WWE WrestleMania X8

"THQ's latest wrestling disaster- Er... Game!"

Since 1993, I?ve played or just outright purchased just about every WWF/WWE game that has come out (exceptions would mainly include any of the next gen games or the ones on N64). After seeing footage and movies of the Gamecube's first WWE wrestling game, Wrestlemania X8, I thought, ?Wow! This might the WWE game that I get next!? Until this game, I was pretty much behind on getting any of WWF/E's games, simply because of the fact that I pretty much lost interest in WWE all together. The program just started getting worse and worse. Despite that, I decided to go for WX8 anyway. So, after saving some money, I went down to Best Buy, picked up a bunch of DVD?s (the usual selections of anime and Lucio Fulci movies), and went ahead and picked up Wrestlemania X8 and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. I thought for sure I would enjoy both. Sure, the whole thing rang up more than $100 US, but I felt somewhere inside me that it might just be worth it. After about two hours of owning everything, I almost regretted buying Wrestlemania X8. The learning curve and the engine were just too much to want to sit down and screw with for too long. After a while, I became more adjusted and began to get the hang of the game, but the fact that this game is missing so much that made the Smackdown games a lot of fun really hurt the overall rating. Where's the career mode? Create-a-Stable? Why can't I have all the liberty with the title belts like you could with the other WWF/WWE games? All just a bunch of empty questions that surfaced while playing this wonderful waste of money.

The premise is much like your other wrestling games, sans any good modes! You are given over 30 wrestlers to mess with, plus six hidden ones (making over 40 total). You know, wrestlers like The Rock, Stone Cold, Triple H, Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Edge, Chris Jericho, Lita, Kane, Tajiri, and many others. As you well know, the main goal of every wrestler is to secure the heavyweight title, or just go for some of the lesser ones. One aspect that appeared in WWF Smackdown! 2 that still did not make an appearance here was freedom with the belts. Like Smackdown!: Just Bring It, the belts can only change hands in season mode (called Path of a Champion Mode). This means if you really want someone else to hold the belt, you have to send them all the way through season mode again and claim the belt from the current contender. Why not just avoid the redundancy? It's a lot more fun to have complete freedom with the belts. This way, if you get too tired of one guy holding the belt for too long, you can give it to someone else.

The engine is pretty much like the Smackdown engines, with a little bit of revamping. As usual, you have one button to do grapples. That button can be pushed with any combination of directions to do other moves. However, there are no longer moves that can be set when your opponent is groggy. Regular attacks can be done by pushing the B button. As usual, you can do moves off the rope or while your opponent is laying down, even while they're running towards you. Another difference is that there are two different counter buttons now. One to counter striking attacks, the other to counter grapple moves. The referee is also present, which means you can pick on him all you want just to delay the count or what not. All of these fabulous elements can be found under one of many matches including normal (standard one-on-one), tag team, hardcore, handicap, table, TLC (tables, ladders, and chairs), ladder, cage, Hell in a Cell, Royal Rumble, battle royal, fatal four way, or triple threat.

The engine has that crisp feel to it! Well, maybe not crisp like a fresh dollar bill, but crisp like someone who was tied to the bottom of a space shuttle during launch. It almost has that Smackdown feel, minus the fast pace and the easy learning curve. Everything feels a bit slower than before. Now, I don?t mean Legends of Wrestling slow; it does have an okay pace. It?s just not the pace SD has. The controls are almost too complex to handle when you first start. For instance, you have to flick the C stick to change your focus on a different person. This becomes extremely irritating after a while, as the C stick is in a pretty inconvenient area for having such a major role.. Let's not forget that there are some actions that can only be achieved by pushing two buttons simultaneously, which can also get annoying. It means you really have to do some memorizing, at least when you first play. No problem. That?s a given for almost any game, surely. However, combine that with the shaky engine and it made my first few experiences with this game a bit frustrating.

This is not to say the engine is totally bad. It?s fun to tinker with every now and then. I?ve gotten some pretty good laughs playing it and do enjoy pummel the life out of different wrestlers and all. One other thing that I can say positively is that it seems a few moves have gained much more of a brutal edge to them. Kane?s chokeslam or the Rock Bottom just seem much more powerful that usual.

There really aren?t that many different modes to mess with in this WWE installment. Of course, you have exhibition, which features all of the matches listed above. If you don?t already know, exhibition is a mode in which you do one quick match. Pretty much just there to kill quick time or have a few different matches for you to mess with. You can even do multiplayer matches here. Instead of Season mode, we are given Path of a Champion Mode. In this mode, you pick a wrestler and the belt you wish to win and battle your way through a series of matches, only to eventually wind up fighting the champion. Basically, think back. Remember before there really was a good season mode, all you really did in a ?season? was fight a bunch of different matches, then get to the champ? No storylines, no watching other matches or rivalries. Just you, a bunch of other guys, then a one-night stand with the champ. I guess you could say I was a bit spoiled on the idea of a season mode. I guess this is my punishment. When I played SD2, I really didn?t worry too much about season mode and just said, ?Who cares about season mode? I have enough fun just playing exhibition!? I wish that were the case here. I soon found out how much I really appreciate having a season mode.

[begins playing ''Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone'']

There is another fairly unique mode featured in the game as well. That would be Battle for the Belts. Unfortunately, this is a multiplayer mode only (in fact, I think it?s only two player, if I?m not mistaken). In this mode, you can create your own championships and defend them against other friends. The catch is you have to know someone who actually likes the game enough to care! It sounds like a very solid idea for a mode, but the fact that it's only available for two players limits it as a decent mode. At first glance, you almost think it's a ''Create a Belt'' mode, but instead of doing something actually cool, they decided to give us the shaft. Meh...

Finally, we have your basic Create-a-Superstar mode, and my how basic it is! You really don?t get a whole lot to work with. I will say, however, that it is a bit better than most CAW systems we?ve seen in the past. They really don?t give you a whole lot of different clothing or facial features to work with. On top of that, you don?t get nearly as many moves as we?ve seen in previous WWF/WWE games. You just don?t get the creativity you can with the last two Smackdown games.

The game is pleasing to the eye, I?ll say that! All of the characters are rendered and designed very well! Very good texturing and smooth animation with nice lighting seem to make the wrestlers seem more alive! One downer I will give to the graphics is the entry theme graphics. When your wrestlers are moving out, the animation seems a bit stale. They don?t move nearly as well as they do during a regular match. The Titantron also works very well in this game, delivering FMV video entries for each wrestler as they enter the arena.

The sounds are something that I feel could?ve used a little extra touch. First, you have the music that plays during the matches. What the hell is this? It sounds like music you would typically hear during a menu on other wrestling games, not during a match. It doesn?t fill you with that fighting spirit that adds the fast paced edge to the game. Music on other wrestling games does that. The fast beats and sounds just seem to fill you with that fighting edge. I can, however, say that they did a good job with the entry themes and sound effects anyway. The sound effects sound pretty true to WWE matches.

I was excited to see and buy this game. I was just about as excited to take it out of my GameCube and put Eternal Darkness in. Now, don?t get me wrong. This game isn?t totally bad, but with so much missing the game?s rating has suffered a blow. I can deal with the engine, sure. I think I can adjust to it pretty well. I have been, actually. However, I feel there really needs to be more to the game. It has left me much to desire. All the modes that gave the other games a little more MMPH are gone. There?s no season, no create-a-stable. You don?t even get any liberty with the title belts. What I mean is that in other WWE games, you could actually control who had the different titles. You could set up an exhibition match with the WWF Title on the line. In this one, the only way a title switches hands is if you fight your way through tons of matches and make it to the champion at the end of Path of a Champion mode. I don?t want to play an entire mode to switch title belts! I had fun having control over who I think should have the belts. I had fun even defending the belts (which can be done without doing an entire POC mode, thankfully).

I will admit. I still have fun with this game, but just not as much fun as I have with the others. The engine isn?t bad, but the learning curve is pretty annoying. So much I could?ve wished for didn?t turn out in this game. It almost seems like they had the philosophical idea of ?less is more.? To end discussion, Wrestlemania X8 is a decent engine and a nice first attempt at a GCN wrestling game, but falls short of expectations.

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: Good for the most part 8/10
Sounds: Need a bit of help on the music during matches, but fine otherwise 7/10
Control: Complexity makes for a high learning curve, but once you have it all down? Okay, and the response is good! 7/10
Plot/Storyline: N/A
Gameplay: Fun engine, but it needs more features 6/10
All Together: 6/10

Perks
*Great animation
*A different engine, and not too bad at that
*Fun to tinker with

Downers
*Missing a lot modes
*Not so stellar CAW
*Tough learning curve
*Fairly complex controls

Recommendations
Even if you?re a hardcore WWE fan, I highly suggest renting first. This game may not turn out to be all that you wanted in a GCN wrestler. Personally, I say wait for Smackdown! 4. That one seems to have a lot more promise than this.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/23/02, Updated 11/09/03