WWE WrestleMania XIX

"Definitively better than X8"

Wrestlemania 19 is the second WWE game to grace the Gamecube. While it is under heavy criticism from gamers expecting a 100% No Mercy incarnate, the ones who either never played No Mercy or dropped some of their nostalgia baggage will find this game to quite good on it's own and definitively better than X8.

Game play: 7/10
19 plays as a mixture of X8 and No Mercy, as if THQ was responding to the pleas of No Mercy fans. There are now strong and Weak Grapples and strikes along with Weapon and Striking types of grapples. All this along with Turnbuckle, Apron, Ground and other moves you can do as in it's predecessor. Your moves still knock down people around you, but it's not as bad as it was in X8. The AKI spirit meter is in along with X8's charging Special Meter. Blood and damage locations in the body are in the game as well.

Along with all of the industry-standard match types, (sans B&P and Elimination Chamber) 19 also comes with a brand new mode called ''Revenge'', which has a wrestler of your choosing (CAW=Create-A-Wrestler or Original) being thrown out of the WWE and into the cunning hands of Stephanie McMahon. Stephanie directs you to different areas under Mr. McMahon's control and orders you to, being the wrestler you are, create chaos amongst these areas by either dispatching guards, destroying certain items or simply getting from point A to point B.

Revenge mode plays very similar to any generic side scrolling fighting game. Instead of beating up people to evaporation, you have to throw them off a ledge. What has worst going for this mode are the shoddy camera controls/angles and the difficulty of some objectives. Certain objectives require you to climb a 20 gate/pole or jump from rope to rope which, combined with limitless respawning guards and guards who won't stay down for more than ten seconds, makes a few levels of this mode extremely frustrating.

19's CAW is pretty deep, offering clothes, fighting stances, wrestler templates, and even timed entrance pyros and camera views to your budding wrestler. This, combined with well over 100 standing grappling moves (I've heard over 200, but I didn't bother to count that high) alone will keep you busy for at least an hour a wrestler.

There is also a shopzone, where you can have your hard-earned revenge money turned in to unlock more CAW Attribute points, moves, extra attire, taunts, entrance pyros and wrestler templates. A tutorial is also present for those who wish to brush up on their skills.

Graphics: 7/10.
The graphics are all right. Most of the animation is very fluid, but some of the entrance walks, most notably Mr. McMahon's, look very robotic. Some pyros cause some slow down if mixed with the wrong camera angle, while other pyros don't look too good at all. Wrestler faces look identical to their real counterparts as are the wrestling moves they use. Crowds look like animated paper.

Sound: 9/10
Very good sound at all points of 19. The CAW menus have a low, repeating tune to prevent you from turning the volume down after ten minutes of agony. The quality of Stephanie's voice during the revenge cutscenes is horrible. It's not her fault, but it sounds like she's in the middle of eating a pillow during the takes.

Value: 7/10
Most, if not all, of the entrance music has been used by said wrestler at some point of his or her career. Some are new, while others are a little old. Most of the entrance movies, however, have been cut short. Big stars, such as The Rock, Triple H, and Brock Lesnar have more of their movies then other stars like Kane and The Hurricane. While you get over 50 wrestlers to play as, you can only play them on 4 or 5 arenas for only four title belt. However, the deep CAW and move lists more than make up for this.

Tilt: 7/10
I’m not real big into wrestling games, but I have played them all. This one, like the WCW/WWF AKI games, have been the only ones that I’ve kept playing because of the mix of the arcade-like ease of doing the moves with the pace of a simulator. I was a little disappointed with some of the wrestler omissions, (Molly Holly, APA) but you really can’t expect every WWE wrestler to appear in the game with the same amount of moves and CAW flexibility that the game has already. I was also saddened by a missing season mode, but I loved the Revenge mode when it didn’t have me play Indiana Jones. Beating up people and throwing them off of ledges is a source of great relaxation for me.

Review
Gameplay:………..7/10
Graphics:.………...7/10
Sound:……………9/10
Value:………….…7/10
Tilt:…………….…7/10

Average:………….7.4/10, Good.

Buy or Shy: If money is no object and quality is important, buy. Of course you’d want to rent everything you’re not sure of, but you should keep the game since the CAW is so deep. You’d be surprised as you how many games you would have actually liked if you had bought and kept them rather than renting or returning.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/03