"Had High Expectations, only got 1 of them fufilled"

I was expecting an excellent create a wrestler mode, excellent create an entrance, great gameplay and great online mode. I only got the gameplay one fulfilled.

The online mode is very bad. Apparently, it runs off region based servers so UKers can only fight UKers and USers can only fight USers which sucks.

About the create an entrance, it also sucks. We have to have pyro in, we do not get any of the superstars themes and we do not get to customise this. I am shocked at this given that we got full customisation of entrances in Raw 2.

Create a wrestler is shocking. We are very limited with what we can use, and that is when we have everything unlocked. It is so limited, we have a hard time creating authentic superstars.

But the gameplay makes up for it. Despite the freezing that occurs often, the game is good. The entrances for the superstars look and sound brilliant. All the authentic themes are in. But Kane's pyro is all messed up and none of the pyros make any noise whatsoever unless the sound is all the way up.

The season mode is too bad for words. We can only use created wrestlers in it and it is the same season, same matches for every person you use. Hell, you have to win every match, it will not let you lose any matches.

This game has theater mode but it is not as good as Raw 2's because the movie is very very small. And it has legends but they are very basic in Bret Hart, Andre, Rock, Mankind and Snuka. We don't even get the legion of doom despite them being a mainstay legend team in the smackdown series.

There are not much moves to choose from and there is not even a shooting star press (But there is a standing version) in the game. There is not many Aerial moves, the ground moves are lacking and pretty much every aspect of the movesets are lacking.

And for some reason known only to the developers, there is no tag team entrances which is weird given that The Dudley Boyz also come out together so I fail to see the reason behind there being no tag entrances.

There is not that much of a roster. Carlito is missing, Snitsky is missing, Victoria and Torrie are missing, London is missing and god knows how many other superstars have been left out of this game. The replacement? People like Miss Jackie and Garrison Cade. The only new person for the game is Eugene which just shows how much work they put in. Eugene is a generic looking guy who takes moves from past superstars so he is not really that hard to encode so that is why he is in I think.

The limb damage system is in and there is also lots blood which goes onto your chest. But there is not that much weapons, and you cannot do any move off of a ladder so there is no authentiticy in most of the match types.

Now, if it is true that they sent the wrong copy to the replicating factory, they should have taken the game off the stores and replaced with the correct copy but they did not which shows just how much they care about how happy people are about the game. And it is still costing a lot in most places.

My verdict, leave it. Steer well away because it really is not worth the amount of money it is selling for. Buy another game. But not this game because the money you pay is just being wasted on this game. They messed up big time. And that is unforgivable. We can only hope that the next Xbox WWE game is much better than this one.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 10/07/05