games, you got the hyper-realistic sports simulation (Pro-Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven, Madden, Tiger Woods, UFC games, etc.) that are more about the sport and intimidating people such as myself from playing them for being too complicated, and once glorious “nothing but fun” arcade-style sports games that don’t give a rat’s rear end about being realistic, Wrestlemania was one of them, NBA Jam was a basketball counterpart. If I remember clearly there was an NBA Jam game that was rereleased recently, are we witnessing a renaissance of arcade sports games that are actually fun?
WWE All Stars seems to be going towards that direction,which seems very promising, the wrestler do not look in any way realistic, the look more like the action figures toy shops have been selling at one point. What do I think about that, hey if they’re bringing back the goofiness that was Wrestlemania, sign me up! But even with the cartoonized wrestlers, the graphics seem a little odd, they seem somewhat dated and the wrestlers look very pasty. While the art direction is pretty good for the most part, Andre the giant seems a little off and unfinished with his unusually deformed gorilla arms.
From what I remember from Wrestlemania did not pull any punches from being extremely goofy, you had the British Bulldog have his hands turn into a ball and chain, The Undertaker was pulling Tombstones (literally, not to be mistaken with his signature finisher) out of thin air and so on. WWE All Stars is… Well, kinda going that way but there are no comedy props anywhere, it just has cartoon physics. Meaning that their falls are exaggerated and tend to bounce higher than how they would usually do in real life.
The game has that odd problem that I encountered in Brutal Legend (strange to mention an irrelevant game, but it’s there), when a wrestler jumps from one of the corners, he homes onto the opponent making him fall on him 100% of the time, even if the opponent is running to the far side of the ring. I know the game isn’t suppose to be realistic, but that strikes me as unnatural or disorienting. There are several game modes for Wrestling fans, but they all seem to feel the same except for a story mode that lets you unlock a few more characters, which is basically a series of regular matches with uninteresting and cringe worthy cutscenes. There is the usual create your own wrestler, but you might just go for whatever wrestlers this game already offers. Some might disagree with me but the game does lack a lot of variety, I was hoping to see Wrestlemania’s second coming, but this game falls a little flat on its face.
What We Think: Hardcore wrestling fans might find this a treat, but I didn’t find it really enjoyable… it’s not bad, but not exactly what I hoped for. I would REALLY love to see them make this game more arcadey than what it currently tries to be, but this game is going towards the right direction, would love to see them work more on it in the next iteration
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