GameTavern - Best of Both Worlds.. (New WM X-8 Hands-On)

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After a quick presentation, three different television screens were turned on with a character select screen and game controllers were on hand to play the game. I was one of the first to actually have an opportunity to try out this game. First, let me inform you that there was no title screen or video intro yet for this game. The version I had an opportunity to play was only about 60% complete. The character select screen had only five selectable superstars; The Rock, Stone Cold, Triple H, Undertaker, and Kurt Angle. There were about 30 other question marks which will make the rest of the roster in the finished product. Once you highlighted the superstar that you were going to use, pressing the L and R shoulder keys would let you
choose from one of two costumes. One outfit would be the superstars wrestling attire and the other outfit would be their street attire. For example, pressing L for Triple H and then pressing the B button to select that character would give you Triple H in his wrestling tights. If you press R and then press the B button you would get Triple H in his jean jacket, new shirt and jeans (essentially the outfit he returned in back in January). I asked one of the Yukes staff how many costumes would be available for each wrestler and they informed that it would stay at two. Once you had your character selected you would immediately go to a match preview screen of the match you are about to have. This would show an actual picture of the two wrestlers posing together with their names, and the match type. Pressing the B button again took you to a quick loading time screen and then straight to the match. This version did not have the intros unfortunately but they will, of course, be in the final version.

Getting use to the punching and grappling buttons took all of five seconds. You use the A button to punch and B button to grapple. The punching animation really reminded me of SmackDown! but this didn't bother me to much because the wrestler's taking the punch were selling it extremely well. Whenever Triple H would punch he would throw his head and body back just like the real Triple H would. The grappling felt just like the AKI engine. Hit the B button and you would grapple on to the other superstar with ease. Hit the A button and my superstar would give a swift knee to the torso. Using the A button in conjunction with the Analog Stick would give you a different move. Within minutes I found myself getting someone in a grapple and giving them a neck-breaker. The grapple system is one of the most impressive things about this game because it feels so much like the AKI engine.

Another item that impressed me about this game is the very deep counter system which really gave the wrestling match some depth. The L and R shoulder buttons come in to play when using the counter system. The R shoulder button is used to counter punches while the L shoulder button is used to counter a grapple move. Using both these buttons together would
allow you to counter the finishing moves in the game. I did find myself having trouble with the counter system at first but I slowly realized that it has a lot to do with timing and less to do with button mashing. In-fact I did manage to counter a couple of finishing moves. Undertaker was performing the last ride on me and before you know it, just as Taker had pulled me up before finishing me off, Stone Cold leveled him with a series of punches.

Performing a finishing move requires you to build up your meter. This works much in the same was as SmackDown! does, once you reach a certain level you gain a finishing move. Pressing the A and B buttons simultaneously allows you to pull off your finishing move and you don't have to be in a grapple to do so. However, if your finishing move is countered you actually lose momentum. Some wrestlers will have more then one finishing move. Which a finishing move is used, the type of move will be determined by where you are standing in relation to the other wrestler. If for example you are using Kurt Angle and your opponent is face down on the mat you will end up doing the ankle lock. If you are standing behind your opponent you will do a triple German suplex and if you are in front of your opponent you will do an Angle Slam. There is also a flashing square beside this meter that acts as your stamina meter. When you start a match this meter is flashing green as you progress in the match this meter may change. If you are using too much stamina your meter starts to change from green to yellow and slowly to red. This gives the other superstar an opportunity to take advantage of your low stamina. However, I found that if you slowed down a bit your stamina meter quickly returned to green. The stamina meter is definitely going to be a great feature and will be an interesting factor in how matches play out.

There will be four on screen characters at once in this game. Plus you will also have a ref and two announcers. One thing that was also confirmed was that there would be no play-by-play commentary in the game. This seems to be unusual because there will be announcers at the announce table but no commentary. We will have to see if this stays the way it is or if they will decide not to add the announcers at all. You will also be able to smash through the announce tables.

A few other things to note, using the c-stick near the crowd will allow you to obtain weapons. The c-stick also allows you to target wrestlers. Pressing the c-stick towards the desired wrestler will automatically target that person. The D-Pad is used for taunts. For some of the wrestlers each direction on the d-pad will be a different taunt. The Wrestle Mania X-8 arena was confirmed to be in this game as well. In-fact, right after the press event they were going to Sky Dome to photograph the set. THQ is really concerned with keeping the game up-to-date. They also reconfirmed that the NWO will be in this game.

In conclusion, after playing this game I realized that no, it is not exactly like the AKI engine and it is definitely not like the
Yukes (SmackDown!) engine. This engine takes the best of both worlds and builds upon it to create a new wrestling experience that I found quite addictive. I have not owned a GameCube up until now. Wrestle Mania X-8 was essentially the deal breaker for me when it came to purchasing the console. If this was going to be another SmackDown!: JBI, I don't think I would be interested. I must say that Yukes has pulled it off this time round and created an incredibly enjoyable wrestling experience. Look for this game in late June.

Source:http://www.wwfwrestlinggames.com/gam...adline11.shtml