So I just watched the hype video for WWE and the weirdest thing happened: I felt a twinge of interest in purchasing a wrestling game for the fist time since Day of Reckoning 2 on the Gamecube.

As someone who has been a fan of wrestling his whole life I used to lap up every game that came out, starting with Royal Rumble on the SNES and including every Yukes game on the N64 (those games were absolutely amazing). But when the games started going in the EA direction of an annualised 'sport sim' style franchise I found it left a bitter taste in the mouth and stopped buying them. I don't want 'realism' from a wrestling game, I want the colour; violence and foolishness that only wrestling can do.

So my question to those of you who are still playing these games is this: is it worth getting back into them? If I don't want a competitive sports game, but a way to enjoy throwing people through cages and tables will this still scratch that itch? Or is it just UFC 2012 with some cheesy storylines thrown in?

My biggest fear is that the fun wrestling games of old have died out and been replaced by a cross-breed of a hardcore sports sim and an MMA game. Hopefully someone will tell me that this isn't the case.

Cheers folks,

Dev

If you liked Day of Reckoning 2 you'll like WWE 13.

I haven't played any wrestling games on this or the last generation of consoles (PS2,Xbox - PS3,360) until All Stars and WWE 12 came out. All Stars is awesome, WWE 12 was pretty cool at the beginning because it has just so many features and match types in it. The actual gameplay is quite boring though. Yes, the create a wrestler, create a ring, up to 6 wrestlers in ring at once, huge selection of wrestlers, download created wrestlers, and the crazy amounts of match types is pretty great, but it wears thin pretty quickly.

At least that is my experience with WWE 12. If you really want to get a wrestling game, get WWE All Stars. If you wanted something more sim and realistic, I'd rent WWE 12/13 before you buy it.

@Oldirtybearon said:

If you liked Day of Reckoning 2 you'll like WWE 13.

Back of the box.

As a 31 year old who's been playing wrestling games since Pro Wrestling on the NES, I can honestly say I've lost all sense of what makes a wrestling game "fun" I think deep down in it's core, wrestling games should not be made to play like sports games, where skill and execution lead to success. Tom McShea once said on an old Hotspot that wrestling games should be focused on wrestlers hitting big spots and getting the crowd pumped up. That being said, people will just say, "Then play a booking sim like EWR or TEW." And while I have played those games and they are fun, they are still just screens of text that can be applied to any business sim. Unfortunately I do not know exactly what I want in a wrestling game, cause if I did I'd probably be making it now.

But what the fuck do I know? I've spent the whole day playing Attitude Era, I'm up to the Mankind arc. I'll probably end up playing wrestling games till I die, still not knowing what's missing in them...

@Oldirtybearon said:

If you liked Day of Reckoning 2 you'll like WWE 13.

sold.

If you've loved wrestling within the last 20 years you'll like this game. The attention to detail is astounding especially in the Attitude mode. Things play out EXACTLY like they did in real life. They even lift the audio from the actual matches which lends to insane stuff like having wrestlers on commentary for specific matches. You get best of the old and best of the new. There are some slight gripes to be had but this is for sure the best wrestling game in a while. And who better to be on the cover but the best in the world!

@shrinerr said:

As a 31 year old who's been playing wrestling games since Pro Wrestling on the NES, I can honestly say I've lost all sense of what makes a wrestling game "fun" I think deep down in it's core, wrestling games should not be made to play like sports games, where skill and execution lead to success. Tom McShea once said on an old Hotspot that wrestling games should be focused on wrestlers hitting big spots and getting the crowd pumped up. That being said, people will just say, "Then play a booking sim like EWR or TEW." And while I have played those games and they are fun, they are still just screens of text that can be applied to any business sim. Unfortunately I do not know exactly what I want in a wrestling game, cause if I did I'd probably be making it now.

I completely agree with that, though I think it can be a combination of both. That's one of the things I always liked about the AKI games on the N64 in that there was no real 'health' bar. It was all about building up momentum. There were still competitive aspects to the whole thing, but it wasn't just about wearing down the other person. It was a little more like a real wrestling match that built up from smaller moves, to bigger moves, and then finally to finishers.

Most of the games that I have played this generation (which, I'll admit, isn't that many of them) mostly feel like glorified fighting games, and I think that takes away from what makes a good wrestling match special.

Im playing through the Attitude Era at the moment and it really is great re-living all these moments. I stopped watching wrestling around 2003 and tried keeping up with the games but they did seem to lose more and more of the fun over the years that I would have with say Smackdown 2 or Wrestlemania 2000. While WWE 13 is still a bit too simulation for my liking (although I am liking that there is actual back and forth swings instead of me just beating people easily) the Attitude stuff is certainly helping. I think the nostalgia is pushing it over the edge.

how long does attitude era mode last?

I assume ill play that and then not play anything else.

Every two years or so i get "tricked" into believing things have changed and gotten better and every time it feels like its still stuck in the past.

I haven't had real fun with a wrestling game outside of playing with multiple people since Shut your mouth. all stars was great too but im speaking of only "main series games"

@Darkstalker: Seems to be between 10 and 15 matches per section so far and 6 sections (not including the extra one at the end)

@Darkstalker said:

how long does attitude era mode last?

I assume ill play that and then not play anything else.

It seems pretty lengthy. I've played something like 8 - 10 matches so far after picking up the game yesterday, and I'm still in the first of, I think, seven stories, so it'll last you a while, especially if you're going for all of the objectives in the match, and not just winning.

They botched Shawn Michaels face in 13, other than that its good.

@mcmax3000 said:

@shrinerr said:

As a 31 year old who's been playing wrestling games since Pro Wrestling on the NES, I can honestly say I've lost all sense of what makes a wrestling game "fun" I think deep down in it's core, wrestling games should not be made to play like sports games, where skill and execution lead to success. Tom McShea once said on an old Hotspot that wrestling games should be focused on wrestlers hitting big spots and getting the crowd pumped up. That being said, people will just say, "Then play a booking sim like EWR or TEW." And while I have played those games and they are fun, they are still just screens of text that can be applied to any business sim. Unfortunately I do not know exactly what I want in a wrestling game, cause if I did I'd probably be making it now.

I completely agree with that, though I think it can be a combination of both. That's one of the things I always liked about the AKI games on the N64 in that there was no real 'health' bar. It was all about building up momentum. There were still competitive aspects to the whole thing, but it wasn't just about wearing down the other person. It was a little more like a real wrestling match that built up from smaller moves, to bigger moves, and then finally to finishers.

Most of the games that I have played this generation (which, I'll admit, isn't that many of them) mostly feel like glorified fighting games, and I think that takes away from what makes a good wrestling match special.

Both you need to hunt down copies of Fire Pro Wrestling or its 3D counterpart, King of Coliseum. Seriously.

@Oldirtybearon said:

Both you need to hunt down copies of Fire Pro Wrestling or its 3D counterpart, King of Coliseum. Seriously.

I've played a bit of Fire Pro Wrestling, in a couple of different forms, but the lack of general ability in North America has stopped me from really getting into it. If they were to put a proper, English, Fire Pro game (aka, not that Avatar thing, though I didn't hate that as much as some people did) on XBLA/PSN, I'd jump on it in a second, but the whole importing from Japan thing has never been of much interest to me.

(And I know there was one on the PS2, but I never owned one of those, so I never got a chance to play it. If they had put it on either of the other two systems at the time, I would've purchased it for sure)

@mcmax3000 said:

@Oldirtybearon said:

Both you need to hunt down copies of Fire Pro Wrestling or its 3D counterpart, King of Coliseum. Seriously.

I've played a bit of Fire Pro Wrestling, in a couple of different forms, but the lack of general ability in North America has stopped me from really getting into it. If they were to put a proper, English, Fire Pro game (aka, not that Avatar thing, though I didn't hate that as much as some people did) on XBLA/PSN, I'd jump on it in a second, but the whole importing from Japan thing has never been of much interest to me.

(And I know there was one on the PS2, but I never owned one of those, so I never got a chance to play it. If they had put it on either of the other two systems at the time, I would've purchased it for sure)

Fire Pro 2 for the GBA is an amazing wrestling game. I sunk a couple hundred hours into it rather easily. Fire Pro Returns (the most recent FPW game) exists for the PS2. It's pretty amazing.

All that aside, the reason KoC or Fire Pro don't make it to North America is because nobody's tried to present a wrestling game that is less about winning matches and more about putting on good matches. Fire Pro is like that, as is KoC. I think both styles of game have a lot of merit, but if given the choice I'd rather have a new Fire Pro/KoC than a new WWE game.

@mcmax3000 said:

@Oldirtybearon said:

Both you need to hunt down copies of Fire Pro Wrestling or its 3D counterpart, King of Coliseum. Seriously.

I've played a bit of Fire Pro Wrestling, in a couple of different forms, but the lack of general ability in North America has stopped me from really getting into it. If they were to put a proper, English, Fire Pro game (aka, not that Avatar thing, though I didn't hate that as much as some people did) on XBLA/PSN, I'd jump on it in a second, but the whole importing from Japan thing has never been of much interest to me.

(And I know there was one on the PS2, but I never owned one of those, so I never got a chance to play it. If they had put it on either of the other two systems at the time, I would've purchased it for sure)

You can pick up Fire Pro returns for PS2 and a used PS2 for less then the cost of WWE13. Well worth it if the language barrier is too extreme on the import versions. The only thing I can complain about with Returns is that the menu system outside of gameplay is TERRIBLE.

As far as I am concerned, I did enjoy the older Yukes games but as they started to add in all the stupid things I hate about wrestling(storylines) I just lost interest. You can never go wrong with 2d Fire Pro and I have heard something about people being able to play Fire Pro Wrestling: 6 Men Scramble on a PC via magic or some form of software sorcery if any of you want to experience the best of the series =)

@Atramentous: I don't know dude. The animation for Muto's SHINING WIZAH in FPR was spectacular.

@Devilb0y: Is that a picture of Dan Severn?

@mordukai: You bet your ass it is.

You officially qualify to the elite group of individuals who actually recognise that picture. Congratulations.

@Devilb0y: Are you talking about the WCW/Nitro games on N64? I can't remember the exact title (and googling has popped up a few titles that don't apply) but what I believe was the first game in the series was awesome. Came out around 97-98 I do believe. Played that one for hours solo and it also had a very good couch co-op. What the hell was that game called exactly?

@Devilb0y: Thanks. Me and my dad used to watch him when he wrestled on UWFi along side great names such as Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki, Big Van Vader, and late great Gary Albright. Shit I still remember the tag team he had with Albright.

@stryker1121: Yeah, the first installment was pretty good but WCW vs nWo: Revenge was probably one of the best wrestling games ever for my money.

@mordukai: God, that's older than the stuff I used to watch. I just remember thinking he had a badass moustache as a teenager watching him during his last run with WWF

People are forgetting that WWE All-Stars was a pretty damn good video game that came out a year and a half ago. Was it the best wrestling game? No. Was it a good fighting game? No, either. What made WWE All-Star awesome was that it pays homage to all the old school and new school wrestlers while also making combos and controls as easy as possible to play. I haven't followed wrestling since maybe 2000 but when I saw the game on TNT I knew I had to pick up this game.

After the Attitude Era mode, the rest of the game is just like it has been for years. If you're coming to this for gameplay, look somewhere else. The Universe mode is terrible and the actual wrestling hasn't changed enough. It feels like it did in 2007.

@Devilb0y: Go dig up some old UWFi videos on youtube and also check into his days on early UFC.

@Devilb0y said:

@stryker1121: Yeah, the first installment was pretty good but WCW vs nWo: Revenge was probably one of the best wrestling games ever for my money.

All four of the games in that series, World Tour, Revenge, Wrestlemania 2000, and No Mercy were fantastic. World Tour was kind of simplistic, but had great core gameplay, Revenge & Wrestlemania 2000 added to that (they were really almost the same games, just with different promotional skins), and then No Mercy added both features, and gameplay elements.

Even if they don't go back to those games, and how they played, exactly, I really wish they'd look back at those, and see why they are so fondly remembered, because everything they did well, the newer games have gotten further & further away from.