All are usable, but the Wii Remote and Nunchuk configuration relies a little too heavily on shaking the former. The game offers many control options: Wii Remote and Nunchuk, GameCube controller, or Classic Controller. After a few hours, most players will have the controls down second-nature, and a CPU victory will be quite rare. Even more disappointing, the computer is fairly easy to defeat, even on the highest of the three difficulty settings. The game supports up to four players in the exhibition mode, but neither the "Path of Champions" nor "Fantasy Warfare" matches support multiplayer. These are nit picks, but that's what happens when a game is otherwise very good.Īs with most wrestling games, playing against other people is quite a bit more fun than playing against the computer. Also, the way that ring announcer Howard Finkel pronounces your name after a win has a strange inflection, as if he is going to announce another name after yours, even if you won a singles match and not a tag team.
It sounds as if there was another effect that was supposed to be put in there, but it was left out at the last minute. During the "signature moves", the audio gets quiet and all commentary from Jerry "The King" Lawler and Jim Ross is completely cut off mid-stream. The audio presentation is up to par with other wrestling titles, but has a few weird glitches which can be distracting. The animation is quite well done, but it's hard to get past the look of the wrestlers. Raw game, they look blocky and quite ugly. They are meant to be action-figure style models, with exaggerated muscles and a plastic sheen, but compared to the most recent Smackdown vs. Unfortunately, the graphics aren't quite as well delivered as the other areas of the presentation. It's very well done and is a nice way to avoid the corny backstage-driven storylines of WWE Smackdown vs. Each of these paths is peppered with CGI rendered scenes featuring the wrestlers’ voices cutting classic wrestling style promos as you make your way through the matches. The great presentation continues in the "Path of Champions" mode, which has you going through ten pre-set matches on the way to a championship bout against The Undertaker, Randy Orton, or D-Generation X. Players will be excited to go through the different Fantasy Warfare matches just to see the various video packages it's a great incentive. If the WWE is good at one thing, it's putting together video packages, and they did a fantastic job here. Each match (there are 15) comes packaged with a slick 1-2 minute video package explaining to the player who these wrestlers are and why they go well together. The game contains a "Fantasy Warfare" mode that matches up two superstars who mesh well but come from different eras, or only had one legendary match, and puts them into a "What If" style of match. The presentation is quite well done in most areas. If you're not trying to appeal to the modern wrestling fan, why not go all-out with the arcade-sports element? Folks who grew up cheering for Andre the Giant and Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka have a lot more interest in this game than people who follow wrestling today. It feels like a missed opportunity, as the over-the-top stuff is going to appeal to the demographic the game seems clearly aimed after: the lapsed wrestling fan. In WWE All Stars, however, the most over-the-top things get are the "signature moves" that feature exaggerated motions and slow-motion effects. In the older arcade game, things were very clearly exaggerated and character-specific power-ups were available. In some ways, the over-the-top elements feel a bit out of place because most of the game feels very traditional. However, the game still plays very much the same as a recent Smackdown vs. The game is clearly meant to mimic arcade-style sports games, using WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game as a foundation. There are only a handful of match types in the game, and no disqualifications, count-outs, or submissions only pinfalls and knock-outs can end a match. Each wrestler has two "signature" moves and one finisher, which can be performed after filling up various meters. The crux of the gameplay relies on grapples and strikes, as most wrestling games have done for the past 15 years, with light and strong variants on each. Raw, featuring both modern wrestlers such as Kofi Kingston, John Cena, and The Miz, and also WWE legends such as The Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, and Randy "Macho Man" Savage.
The game plays as a "lite" version of THQ's flagship wrestling title, WWE Smackdown vs.