‘Tis the season for the next batch of WWE games. In the Nintendo GameCube’s corner is Wrestlemania XIX, the latest offering from THQ and Yuke’s. Last year’s game, Wrestlemania X8, wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, falling far short of its stellar expectations. GameCube owners and wrestling gamers alike yearned for a solid title, something it seemed only the Playstation 2’s Smackdown brand had to offer.
Enter Wrestlemania XIX. Let’s see if THQ got the GameCube wrestler right this time around.
The gameplay in WMXIX is similar to that of the last title in almost every way. The grappling system hasn’t changed a bit. It’s the same pressure-sensitive formula from before: tap or hold the grapple button for weak and strong holds and locks, respectively. The game is relatively easy to play, even for a gamer who isn’t familiar with wrestling titles. If you really need the practice though, there is a tutorial mode where Al Snow can “show you the ropes”, so to speak.
The overall in-ring mechanics are genuine, especially from the defensive standpoint. WMXIX has a pinpoint countering system, so machine-gunning a button won’t save you from being slammed on your neck. When you’re locked up, an icon will appear over your wrestler’s head, telling you which button to press. If you don’t hit the button at that exact moment, it’s curtains. That’s something a Smackdown player can appreciate from this game: a realistic defense and countering mechanism.
There is no stamina meter to gauge your wrestler’s status in WMXIX. Instead of a health bar, there is a spirit meter. Anyone who has played any of the wrestling games on the Nintendo 64 should be familiar with this concept. As you wear down your opponent, their meter gradually turns from green to blue. Once their meter is in the black, they are pretty much ready to be put away…just don’t let them catch a second wind.
Although the playability is reasonably solid, WMXIX is seriously lacking in modes of play. There is so much that could have, and should have, been added, and it makes the entire game feel incomplete. There are hardcore matches but these are confined to the ring area, so forget about dragging your opponent all over the arena. As a matter of fact, there are no other areas available to have a match (with the exception of the cleared “Revenge” stages, which we’ll get to in a moment). There can be no more than four wrestlers in the ring area at one time, so forget about a three-on-three or six-man battle royale. The limited number of wrestlers that the game allows is a real turn-off, and it’s part of the reason why there aren’t as many modes of play.
If you’re a fan of the shows, and you have a clue about what’s been happening over the past few months, the roster of available wrestlers in WMXIX will truly disappoint you. Of course, you have the big names like Stone Cold, Triple H, and The Rock, and you have some new faces like Batista, John Cena, and Goldberg. It’s the names that have been left off of the roster that will blow a fan’s mind. Let me throw a few at you: Kevin Nash, Rhyno, Hardcore Holly, Jamie Noble, Billy Gunn, and Rodney Mack, to name just a few singles competitors. As for prominent tag teams, you can count out the APA (Faarooq and Bradshaw), La Resistance (Silvan Granier and Rene Dupree), FBI (Chuck Palumbo, Johnny Stamboli, and Nunzio), and the World’s Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas). I could go on, but we don’t have all day.
The Season mode in WMXIX is, well, WHAT Season mode?! You know, this is really fascinating. If my memory serves me correctly, hasn’t THQ been hit hard once or twice before for half-assing the Season modes on their wrestling games? Sure, they corrected the issue with the Smackdown series, but here they totally let it falter just as they did in the previous game. Who knows? Maybe THQ didn’t want this game to look too much like Smackdown, which is understandable, but that’s hardly an excuse.
Instead of a Season mode, WMXIX has something called “Revenge” mode. The story goes like this: Your selected wrestler is fired by Vince McMahon prior to Wrestlemania XIX. Vince’s daughter, Stephanie, hires you to help her sabotage his plans by having you carry out missions in different areas. These tasks range anywhere from taking out herds of WWE staff members to destroying his merchandise and vehicles. There are four places you must clear, with six missions each, before you face Vince McMahon himself in the final showdown at the big event.
The last mission of each stage puts you up against a “Boss” character, who is not a real WWE superstar, but a made-up character. If you clear this mission, you unlock the phony wrestler and the stage to play some ridiculous mini-games on. Lord knows why the creators did that, knowing no one is going to actually use them, and it makes for a total waste of time and space. Hey THQ, get a clue: if you’re going to pull some crap like this, at least try to make it interesting and make the un-lockable characters real wrestlers. One of the fifteen or twenty viable superstars you left off of the original roster, perhaps!
As mentioned before, you can unlock the stages themselves, as well. This would have been just great if you could actually have a straight-up match at one of the locations. If you decide to play on an unlocked Revenge stage, you have to deal with the corny match stipulation to go with it: Grab this before your opponent does! Eliminate more workers than your opponent! What a joke. The Revenge mode would have been a little bit more worthwhile if you could actually fight a normal match on the stage.
The create-a-wrestler mode in the last Wrestlemania game was a serious disappointment. This time around, THQ remedied last year’s mistakes and provided a healthier creation mode. It’s not necessarily the greatest ever, but it’s definitely a vast improvement. There are tons of new outfits, faces, masks, body types, and other things to choose from while making your character. Some of the items, however, must be unlocked by buying them with the cash you earn from the Revenge missions.
The character creation doesn’t just stop at the wrestler and his or her moves. You can now create the wrestler’s full entrance. Yes, you could also do this in the last game, but that was nothing compared to this year’s mode. This time around, a player can select from a huge list of different animations, fireworks, smoke effects, and camera angles to give their brawler a totally customized intro. You can go so far as to select when your wrestler’s name appears on the screen. There are also many other effects and goodies to unlock with your cash winnings.
I have to give the developers their props on the overall presentation. The wrestlers look great and they captured nearly every intricate detail of each one; everything from The Rock’s new shoulder tattoo to the wrinkles on Ric Flair’s chest.
Another thing you can’t take away from the game is its collection of near-perfect entrance scenes. I’ve mentioned this before in other wrestling game write-ups and it still applies here: the effects and likeness of the wrestlers’ intros is one of the most important and valuable aspects of a great wrestling title. In this game they’re not perfect, but they are closer to the real thing than one would imagine. As for the music, almost all the original entrance songs are here and those that aren’t are slightly remixed, yet acceptable, renditions. You can at least tell which song is which when you hear them. This is to be expected, what with the copyright laws and all. The overall presentation of the entrances, including the fireworks, lighting, and pyrotechnics, are just as accurate as the songs and animations. As far as intros go, it doesn’t get any better than this.
The in-ring sounds and animations are, for the most part, very well put-together. Though there is some exaggeration with the striking noises, the sound is pretty solid. Real voice-overs and authentic music provide added realism. You get the thuds from the canvas, crashes from shattered windows and that unpleasant clank when a body collides with metal. The animations of the wrestlers are also nearly flawless and they each reflect their own likeness in terms of stances and taunts. The fact that tag teams don’t come out together during entrances is a drag, but most people can look past that.
With all the great things this game has going for it, replay value is the one area where WMXIX is the most undesirable. It’s actually lame enough to put the game’s $50 price tag in question. There is little-to-no replay value in this game. Once you run through the Revenge mode, there’s pretty much nothing left to do. If you have a friend that you can go up against and/or tag up with, you could always run the Exhibition modes. But that, as in most other games, wears thin really quickly. If you lack patience, you’ll end up shelving the game faster than you had probably hoped.
Sure, Wrestlemania XIX looks, sounds, and plays awesome, but any true gamer will tell you that presentation isn’t everything. The absence of a true Story mode and a roster lacking many of the top WWE superstars may sway wrestling fanatics away from this one. Despite the fact that the game is missing those aspects, however, Wrestlemania XIX is still an excellent game. It is ideal for the beginning wrestling gamer, but may not totally appeal to experienced players. Regardless of whether or not you’re new to the genre, it’s still definitely well worth a rental.
