"Game over for Xbox wrestlers!!!"

WRESTLEMANIA 21

GREATEST POTENTIAL EVER…………..BUT THAT'S ABOUT IT

One of the many reasons that people were excited about Microsoft's Xbox console in 2001 was the prospect of one hell of a wrestling game. Raw looked awesome – no doubt about it. Of course a below average game came out , good on the graphics but pretty darn bad in every other area. Then in 2003 , Raw developer Anchor studios , released Raw 2. This time the game was average at best , however publishers THQ has enough. So did they do the ultra obvious and just make the smackdown! Series multiformat?! Of course not , they just got Studio Gigante , whom had no previous experiences with wrestling games , to develop a new game – Wrestlemania 21 – on the Xbox.

The first thing you will notice about the game is obviously that the game looks – unbelievable. The wrestlers have a higher polygon count that those of the smackdown! Series wrestlers and the lighting effects are tremendous. That – however , can grate on the nerves , as lights seem to be everywhere and every arena in the game is over-dramatically lit up like a house in Christmas. But no doubt the graphics are well done.

The moves themselves are also EXTREMELY well done which can be attributed to the fact that all the moves are motion-captured. This puts the mask over the gameplay , allowing you to enjoy your first few exhibition matches. Then you have the sound – which is not so hot. Most of the tracks are ripped from day of reckoning , the game cubes great wrestling game , and so instantly feel out of place. A thing not so good about the presentation of this game are the load screens and menus , which are all big stuttery blue affairs .

Then you , after realizing you cant do specialty matches with more that 2 players , get sick of exhibition mode. And so its on to story mode. You need to create a wrestler. No problems there. Then you find out the create a wrestler is awkward , first , you HAVE to do expertise as they are called such as weight , name and location before you even design your warrior. Which is just stupid. Really , why cant we just design a guy first then after seeing him come up with his crazy name?!

Next for actually designing your wrestler. It's a very basic affair , compared to – say day of reckoning where there was a plethora of costumes , masks and hairstyles. There are just your basic t-shirts , suits , coats and singlets here. That's all. Now the big trouble with the create a wrestler is the fact that you first have to SELECT an option , say – hairstyle 18. THEN you have to go OUT of the hairstyle menu to see what the hairstyle looks like , and go back IN if you want to change it.

So anyway , after you have designed your wrestler its of to the career mode. The mode has a fairly basic ‘rising star' story mode. Not much to say about it really. You don't have much involvement – merely go from match to match and watch cutscenes in between.

The game at this point is already a sinking ship but now for the gameplay. The first problem is the cpu wrestlers. They are full of stupidity no matter what difficulty you are playing it on . On easy mode the cpu can be battered into oblivion by getting hit with the same move over and over again without being able to counter and like a Goldberg match – the bout will be over in 2 minuets. The reverse applies for the harder difficultys. All this just makes matches either boring to play , or frustrating to play. Tag matches? Forget about it. You will see constant interference , your own partner getting stuck in loops , wrestlers getting themselves counted out , and your partner seemingly incapable of tagging you back in.

More problems with the gameplay of this title include , for instance , cpu wrestlers teaming up on you relentlessly in triple threat or fatal four way situations. Also , when another cpu bot interferes in the match , the match becomes a handicap match. 2 on 1. Do you know why? Because referee Nick Patrick sees no need to get the other man out. Not even great graphics and motion captured moves can save the games broken gameplay. No surprises there then.

There are many other nitpicking issues in the gameplay. The move set is fairly limited , weapons don't really work all that well , the ref cpu is very stupid , and the cpu will just constantly try and pin you. Other problems with the game make it seem like a wrestling game from 1999. There are no entrances during hell in a cells. What?! That stopped since about the third smackdown!!!!

The gameplay will eventually just become cookie cutter and you will find yourself quitting the game to take a look at the other features of this game. Like , say , well there is a create a belt mode. There is also a rubbish shop mode where you can buy anything from arenas to legends. All costing many thousands of dollars. To do all this you will need to sign in to your profile. Strangely enough this has to be done manually and in an awkward fashion seeing as the game does not prompt you to sign in at the start. Why?

Studio Gigante , your wrestling game had so much potential! This game can probably be purchased cheap now. Which is good for those of you who are curious about this game and how bad it is. If you are not curious however – don't buy this game as I promise you there is no enjoyment to be found here.

GOODS

- The graphics
- The motion captured moves

BADS

- The broken gameplay , most notably the atrocious cpu
- The horrible shortcoming like no more than 2 cpu's in specialty matches.

UGLYS

- The lackluster create a wrestler
- The stupid interface

FINAL SCORE – 4/10 , GAME OVER FOR XBOX WRESTLERS!

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/06