What I value in a good pro wrestling video game.
A couple of weeks from now the WWE and 2K sports will release WWE 2K15, the latest in the WWE’s line of games that have been released over the years. This is one of the few titles that I look forward to being released every year. This and Saint’s Row (still waiting for Fallout 4). What peaked my interest with this year’s game though was this is the first game to be fully done by 2k sports, where as the last game was largely inherited material when THQ went out of business. Early on it was said that the company would be starting new with all new features instead of the ones that THQ had built up over the years.
With only very little detail be given out so far as to what this game is going to have, I’d thought I’d give my thoughts to the things I like to see in wrestling games, WWE or otherwise. Some may be to much out of reach, while others seem like it is almost necessary to be included.
Something Realistic: I like my games to be as close to the real thing as possible, even if the wrestlers aren’t even real people. Realistic looks are great, but even older games like WCW V/S NWO World Tour are still fun to play, even if things looked blocky as hell. However that was a technological limit of it’s time, a game like WWE All Stars never got my attention once since it was so out of sync with what I want, I left that game on the shelf for the little Cena fans to enjoy.
But little things like a wrestlers moveset or even their entrance are more my issue. Andre the Giant shouldn’t be throwing dropkicks. Hulk Hogan shouldn’t be doing flip piledrivers. One thing that annoys me is when a game maker had to fill out a wrestler’s moveset with stuff they never even used or were even ABLE to do just to make the wrestler more like the current guys. The old Legends of Wrestling games were guilty as sin of this. It kind of kills the fun when guys start rattling off moves you never seen them use in their life. Entrance wise is the same as well. Andre never had theme music, neither did King Kong Bundy or John Studd for most of their runs (Studd had his own briefly and Bundy when he came back and became part of Ted DiBiase’s group). That is almost the first thing I fix in these games, especially when they feature older stars from the 80’s. Don’t try to rewrite history for me, game, I can do that on my own.
A Good Story Mode: The WWE games have usually done very well with this. Be it either an original story or reenactments like the “Attitude Era” or “30 years of Wrestlemania” stories they’ve done in past years. We already have an idea of what is to come with 2K15 with a “Greatest Rivalries” mode and a story featuring a created wrestler. I’m looking forward to taking a created wrestler all the way through a careeer, as I think it’s time to move away from the historical reenactment style since the computer largely dictates how the match goes, move for move (not to mention the “greatest” rivalries typically aren’t). I thought the “WCW Reborn” story mode the company did a few years ago was a lot of fun. Outside the WWE’s sphere, AAA Lucha Libre’s story was very intriguing as an introduction to Mexican wrestling (about the only thing good about that game). I want something interesting that keeps me wanting to play the next chapter. Not something that bores me to death that I’m only playing to unlock an achievement.
A Challenge, but not to much: This kind of goes with any video game but i want something that will challenge me, but not be impossibly hard. AAA Lucha Libre had a HUGE difference in between Easy and Hard modes of their game, so much so i gave up on it as it wasn’t very fun after a while. The WWE can be a mixed bag with this. While their story modes typically are challenging, they have teetered on that line with the “Defeat the Steak” mode in last year’s game.
Lots of Match Modes: The only game that can get away with just having a singles match and a tag match as game modes was Saturday Night Slam masters for the Super Nintendo. Nowadays you better have a LOT of varitety. WWE games have also done very well with that having a lot of different matches and even able to tweak things a bit to make your own (I have a created mode called the “fire pit” match. Works great!) This idea is a large part of what sank the AAA Lucha Libre game for me. It had singles and Tag matches and that was it. This is Lucha Libre, where were the trios matches? It couldn’t have been that hard to put that in the game. However there is one game mode that eludes me to this day and that is a 4 on 4 Survivor Series style match. The Legends of Wrestling games were able to do this (and I played the hell out of it) but as of yet the WWE games have never been able to produce this mode. They tried back for the N64, but those weren’t right as it still only had 4 people at the ring at the same time. Wishful thinking that this will come to pass, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
Create a Wrestler: THE most important thing for me by far. I could not care less who the game features, as long as the Create a Wrestler feature was deep. Truth be told I’ve run a fantasy wrestling legue since I was a kid. Same ongoing story, for literally 25 years. There are characters that I create in the create a wrestler modes EVERY time the WWE games come out. Last year’s game had slots for 100 wrestlers. I drooled so much just on that that I had to clean my controller. I want to have a wide variety of styles and designs with my wrestlers. I want masks and lots of them, I want to be able to make my wrestler’s hair florescent pink. the more fetures the better. The WWE games did well with this for a long time, however last year’s game seemed to have run out of steam for new things to do in the creation suite. It didn’t add to many new things, aside from the create a belt feture (also a good thing!), but in creating actual wrestlers it just felt like I was playing the game from the year before. We haven’t seen what the creation suite in this year’s game will look like, but here’s hoping 2K went all out in creating something fresh and new.
Anyway, we will just have to wait and see what the game holds for new and innovative offerings and what it can provide. Here’s hoping for the best!
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