WrestleMania XIX

The red-headed stepchild of THQ?s WWE games deserves to sit at the big-kids? table this year.

After being shown up by THQ?s other WWE titles and by EA?s Aki-fueled Def Jam Vendetta, WrestleMania returns with a new grappling system, a highly polished new look, and an original single-player story mode. But is it enough?

Reversal of Fortune
While WrestleMania XIX (19, for the Roman-numerically challenged) got a big graphical fluff-up, its biggest boast is its new reversal system, which makes every strike and grapple a bit more of a gamble. Essentially, you have to press L to reverse grapples or R to reverse strikes, and the game?s smooth animation and forgiving timing make it easy to tell the difference. The system rewards experts for their patience by giving them the ability to dictate a match, but it?s not so finicky and difficult that newbies would find it frustrating.

Outside of the reversals, however, XIX seems like just another poor attempt to top Aki?s classic N64 grappling system, which it did so well in Def Jam Vendetta. Wrestlers seem slow, running in a chosen direction can be difficult, and newbies will find themselves doing the same move over and over with little reason to try any others.

The Sins of the Prequel
Controls aside, XIX is a pretty good attempt at making up for the sins of X8. The game looks truly great with wrestlers who bear almost eerie resemblances to the real people and a smooth animation system that almost perfectly hides clipping mistakes. By skillfully using visual flash and flair, Yuke?s hides the simple arenas and dull environmental textures, which you?ll really notice only in the Revenge levels. Speaking of which, XIX?s story mode, called Revenge, features you in a coup attempt by Stephanie MacMahon. While beating up construction workers and wrecking cars are cool, replacing the traditional season mode with this mission-based half-game seems like an odd decision.

It?s a noble attempt, and with a few exceptions, XIX succeeds in washing away the stigma of its predecessor. Here?s hoping WrestleMania XX is even better.

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ericadivine

wrestlemania 19 is wwf no mercy 2 i am tired of people complaining about revenge mode there is no text to the story so you can make your own in your head use paint tool and your imagination make superman or power rangers or the batman i did the entire justice league and nothing is funner than running around revenge mode as the batman beating up thugs asking wheres the joker or jason vorhees on a killing spree make heroes villans movie star s you have your own gotham city angel grove metropolis or crystal lake in revenge mode exibition this game rocks revenge mode rules you can kill people on this game and there is more weapons than in any other wrestling game ive ever played the environments are interactive and destructible you cant get much more brutal than this it tops no mercy but to see that you need imagination to understand the revenge mode make your own story evrey time you play with new caws and it will never get boring im currently doing the south park kids now can you dig that suckaaaah

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