The Inherent Flaw in Wrestling Games and How I Would Fix It

[Uncle Sam]

I've cracked it - the reason wrestling games suck so bad. First, I'll establish that they do in fact suck.

Wrestling games are fun little arcadey distractions. I know the little GM modes that take them a hundredth of a time to create compared to CM Punk's entrance animations can keep nerds satisfied for weeks and that's all fine and dandy. The core mechanics, however, do not deserve £40, $60 or really any substantial amount of money. At best, their quality is of $10 arcade title. I got the latest SmackDown title for free, after the London launch of the game was cancelled and I was to be an attendee. I played it twice and haven't touched it since. Games from the same ilk like Fight Night, Tekken and - from the same developer - UFC are much more worthy of our time and money.

Furthermore, I have more complaints about the current generation of wrestling games than I'm about to mention. I mean, the fact that it's the same game that was originally released in 2001 is really a nice summary of my other complaints.

No, my complaint is this - and sorry to take so long to get round to it - what you play on your console is barely representative of what you see on screen of an evening. Yes, you have the entrances, the storylines and so forth - and that's why they're the best part. It's also why playing the actual game part can seem like such a fucking chore.

As well all know, the fact that there are two or more men actually competing in that ring is an illusion. That's why it's much easier to design a game around the genuinely competitive UFC than the glorified soap opera that is the WWE. To keep the game interesting as a beat-em-up, the developers have thrown out almost everything that makes wrestling wrestling. Case in point, you're, let's say Edge and you're fighting The Undertaker in a No DQ match:

Edge beats The Undertaker up for five minutes straight, during which time he repeats the same moves twice over. He then throws The Undertaker threw the ropes before throwing over the guard rail and then puts him on a table. He then sprints up the scaffolding at the speed of light and hits a perfect elbow drop on The Undertaker. Edge gets back on his feet immediately and Undertaker limps up within about half a minute.

You imagine seeing that in real life? Wrestling games just don't work as the shitty beat-em-ups they have always been. However, I think I have the solution; interactive drama. With Heavy Rain - bear with me, motherfucker - gaming audiences have shown they have an appetite for interactive drama. So what I'd do is this:

Build a new engine from scratch. Jesus. Fucking. Christ, Yukes - it's been nine years!

Throw kayfabe out the window. It's 2010; not even ten-year-olds think it's real these days.

Matches are no longer competitive; your goal is instead to fulfil a set of instructions. Points are deducted for a failure to sell for the new monster heel, but - if you are the new monster heel - you get points for refusing to sell. And shake the controller quickly to blade! If you're a good boy, you do what you're told and you complete the mini games necessary to cut a good promo, you might just climb the card.

Sure, it might not be all that marketable, but it's cost effective enough for you to run alongside the current series.

 

[Барбоса]

To my mind one of the major flaws in the entire Smackdown series has been how rapid the gameplay is. Everything happens at such a frenetic pace that is hardly any fun. Such a pace also hinders its variety as moves seem to be repeated all the time.

A wrestler's stamina is also unrealistic. When I hit a finisher I do not expect my opponent to get straight up even if the finisher is the first piece of damage he has received (unless he has reached SPECIAL and maybe not even then). Just last night I was playing SvR10 and in an Elimination Chamber match, HBK came out of his pod and ran straight into a GTS from me playing as Punk and it didn't even get me a 1 count.

None to my mind have surpassed No Mercy on the N64 for gameplay quality. I can remember having a triple threat ladder match with two of my friends that lasted over an hour and none of it was dull. I remember how gutted my friends were and how much I celebrated when I finally snatched the title after making one them not only tap but basically die and then tying the other guy in the Tree of Woe.

If THQ/Yukes can harness that level of enjoyment and cross it with their excellent selection of game modes such as Road to Wrestlemania, Storyline Editor and Career Mode I think we will get a truly epic wrestling game.

 

[Tastycles]

I've bought most of the SvR games that have been out on Xbox, even that one with the Ultimate Warrior in it, but none of them are very good. The storyline mode has got progressively worse, and I haven't got around to doing the make your own one because in order to get my CAWs to have decent stats I have to wrestle Shad about 50 times, which is pointless and irritating. The actual match engine though is ridiculous. The only thing I find fun about the matches is a three player money in the bank match, purely because it takes about an hour and it is actually quite exciting. Now I've moved in with my girlfriend, I don't hae any flatmates to play with so it's just sitting neglected.

I don't know what the answer is. Sam, your idea is pretty good, but the problem is that the WWE would never go for that. I think they should probably go totally arcade, and just stop it being remotely realistic, or they should go with your idea. The thing is, they can make it a lot more realistic by only letting you have about 5 moves which you can only use once in a match, and the rest being about rest holds etc. You could still make it fun by making you hae to do a certain method for each hold. The WrestleMania game was much better because there wasn't ridiculous amounts of moves to be done, but it was a worse game overall somehow. I don't know, the effort put into these games is attrocious though, considering how well they sell.

 

[Dave]

I own every SvR game that has been made and I can tell you what I think the problem with them is.

You see, it is OK watching wrestling. There is a lot of variation in the matches and everything is broken up so it is manageable. Promos break up the matches from each other and ad breaks give us a chance to take stock of everything before it all goes again. However, games are not like that. Watching WWE programming and making WWE programming is a lot different. There is nothing to bereak up the gameplay and you are just tossed from one match to another match, without any sort of real variation. After a while, it becomes very tedious for me and I generally stop playing it after an hour or so. I think that you are quite right in saying that the game is too repetitive and needs some more variety to get is hooked onto the game.

 

[ABMorales787]

I really hate the stories implemented into the games. A soldier? Randy Orton as a masked thug? A stolen World Heavyweight Title? This being a crime to go unsolved for the better part a year. The stories in real wrestling are over the top already and now in video games they're taken over the rainbow to hugely exaggerated stuff. I would honestly prefer seeing Edge vs The Undertaker in a Street Fighter-like format.

 

[bigshot316]

Man the gameplay in No Mercy or the WCW vs nWo series was fantastic.
The moves list in the Fire Pro Wrestling Returns is MASSIVE.
And the way that the grappling and reversals are implemented in the King of Colloseum games is brilliant.
If we could have a nice blend of this, with an intelligent career mode then I would be made up.
I would much rather them get rid of commentary and speech, in order to make a far more in depth, choice dependant career mode with many many various outcomes and plot changing points.
More and more games these days are about your decisions impacting the rest of the game, so I am sure that this could be somehow implemented in a good wrestling game.
But at the end of the day, the most fun you can have in a wrestling game is to have matches that swing back and forth, with near falls and reversals and re -reversals, high spots and awesome finishers.
Give me that above any amount of Cells, Cages or Tables!
Although both would be nice.