Let me tell you something about this review. Its not going to be the fanciest masterpiece you find in your Game Informer or on Blistered Thumbs, but I assure you it will be honest and almost laid back, which I know will piss some people off. "Hey this game sucks, you suck for not being harder on it!" I'm sure I will get a lot of that but my mellow, open-minded ways should open your eyes, and since its my review, I will do it any tone I want. Now, for its simplicity and fairness, I will be doing these review in a Blistered Thumbs format. Meaning I will rate it 1 to 10 and give a recommendation. Now on with the review!
Did you ever feel that the Smackdown vs Raw series of games just took it self to seriously? You ever feel that some of Wrestlings greatest legends, in their prime, can wipe the floor with the new WWE Superstars? You feel that Legends of Wrestlmania just didn't have enough Legends? Well my friends, then this is the game for you!
The Pros: Over-the-top art style and game-play make it very fun to play. Solid create-a-charcter.
The Cons: Online very laggy, re-play value seems forced as you have to play as almost every character in Single Player to get Achievements.
WTF: Ultimate Warrior just gorilla pressed Big Show 50 feet in the air!
Now if anyone has ever played a classic WWF game from back in the day, you would remember how over-the-top and wacky the game and the characters could get. WWE All Stars does that and a bag of chips! The character themselves look like super, hulked up versions of their actual self. Some of the wrestlers look like they have 0% Body fat! I prefer this cartoony look more than the Action Figure kinda look they gave the characters in Legends of Wrestlmania.
Speaking of Legends, the game-play is almost like the last game, with simple strike and grapple buttons, but if there is one gripe I have with the controls, its the fact that the L and the R Triggers are used to do to many things. An example being that the Left Trigger is used both to get in and out of the ring as well as search for a weapon under the ring, and you can't imagine how many time I screwed up trying to search for something and end up back in the ring with open arms ready to throw me back out.
Were the game really shines in game-play is the move set of the characters. All the characters have their Signature moves and their finishers, but in this games, the moves are pumped full of XTREME! All the special moves are hilariously over top and seem almost like overkill sometimes, but this is definitely the best part of it. Its not afraid to get wacky and just make the moves oh so ridiculous. I cant count the times me and my younger brother just laughed and enjoyed every crazy move we could pull off on each other.
Not only can we pull off these crazy stunts on our favorite characters, but we can also create our own. Just like the wrestling games before it, create-a-character has returned and this game will definitely give you the option to make your character even more beefier than in your previous games, and just for laughs, I will admit that I have definitely created an Incredible Hulk or two, and just like the modes in the past, its fairly detailed and will allow you to make the character any way you want, to a point obviously.
My intentions are not to spoil the game for you so I will keep the Single Player to a minimum description. Path of Champions comes with 3 stories. The WWE Heavyweight champion story starts off as you challenging the Undertaker after 10 battles. The WWE Champion story haves you challenge Randy Orton after a couple of battles, and the WWE Tag Team Champions has you face Degeneration X for the title. The "Story" is your typical banter between wrestlers as you would see at your standard WWE event. Your rival, or rivals, chastise you and mock you along your path through different characters and matches you have to win until you finally get to the over the top actor and piledrive him and get your belt. Fantasy Warfare Gives you a lot more bang for your buck when you have to choose between to similar characters, one a legend, the other a supertstar, in a Fantasy match. The best part about it is the actual, real-life videos of the Wrestlers that introduce each Fantasy match almost like a documentary to engage you into the match and see why the two characters are alike in many ways.
The multiplayer, at least for me, was what definitely made the game for me, because at its core, this game is also a fighting game, and there is no combination better than a Fighting game and a group of your 3 closest friend huddle around the TV. You can have your standard 1v1, or go for a 3 way or even the fatal Four Way! Pretty much any mode you encountered in the Single Player is already available. Which includes cage and Extreme rules matches. If only the greatness of playing with friends could be brought online. The issue with playing online are the same issues that happen to a lot of games that are not awesomely hyped. There are hardly any people to fight, and if you find someone you will most likely lose the connection, and if your lucky enough to get into a lobby and get a game started, the lag will most likely get you pined or KO'd. Just like the Local Multiplayer you can play all the modes online, you can also play these modes in a Player or Ranked match.
I can honestly say that I had a lot of fun with this game and will continue to do so and will recommend it to WWE fans and fighting game fans as well. The beauty of the game is that you really don't need to be a fan of the franchise to really get into. Just pick up your controller and play a couple matches with your little brother. Trust me, you will have a blast.
Game was rented from redbox and played for 2 days, 2 hours playing online
Rating: 7/10-Great
Recommendation: Try It Out
(Review originally posted April 28, 2011)
