Introduction
After WWE Raw 2 many Xbox wrestling fans felt disappointed, including me. More match types were great, but the game featured many of the flaws of the first Raw and a weak season mode(no text?!), so THQ pitched Anchor and the Raw series and handed the wrestling title over to Studio Gigante(creators of Tao Feng) and slapped it with the WrestleMania name, previously on the GameCube. While there are some problems it seems as if Studio Gigante has a good stepping stone for future wrestling games.
Presentation: From the time I have played the presentation of the game is great. Authentic entrances, albeit a bit short, almost spot on, with the Raw or SmackDown! Graphics featured. And the crowds and stage are amazing, but that’s more for graphics right? The menus are a bit different but manageable.
Graphics |
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Although the character pictures on the select screen look a little funny, the graphics in this game are amazing. With the arenas looking spectacular (they have spotlight thingies that I mark out for, for some reason) and the crowd looking good as well. The wrestlers also look great and even the CAWs don’t look to out of place unlike some other wrestling series. The only problem I have with the graphics is how some of the moves are done as they seem a bit strange at times with awkward looking grapples and stuff, but that’s probably due to motion capture and I’m sure Studio Gigante will get better with it.
Sound |
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All of the wrestlers have their real entrance themes with no instrumentals as it was with Raw 2. The use of custom soundtracks is a bonus and if you don’t have any music on your Xbox hard drive there are about a dozen different songs you can use from bands like Breaking Benjamin. The ring noise is pretty good I s’pose but I guess it’s kind of hard to judge that. From what I’ve played of the season mode so far the voice overs seem pretty good and it’s a whole lot better then reading text all the time. The only gripe I have is the announcing which seems to have gaps every few moments and can get repetitive which hurts the game because you’re not hearing music all that often.
Gameplay |
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This is what makes or breaks every single game. The gameplay is… meh. The controls are definitely different then any wrestling game I’ve played, but I s’pose it’s good as it's showing innovation. From what I saw in the Create-A-Wrestler there seems to be a lack of moves, but for a first game I guess it should be expected. The much talked about pro-reversal is a problem for me. To me it felt as if it was more luck, then skill to get the moves countered as I’d just continuously tap the tiggers in hopes of a reverse. The AI can be seen as frustrating also. From the time I’ve played as soon as they get you down you better pray you get up, because the opponent will continually attack you with submissions and your character is unable to get up. Another problem is you’ll be going for a strike and you’re about to hit him, but they do a grapple and it seems to negate the strike for whatever reason. It’s annoying but the game is still playable.
Lastability |
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The season mode is sort of different from others as it takes a more cinematic approach and you must have a CAW and go through the ranks. It sort of reminds me of THUG 1 in a way. The only gripe I have so far is the fact that you must win all your matches otherwise you have to re-do the match, so there is no consequence for losing really. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to play online yet due to the servers being down, but apparently there’s an update coming out to enable online play so that should be good for the game. There are also a handful of the basic match types you’d expect and in the next iteration there should be plenty more.
Overall |
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All in all, this is a solid game with some problems in the gameplay department. You may want to rent the game first due to the annoying tendencies of the AI and the poor collision detection, but if you’re a WWE fan with an Xbox I would recommend it once they get online up and running.
Final Score : 74 %
