WWE WrestleMania 21
Short overview sentence that summarizes the review goes here.
Introduction
I’ve always found it strange that compared to the PS2, X-Box owners have had very little to choose from when it comes to WWE wrestling games. Especially when you consider that ‘The Rock’ himself joined Bill Gates during the original X-Box system release. While the PS2-exclusive SmackDown series has continued to evolve each year, X-Box owners have been left with older RAW games and the Legend series.
So does this all change now that Studio Gigante has released WrestleMania 21?
Could it match the accessibility and gameplay options of SmackDown?
You’ll just have to read on and find out!
This is Studio Gigante's first attempt at a wrestling game, on one hand they didn’t have the benefit of past mistakes from previous releases and on the other hand they had the advantage of harnessing the power of the X-Box to really impress hardcore wrestling gamers with realistic graphical presentation and smooth online play.
For some, these two factors alone will be more than enough to fork out their hard earned cash, for others however a sharper more critical eye will focus on the underlying gameplay factor. It is this area that will ultimately either make the game successful or just another piece of garbage to add to the growing pile.
Graphics
The visuals of Wrestlemania 21 are the best part of this game and when you first pick up the controller, you get the feeling that the game is heading in the right direction.
Initially you’ve got quite a few different background landscapes to choose from when taking on your opponent or opponents. Whether it’s RAW, Smackdown, Royal Rumble, No Mercy or whatever the background, the visuals are always very realistic and smooth. Stage and ring design are nice and if you’re feeling adventurous the cage and ladder matches also look amazing on screen, without the graphical flaws of previous titles.
The most impressive facet of the visuals however is the character models, which display great detail along with great use of color. These are by far the best wrestling character models across the gaming consoles currently on the market.
Overall the visuals of WWE Wrestlemania 21 are by far the best thing the game has going for it. It's a shame that the developers couldn't have used these visuals with some better gameplay.
Sound
Wrestling buffs will immediately recognise the music in WrestleMania 21 as the same licensed tracks that appear in SmackDown! Vs. Raw. The quality of the chunky, guitar-driven tracks will be enjoyable to fans of that style of pop-metal, but using the same play list makes it feel like they couldn’t be bothered coming up with anything new or original. Luckily, custom soundtracks are supported, so gamers will never have to hear the stale tunes. The career mode features each wrestler doing their own voice over. While it's nice to have the characters voiced by their real life counterparts, many of the deliveries feel forced and plod along with the slow movement of the wrestlers.
The announcers are reminiscent of SmackDown! Vs. Raw in that they have a few canned phrases that gamers will hear over an over again. One thing that annoyed the heck out of me was when wrestling in Boston. Tazz remarks to Michael Cole that the city hasn't won a championship since 1918. He’s referring to American Baseball for all those people frowning, wondering what that’s in reference to. Boston has of course now won the World Series of Baseball last season and whilst this may only be a slight oversight, it's hard to ignore when you are forced to hear it so often.
Gameplay
First and for most I think the one thing that gamers have been begging for from these wrestling games is a decent story mode, something that I still don't believe has been accomplished on the X-Box. In Wrestlemania 21, we are given an experience that, to say the least, hasn’t gotten us any closer to a great career mode. The story in the game is downright boring and the career mode itself just doesn't do anything at all to keep you interested. You just play a ton of matches and then you go from there to play even more matches and the whole experience just feels too drawn out.
Wrestlemania 21 promised us a lot and the gameplay aspect was supposed to be given huge upgrade. Unfortunately it seems to me that the WWE genre has taken quite a few steps back in time and made the gameplay worse from previous games. How? You might ask. Well first off, everything in the game moves at a snails pace, and therefore you can be assured that you will have plenty of time to watch the action on screen unfold because the game just feels sluggish.
The next problem in the game is the submissions, which once you have played a few matches you will figure out pretty quickly that these can be used to your advantage and disadvantage quite easily. There are some moves that, when used correctly, can continuously keep your opponent on the mat, as you do the same move over and over again. Not only that, but a problem that used to be found in wrestling games has made a reappearance here, with regards to collision problems that take a huge toll on the overall gameplay.
Another disappointing feature that I am sure most gamers have heard of was the terrible blunder that the game had when it was released onto shelves is the X-Box Live support, which actually didn't work right out of the box. Thankfully, it does now. To be honest with you the game really doesn't do much better with X-Box Live support (because the gameplay actually gets worse once you make your way into the online realm). The gameplay is even slower and lags quite a bit, and the game is so easy to take advantage of that it's just isn't all that much fun online.
Overall the gameplay of WWE Wrestlemania 21 is extremely disappointing, to say the least. The game has problems from start to finish, and if I had to say one thing about the gameplay, I would have to say that it's taking the WWE series in the wrong direction.
Lastability
You’ll get frustrated and bored with this game in no time at all. That fact that you can play it on X-Box Live doesn’t help; in fact it makes it more annoying and frustrating.
Yes you can unlock stuff, but who really cares! Unless of course one of the unlockable features is an improvement in gameplay! Sadly though, this isn’t the case.
It’ll probably take you about 4 hours to finish the story mode of the game, which believe me would be better spent on something worthwhile. After that maybe the only interesting thing left in this game would be to take on a friend one on one and practice your finishing moves on one another. Other than that gamers are probably better off re-visiting older wrestling titles.
Overall
Wrestlemania 21 is a mix of high quality visuals and frustrating, flawed gameplay. At the end of the day, gameplay is king. Even with online matches, motion-captured animations, and detailed entrance segments, the game quickly reveals itself as all glitz and little substance, not to mention the serious A.I. problems.
Don’t buy this game, rent it if you must, but you’ll have to be really bored to even consider doing that!
The most positive aspect of this game is the potential that lies within. A wrestling game with the looks and online options of WrestleMania 21 and the gameplay of SmackDown! Vs. Raw could easily make a run for the title across all systems. Unfortunately, this is not that game.
FINAL SCORE
46 %
