"Overhyped or Underrated? Both"

This was perhaps one of my toughest reviews but I had to give it the score I thought it deserved. There have been many wrestling games that have come out since wrestling has become a cultural phenomenon, from WWF Wrestlemania and WCW Wrestling on the Nintendo (NES) to recent series like Raw, Smackdown, and Day of Reckoning. I have played most of them even a few of the Japanese imports. I am definitely a bigger fan of the slow paced wrestling games or sims, which brings me to the most recent title for the Microsoft Xbox console, WWE Wrestlemania 21. My expectations going into this game were neutral as with any new developer making a series. I had liked Raw 2 but I detested the first installment made by the same company. This is Studio Gigante's first attempt so I didn't have super high expectations or hype, though many did. It's far from perfect but I happen to think it is far from being a bad title. I think it was by far the best first attempt I've seen on a series of the wrestling genre. So let's get down to what makes this game great and what makes it terrible.
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Presentation:

There are a lot of opinions on what exactly presentation in a game is. In my mind it is the overall menu design in the game. This is definitely an area that the developers need to work on. I've seen better amateur website designs then what I see out of this games menu. It basically consists of nothing more then metallic buttons.

4/10 (-1 to overall score)
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Graphics:

Although I am biased toward fmv introductions to these sort of games, I think the in game intro was laid out very well. The first thing you see when you boot up the game is how amazing the graphics are. These are by far the best graphics I've seen in a wrestling game and could give other game genre graphics a run for their money. The character models are very well done with just a few out of place looking wrestlers (like every wrestling title). The texture work was evidently done with absolute care, because of how real the arenas appear. I have sort of mixed feelings on their motion capture animations. I will start out by saying I am glad they used it but it isn't perfect. Most people seem to like the hand drawn animations from the other wrestling titles because of the over the top impact of the moves, but I believe the motion capture makes them look more realistic while still being impactful enough. The entrance animations are dead on, however some of the angles and pyros are all wrong. The animations for the moves themselves seem to be 80% well done, 20% horrible. You have good looking moves like the T-bone suplex, Showstopper (which finally got a makeover) and Ankle Lock and then go into moves that either look all wrong (Shelton's splash) or look downright horrible (Tombstone).
One thing I really hate is the moves that warp like the Gore, it just doesn't look right. The blood flows realistically and has 5 stages so it's the best I've seen bar none. Overall though I think this is definitely the best looking wrestling game out thus far.

9/10
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Sound

The sound is another area with mixed feelings. I commend them for the excellent voiceovers and getting most of the right entrance music, but they also used rehashed background tracks and the same horrible commentary.The sound effects of the bumps are spot on though and custom soundtracks are always nice.

8/10

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Create-A-Wrestler

Create-a-Wrestler is something gamers look for every year and each year the bar gets raised higher. Gamers started out with bare bones caw modes like Attitude and it continued to get increasingly deeper especially in the Smackdown series. I am not a huge fan of making caws but I do enjoy editing the current wrestling roster which is not available in this game. If that wasn't a big enough dissappointment you just add in the mandatory loading for each change in the character, the horrible scrolling mechanics, the extremely limited parts and the relatively short list of moves and you have quite possible the worst Create-a-Wrestler mode in recent memory.

2/10 (-1 to overall score)

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Career Mode:

There are always different career modes in wrestling games. There's branching story's, linear story's and indefinate career modes with nothing more then a calendar showing event dates. I've always been a fan of the indefinite career modes that don't end, which brings me to the downside of Wrestlemania 21's career mode which is 100% linear. The big thing that upset me wasn't the no open ended story but the fact you had to win every match and if you didn't you had to do the match over until you won. However it is apparent a lot of time and effort went into this mode because of the excellent voiceovers and the great storyline attached to them.

8/10

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Gameplay

The bread and butter in games to me has always been gameplay (I won't say I don't like good graphics too though). I was a huge fan of the AKI line of games and more recently Raw 2 , LOW and Firepro because their engines appealed to me. Arcade playing games such as Smackdown and Day of Reckoning were in fact good but the sim style gameplay and working matches has always been a pet peeve. I said it when I first played this game and will say it again, I think this engine has the most potential out of all the wrestling games out. The engine is similar to No Mercy but at the same time not too similar. It has strong and weak grapples only they aren't called that. Instead they were named submission, specialty, quick and strong grapples. You also have the usual head and leg position ground grapples but they added side ground grapples as well which makes for a pretty robust list of moves per wrestler. The gameplay speed itself is very slow and realistic. When you hit big moves after awhile in the match they stay down a long time and sell the moves quite nicely. You do have to work a match in this game and on the higher difficulties it gets ever more so when they are reversing your every move. That brings me to the new reversal system called total control. It allows you to reverse any move in the game by pressing the appropriate reversal at a specific time for certain moves. It takes awhile getting used to but once you do it really feels like you have complete control unless you screw up. The finishing moves are done by pressing A and B together and I liked how they could be done out of the grapple unlike certain games. This led to the moves flowing more realistically. The cage match is very well done and has the obligatory head smashing, shaking and face grinding. The hell in a cell could've been done better but it gets the job done. The thing that really bothers me is getting opponents on the ropes. I've finally got the hang of throwing them out of the ring but getting them on the ropes for Rey's moves etc in normal matches is something else entirely. Then you add in glitches here and there and it feels unpolished in a lot of areas. I do enjoy the engine a hell of a lot though.

8/10 (-1 to overall score)

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Replay Value:

I think the replay value in this game depends on the person's view of what makes a games longevity. I enjoy doing belt matches in exhibition and such. There are people though that depend on a great Create-a-Wrestler mode which this game does not provide. The career mode itself while amusing the first time though isn't sufficient enough for a second time. The unlockable list itself though is quite big and considering you don't earn much money per match it should take awhile to get everything.

8/10

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Overall , buy or rent?:

Overall I enjoy the game quite a bit but whether you like it depends on what kind of gameplay you enjoy and whether you are a veteran Create-a-Wrestler maker. If you like arcade gameplay like Smackdown you won't like this. If you enjoy making tons of Create-a-Wrestlers with expansive options, you probably won't like it. Considering all the mixed reviews and since I think this game is a love or hate game, do yourself a favor and rent it first.

7/10 (was leaning closer to 7.5)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/01/05