October 28th, 2003

If WrestleMania XX is as big an improvement over XIX as XIX was over X8, it will be (without a shadow of a doubt) the best wrestling game of all time. I hated X8. HATED. But what a difference a year can make. XIX is in my top 3 greatest wrestling games of all time list. THQ and Yukes (a company I used to associate with crap) improved everything so much that my flabber has been gasted.

The graphics have been taken up a notch or two. This is still the least graphically impressive of the current generation of grapplers, but the characters look a lot more true to life than last year's lacklustre effort. The moves are animated much more fluidly and there are more moves to boot. The characters you create look much better, and there are way more options available in their creation. There are more arenas, (or areas, to be more specific) and the Revenge stages are a great addition. From a wrestling perspective. (you might want to tack this on to the end of the last sentence, too) Driving someone through concrete to his (or her) doom is so incredibly satisfying. As is making someone bleed. The screen blurs and goes red as your opponent collapses to the ground, writhes in pain and questions the existence of God. Makes me feel warm inside just thinking about it.

It's not all shits and giggles though. There are still areas where this game could be improved. Just generally, Raw and Smackdown look markedly better than XIX, so it would be nice if next year's offering closes the graphical gap. Also, some of the idle and walking animations are a little jerky. You can see exactly where they are "looped". The Create A Wrestler, while very extensive, could use more of everything. More parts, short haircuts and dress suits, in particular. More moves: I really like kick intensive finishers (à la No Mercy) but there are none to be found here. I have to make do with the Shining Wizard. Also, Raw 2 has a nice feature where you can sorta make your own entrance video. Fairly simple and generic-looking intro videos, but better than coming out to nothing, or to some random wrestler's entrance video (which is what you have do do in XIX). And as with every other wrestling title in existence, there are clipping issues. Arms and legs meshing and overlapping during submissions, punches landing inside a person's head, those kind of things. Until these games start using advanced physics models like in Half-Life 2 , clipping and such is going to remain a problem. Now watch as I awkwardly and without finesse change the subject.

The sound is about what you'd expect. Most of the wrestlers have their theme songs, with a few exceptions. There's no announcing. Which is probably a good thing, considering how poorly it's been implemented in the past. Due to my hatred of X8 I can't say for sure, but I'm of the opinion that the sound effects in XIX are way better. This game sounds like it hurts. Different punches have different sound effects and moves sound different when performed on different surfaces. Pile-driving someone onto a collapsible concrete floor is one of my new favourite sounds. Not as impressive are the rather limited grunts and groans of the grapplers. Having the superstars voice their own characters would be a nice touch. A little more variety in entrance music would be nice too. Way more songs next time please.

Where this title really shines is the totally revamped gameplay. Weak and strong grapples make their triumphant return. Weak grapples are a little different than in the AKI titles of yore. They now happen instantly, no going into a lock-up. So instead of hitting A to lock-up and then up + A to do a fireman's carry, you just hit up + A and whip out the fireman's carry without that middle step of tying-up. Heavy grapples involve lock-ups, but there's been a change made here as well. Directional presses in conjunction with the A button in a lock-up do grappling type moves whilst the B button doles out striking moves. So you can hard grapple someone, punch them in the head three times, knee them in the gut twice, head butt them once for good measure and then powerbomb them, all without letting go. Unless they reverse you. Reversals are much easier to do in this game, which makes the single player experience more enjoyable and multiplayer much more dramatic. There are some sweet looking reversals in this game. Not as good as DOA3 or anything, but still a nice touch. There are more ground submissions. You can flip your opponents while they are on the ground or in the corner, and you can drag them around the ring and position them wherever you like. Big, BIG improvements. There are a wide variety of match types, including Hell In A Cell, Cage, TLC and Ironman. There aren't as many as in the new Smackdown, but still a respectable amount, and for the most part they all work out well.

There are some problems with these new modes, however. You have to lay your opponent onto a table before you can put him through it. You can't just backdrop someone through the table from the ring, fer instance. You can't jump from the top of a ladder inside the ring to hit someone outside the ring. It's also hard to grapple someone on the ladder. Minor quibbles, but still worth mentioning. In addition, there are no backstage areas. You fight in the ring (or cage or cell), on the ramp and on the stage but that's it. Kinda. I'll get to the Revenge stages in a minute. But being able to go backstage is something that is missed and should be included in the sequel. Alsio, some moves are too effective. Which is to say they effect too much around them. If I kick someone, there's a good chance that he'll bump into someone before falling down. This can create a domino effect that makes fighting in confined quarters with four people sometimes frustrating. Also, there should be a better way to change focus. Cycling through all the available foes works for the most part, except for when you cycle through to someone who is in no way any threat to you while there is a foe with a sledge hammer in your immediate vicinity. Right now there are a lot of cheap hits that could be avoided. Like on the fourth construction level in Revenge. The main boss just sits at the top of a tall structure just waiting for you to come to him. Why would I want to focus on him when I'm being double teamed by cheap ass construction workers?

As indicated in the above example, most of these annoyances take place in the brand new Revenge mode. In it, you take your chosen wrestler through a lot of... odd scenarios. At the beginning of the game, you are fired by Vince and hired by Stephanie (whose in-game CGI model looks like crap, and whose lines sound like they were recorded over the phone. Poorly.) to disrupt Vince's WrestleMania XIX plans. You do this by beating up random goons and cops and bikers and such. Sometimes throwing them to into the ocean or bottomless pits or into the paths of cars, sometimes until they bleed. Other times you have to destroy Vince's property. Other times you have to make like a very uncoordinated Tarzan and swing between moving chains. It's all very odd and full of huge gaping holes in logic and it doesn't make a lick of sense - kinda like a lot of recent “real-life” WWE storylines. While beating the crap out of rent-a-cops may not be the most realistic thing ever, it sure is a lot of fun. There's not a lot of story to Revenge: you break stuff and kill people in one location until there's a short cinema of Vince seeing the destruction you've caused and getting angry, then you move on to the next area. But beating people up, making them bleed, and choke-slamming them into the void is my kind of entertainment. I'd take this Revenge mode over Smackdown's nonsensical career mode or Raw 2's lacklustre story mode.

Sure, I'd like a story mode as much as the next guy (as long as it is well implemented) but at least Revenge mode is something new and different. It's not without its flaws, however. Some missions are incredibly easy while others are amazingly hard. At least the first time through. You’ll eventually figure out how to best take advantage of any situation, but even then it's not always that easy. Missions that require you to fight multiple opponents in a very small space are very cheap, and getting people to bleed is incredibly random. Some missions require you to give your opponents the crimson mask, but some are way harder to cut open then others. I've beaten on one guy for over ten minutes trying to get him to bleed. I'm sorry, but if I hit someone in the head with a two by four wrapped in barbed wire, I expect some blood. Especially if I hit him over thirty times. Since all of the missions are timed, it can get frustrating watching the clock tick down as your last opponent refuses to bleed The camera is completely user controlled and can be a bother sometimes, especially near walls. And the lack of a ring in all but one of the Revenge stages means you can't use any turnbuckle or Irish Whip moves. Also, the only way to earn money to unlock stuff is Revenge mode. So you'll be spending a lot of time in Revenge because a lot of the goodies don't come cheap. But after you beat all the missions in any one stage, you can play that stage in exhibition or multiplayer. The addition of the possibility of being thrown or slammed to your doom really adds a new dimension to multiplayer brawls. Good times.

Another addition to this year's game is a tutorial mode that is hosted by Al Snow and teaches you all the basic and advanced moves you need to know to play the game. It's about time a wrestling game came with a tutorial. I mentioned unlocking stuff before. You take your hard earned Revenge money and go to the Shopzone where a rather poor model of Stacy Keibler helps you buy new moves, body parts, ability points and so on. The Stacy model doesn't look too hot, but like Al Snow, she's voiced by the real deal so she still sounds cute as all hell.

All told, this game is light-years beyond last year's abysmal offering. The Create A Wrestler mode is one of the best ever. You can control the size and shape of just about every body part on your wrestler. There are also a lot of outlandish costumes and such, so you can make some really odd-looking creations. Bugs Bunny, Mario, Space Ghost, Optimus Prime, Link; these are but a few of the possibilities. And Darth Vader!!! I almost forgot about Darth Vader!!! You can assign them a wide variety of moves; you even have almost complete control over what their entrance will look like (lighting, pyro, camerawork). I'd say this is the best create-a-wrestler system available. The graphics have been improved, as has the audio, but the gameplay is the real reason this game shines. This is a game that is compulsively playable. I've unlocked almost everything that there is to unlock. I've bought everything there is to buy. I've made several wrestlers. I've beaten Revenge mode not once, not twice, but thrice. All I have left to do is unlock four more boss characters. Yet when I play I usually don't even try to get the bosses. I just beat the shit out of my enemies for hours at a time. That's why I play wrestling games. Sure, there is plenty of room for improvement (I almost forgot, so I'll mention it now - there's no Battle Royale mode. There's a Royal Rumble, but that's not the same.), but this is the best wrestler out there.

- Tyler