Game: WCW Mayhem
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: EA Sports
Release Date: 31st August 1999
If you were to ask me what the worst wrestling game I've ever played is, I'd be pointing you toward this title. Even taking into account that it's the oldest wrestling game that I own, it comes up short in many key aspects of gameplay and general game design. The game's main mode is called Quest for the Best and it involves fighting 5 opponents of higher rank to win a title. Doing so may unlock other wrestlers depending on who the player chooses to fight as and the difficulty selected.
Fights themselves are tedious and downright frustrating; the hit detection is off and sometimes your attacks go right through the opponent, the camera angle makes it difficult to see where you're attacking in the ring, there are only about 10 moves available to each wrestler including finishers, and the momentum system for determining whether a pin will hold for a three count is unpredictable and generally offputting.
Controlwise the game is a nightmare; if there are multiple opponents in the ring, you're only allowed to target one at a time and switching between them is difficult. Even if there's only one opponent in the ring with you, it hardly feels like you're in control of your wrestler as they'll do random attacks most of the time. To win a fight, you need to get your momentum bar up to full or the opponents down to empty. Once this has been done you may attempt to pin them for the win.
The game sometimes freezes during player entrances and almost always after a match has been won or lost. This seems like bad design and it's annoying to have to reset the console after every match. Although there's a fair selection of wrestlers, a lot of them need unlocking via satisfying conditions upon completing Quest for the Best. There's a small choice of match options for a single match, and fairly extensive customisation options in Create-A-Wrestler mode.
Graphically the game is poor as wrestlers look bulky and the crowd look like a flat surface. Facial features are hardly recognisable and some writing onstage can be so pixellated that its difficult to read at times. The commentary is sparse and when the announcers do say things they're either late or irrelevant. There's hardly anything impressive for 1999 in the game considering it was out 9 days before the release of the Dreamcast.
Overall this game suffers equally from poor controls, graphics, sound and programming. A lot of its features are made unenjoyable by long load times and the game freezing up all too often. The most fun that can be had is creating an invisible wrestler and making it look like the opponent is being beaten up by a demon by button mashing. Otherwise though, there's not a lot that can be done with this game at all.
Rating: 16/100
Grade: F
Game: Smackdown! 2: Know Your Role
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Yuke's
Release Date: 1st December 2000
Proving that it's possible to make a much better wrestling game on PS1 than WCW Mayhem, this game takes over 50 WWF (at the time) superstars and allows you to pit them against eachother in a vast selection of match types. There's also modes to create your own wrestler, PPV, stage, moves and taunts. Although I haven't played the first installment in this series, it feels like the first wrestling game which gets close to delivering the action and excitement of the actual show.
In Season Mode, players guide a chosen wrestler through their matches and encounter different storylines and feuds as they progress. Although most of the cutscenes and matches are basic, it gives the true feel of being a professional wrestler week in, week out. Unfortunately players are made to skip through (or even watch) every match on the event card before theirs, which can take quite some time and seems to be completely unnecessary.
Although there aren't a huge amount of attacking options, this game outclasses WCW Mayhem with good hit detection and sensible controls. Once players have landed enough attacks, they store a finishing move which they can unleash when in the right position to do so. Pins are usually able to be landed after successfully performing a finishing move, and KO's are available in some match types. It can get a little chaotic in the ring with multiple wrestlers, but with a maximum of four at any one time it's not overly confusing.
Also included in the game is the option to play single matches, with many different types included such as Hardcore, Cage, Casket, Hell in a Cell, Tables and Iron Man. With all of the wrestlers on offer in the game, in addition to the ability to create your own any match you can think up is possible in this mode. The create modes are a good addition also and contain a fairly large amount of options for players to customise to their liking.
Graphically the game is pretty good with wrestlers almost looking like their real life counterparts in a lot of cases. Entrances contain the real videos for the chosen wrestler which beats WCW Mayhem's entrances hands down. There's no commentary featured in this game; instead we're given a fast paced and heavy soundtrack which works well with the action and in my opinion is better than including a low quality commentary on matches anyway.
Overall Smackdown! 2 isn't perfect; load times are long and almost everything incurs some sort of loading screen, making progress through Season Mode almost tiresome. The matches and customisability of the game are huge strong points as they're very enjoyable and having a lot of licensed superstars helps to add to the feel of emulating the show itself. Still fun to play now, it was probably even more so back in the days of its release.
Rating: 66/100
Grade: C
Game: Smackdown!: Shut Your Mouth
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Yuke's
Release Date: 31st October 2002
The second game in the series to be on Playstation 2, Shut Your Mouth used ideas and controls from the earlier games and improved them to craft a far more realistic wrestling experience than in previous titles. Featuring a large cast of wrestlers with a few as unlockables, an improved season mode, full entrances and commentary this is certainly a step up from the PS1 days.
Season mode has simple but engaging story lines where the player can choose certain options toward becoming a champion at PPV events. Winning at these events also unlocks features such as parts for create-a-wrestler, outfits for superstars and bonus movie clips. While other events still have to be skipped through to get to your own matches, they're much easier to skip through than before. Small cutscenes have also been added which can get a little tedious if you're more focused on the gameplay.
In terms of controls matches are very similar to those of Smackdown! 2. The X button is used for strikes, Circle for grapple moves, Square to reverse and Triangle to run. Wrestlers build up momentum from landing moves and once enough has been received a finishing move is stored up to a maximum of 5. The momentum meter fills much faster than before and overall matches seem far easier to win against the CPU. There's a greater variety of moves and the ability to edit them for each wrestler also.
Create-A-Wrestler mode has a strange layout with a lot of menus and submenus. So much so that I'm not sure whether you can choose clothes for your created wrestler to wear; I couldn't find the option to clothe them anyway. There's a lot of choice in terms of their physique and body parts but overall it doesn't feel like you have a huge amount of options. The amount of match types available to players is quite impressive, although many were included in previous installments also.
Graphically, Shut Your Mouth sees a marked improvement from Smackdown! 2 in that the character models are much less blurry and hard to make out. While it's not perfect it does look almost like the start of the later era graphics. Soundwise the game is strange as it features commentary as well as music over matches, creating a difficulty in hearing the announcers. Cutscenes aren't voiced and text is displayed below the action.
Overall the game feels like a big leap forward despite there still being various issues with it. Long load times for short cutscenes, incompetent AI and a few other minor issues don't outweigh the fact that the is the first time in the series where it feels like you're in complete control of your wrestler. Although the create-a-wrestler mode feels a little subpar the amount of included superstars almost makes up for this.
Rating: 72/100
Grade: C
In the next part I'll be looking at four years worth of games with Smackdown! vs Raw 2006-9 to see how far the series progresses, and whether yearly installments help or hinder the series.
No comments:
Post a Comment