Wrestlemania XIX Impressions

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by TheGame

What part of WM's sound is good? (or better than Raw's?)

as far as the core gameplay which game do you prefer?

Personally, I think Raw's CAW is good... I think the only lagging problem is making a CAW's face, not enough options. Plus you have to unlock half the outfits in the game, which kinda sucks.... I don't mind the pre-made intros.

1) Sound - The sound of the crowd in WM is great. Nothing like wrestling as a heel and hearing the crowd chant "You Suck" over and over. It draws you into the match. I just like the fact that the music is very low during matches and allows for the sound of the match to take over, as opposed to Raw 2's horrific sound track. Why can't wrestling games come up with decent music?

2) Gameplay - I prefer Raw 2's by far, but thats only because its PLAYABLE. WM's engine is much better but its cranked up to 11 so you don't have time to do all the things that the engine allows you to do. Raw 2's is still quite good, but I think that if Yukes had slowed the game down, the gameplay would have been better than No Mercy. Instead its just a fighting game starring wrestlers.

3) Raw's CAW is good, but WM's is MUCH BETTER. The sheer number of moves you can choose from is staggering and smacks of Fire Pro with about 20 STANCES to choose from, ranging from Mysterious 1 and 2 (Abdullah the Butcher and The Great Muta) to Vale Tudo (Brazilian street fighting) to Emerald which was thrown in for just one wrestler recreation (Mitsuharu Misawa). In Raw 2 there were only a few unique moves to choose from that are not related to a current WWE wrestler. In WM there are DOZENS.

No many of you might be saying "Who the hell are those guys he mentioned above? Why do I care about them?" Well true, they do cater to us hard core wrestling fans who love nothing more than to create our favorite wrestlers from overseas and the indies to fight the WWE's biggest no talent humps, they also add something extremely important to a wrestling game... VARIETY. They allow you to create a wrestler who is completely unique to the US, and not just an combination of moves from WWE stars. It allows for personality to be shown i the ring with the wrestlers walk, stance and moveset. Its EVERYTHING for replayability.

CONCLUSION: When broken down into all of its individual parts, WMXIX looks like the best wrestling game ever made. But when all those parts come together, it becomes apparent that Yukes once again dropped the ball. They had everything going for them, and screwed it up by refusing to drop the myth that a wrestling game must play like button masher to be entertaining. Its not, and neither is WMXIX.

What is the most painful as a wrestling fan is that they were so close to greatness, and then ruined a game that could have been amazing.