WWE 2K14

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: Yuke's and Visual Concepts
Genre: Wrestling
Series: WWE (Previously SmackDown! and SmackDown vs. Raw)
Released: October 29 2013 (US) and November 1 2013 (UK)
Certificate: 16
Consoles: PS3 and Xbox 360

So, at last we have the much-hyped WWE 2K14, the latest instalment of the lengthy WWE videogame series, and the first to be published by 2K Sports. Considering the quick turnaround after THQ folded in early 2013, it was likely that this would be a transitional game in some ways, and that is the case, with little in the way of major new features and a greater emphasis on minor tweaks, for the large part. However, the changes which have been made are almost all for the better, resulting in arguably the greatest WWE videogame since the mid-2000s.

Let's start with 30 Years Of WrestleMania, a mode which celebrates WWE's biggest event through a series of matches from the history of the show, along with in-game challenges. If that sounds familiar, it's because the WrestleMania Tour option from the 2009 game WWE Legends Of WrestleMania offered something very similar. Where 30 Years exceeds WM Tour is that the mode covers the entire history of WM so far (WM 29 is the most recent Mania so this is where the mode ends, despite its name), with a load of unlockables, photos and video content in the manner of last year's Attitude Era mode, and with a greater range of characters and a larger spotlight on the entire legacy of WrestleMania.

The mode is one great gem. From the early years where we can play as Hulk Hogan against the likes of Andre The Giant, Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior, to the New Generation battles that involves Shawn Michaels in famous Ladder and Iron Man bouts against Razor Ramon and Bret Hart, onto the Attitude Era and showdowns as part of the Steve Austin-Rock trilogy, into the time of Ruthless Aggression with major main events for John Cena and Batista, and up to the modern day with the Cena-Rock main events and big showdowns for The Undertaker against Michaels and Triple H, there are so many hugely memorable matches, which provide a load of standout moments. As well as those listed above, there's the classic Savage-Ricky Steamboat match, the unforgettable Bret-Austin Submission match, the Hogan-Rock generational battle and more.

As part of the mode, every single WrestleMania arena is here (and a template WM 30 venue is also available outside of the mode), along with dozens of big stars from over the first three decades of Mania (more on them shortly), and a lot of authentic attires from all of those major matches. As an added bonus, we get a lot of cool added touches, from the pre-match promos by the likes of Savage and Shawn (with the real-life interviews spoken by their videogame counterparts) to the true-to-life cutscenes (such as Ric Flair crying before Shawn superkicked him into retirement at WM XXIV) to the realistic atmospheres (we even get the "You sold out!" chants for Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar from WM XX). And the last match, Rock-Cena II from WM 29, takes on the feel of a final battle from Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat as you enter a super-tough yet ultimately exciting showdown and exchange of finishers and finisher reversals, mirroring what went down that night in MetLife Stadium.

There are some absent matches, including Warrior vs. Savage from WM VII, Austin-HBK from WM XIV and Taker-Michaels I from WM 25. But that's easy to forgive when the mode as a whole is this fun; it is the best relive-matches mode ever in a wrestling game, and it is arguably the best single-player mode in a WWE game for a decade, if not longer. It is that good.

Like WWE '13, there is unfortunately no Season or Road To WrestleMania story mode, but 30 Years is not the only single-player option available. We also get The Streak, which celebrates another major aspect of Mania, that being The Undertaker's incredible undefeated record. This takes on two forms: playing as one of Taker's WrestleMania opponents and attempting to defeat him at said Mania (and Taker puts up a great fight, unsurprisingly), and playing as Taker himself in a never-ending Gauntlet match similar to the old Slobber Knocker option. The Gauntlet bit doesn't quite match what Taker has to do every year to retain his Streak, but it's fun nonetheless, and playing to defeat The Phenom is even more fun; my attempt to beat Taker as Shawn Michaels was actually one of the most fun and realistically dramatic matches I've ever played on a wrestling game.

I mentioned the roster earlier; another massive selling point of 2K14 has to be the line-up. Whereas last year combined the WWE rosters of 1997-1999 and 2011-2012, here the 2012-2013 crew is bolstered by the biggest names from the previous three decades, via their WrestleMania history. Just look at this line-up of stars: Rock, Cena, Hogan, Austin, Michaels, HHH, Bret, Undertaker, Warrior, Savage, Lesnar, Punk, Orton, Andre, Goldberg, The Shield, Mysterio, Eddie, Jericho, Sheamus, Big Show, Bryan, Hall, Nash, Kane and many more. Even Bruno Sammartino makes an appearance as DLC. Of particular note, Hogan makes his first appearance on a flagship WWE game for seven years, despite being under contract to TNA, and we finally get Warrior's debut in the series after appearances in Legends Of WrestleMania and All-Stars (Warrior is the pre-order exclusive). There are so many huge names, many making returns (Goldberg is here for the first time in ten years) or debuts (Razor Ramon and Scott Hall both finally represent the Bad Guy in the series), along with a great line-up of stars from today's WWE (including a series debut for the three members of The Shield). This has the best roster ever in a wrestling videogame; there are only a couple of absentees preventing this being a perfect roster (one of whom, Roddy Piper, is included as a non-playable during 30 Years mode).

The gameplay is tweaked very slightly, but just enough to make matches a little more user-friendly, resulting in a wrestling engine that, whilst not flawless nor massively in-depth, stands as the best in the series for almost a decade. Meanwhile, Universe returns with a few neat changes, and a cool new feature is the Music Jukebox, whereby you can play superstar themes in full and assign them as tunes to play when scanning through menus (certain wrestlers have multiple themes via 30 Years; one of them is the old-school WM song circa 1993-1998, which is awesome!). Matches in old-school arenas have a cool-looking visual effect which makes them look dated (as if you're watching on an old, busted-up television set). The sound is improved mildly so that SFX such as ring bells and weapon blows sound more authentic, as well as having wrestlers speaking during their entrances more frequently (like Sheamus shouting "Fella!", Ryback mouthing "Wake up!" and Fandango reminding people of his name post-match, although Daniel Bryan yelling "No!" as fans respond "Yes!" is the highlight). There are a few more OMG! moments, including Antonio Cesaro-inspired throws into the air for the likes of uppercuts or RKOs, and the chance to hit two opponents with one finisher (think of a stacked Shell Shocked or a stacked Attitude Adjustment). Oh, and a wrestler's Twitter handle now appears on the pre-match namebars.

The final big changes come via the long-established creation suite, which now boasts Create A Championship for the first time since SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, and an option to add real-life Superstar Heads to created wrestlers (which helps if you're creating, say, Mankind or the Straight Edge Society version of CM Punk). Lastly, you can now create 100 wrestlers which, combined with a final roster total of 103 (and that is already star-studded to the max), results in a potentially enormous line-up of wrestlers to mix and match with.

There are some downsides to the game: backstage brawling is not improved upon; there are no new match types; and whilst the wrestling engine is the best it's been for years, it still feels like it's lacking in depth, as alluded to earlier on. The lack of a story mode is not as glaring as in WWE '13, but it's still noticeable. The roster could still do with a few more legends, despite the line-up being packed with star power (besides Piper, there's also The Legion Of Doom, Demolition, The British Bulldog and others who have appeared in games not too long ago). And there is an annoying trend of finishers not being enough to, erm, finish off your adversaries. However, for a game which beforehand seemed like a WrestleMania-based version of WWE '13, this does so much more right than wrong, and is fantastically enjoyable.

Is WWE 2K14 as good as WWF No Mercy, SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain or SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006, the top three greatest WWF/WWE wrestling games ever? Erm, not quite; the flaws, whilst minor, do have merit. Is it the best game since that trio of greatness? Absolutely. In fact, with an additional story mode and a slightly more complex wrestling engine, this very well could have been a contender for Best Wrestling Game Ever. As it is, though, WWE 2K14 is superb; the outstanding 30 Years Of WrestleMania mode, the fantastic roster, the bundle of match options, the refined wrestling engine, the generous number of small yet valuable additions, the increased and more user-friendly creation suite and the entertainment provided by Universe and the new Streak mode, all combine for a terrific wrestling game, the best in almost a decade.

Overall Rating: 9/10 - Outstanding

WWE Legends Of WrestleMania

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Publisher: THQ
Developer: Yuke's
Genre: Wrestling
Series: N/A
Released: March 20 2009
Certificate: 16
Consoles: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and iPhone/iPod Touch

With WrestleMania just days away, it is a perfect time to focus the latest retro game review on a release dedicated to the big event, and one of my favourite games ever, WWE Legends Of WrestleMania.

The 2003 game WWE SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain was the first to officially include a line-up of Legends. As the SmackDown vs. Raw series continued to feature older names, and some add-ons like retro arenas and championships, rumours circulated that one day a WWE Legends game would be released, something of a WWE incarnation of the previous Legends Of Wrestling titles. Finally, in May 2008, it was officially announced that WWE Legends Of WrestleMania was being produced for a planned release to commemorate WrestleMania 25 the following spring.

I can't tell you how excited I was when this game was announced; I looked forward to this release more than for any other game ever. The near-12 month wait felt like a year, such was my anticipation. Details would trickle out, and even basic screenshots got me super-charged. To show how much I wanted this, as it was a then-next-gen exclusive, I bought a PlayStation 3 largely for this very game. Finally, LOWM was released, and I got to play it. Did it live up to the hype? As I will explain, the answer is "yes", but it was undoubtedly limited in a number of key areas.

The main appeal of a WWE Legends game, of course, was the roster, and the line-up consisted of the following: Andre The Giant, Animal, Arn Anderson, Bam Bam Bigelow, Big Boss Man, Big John Studd, Bret Hart, British Bulldog, Brutus Beefcake, Dusty Rhodes, Greg Valentine, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Hawk, Honky Tonk Man, Hulk Hogan, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Iron Sheik, Jake Roberts, Jim Neidhart, Jimmy Snuka, Junkyard Dog, Kamala, King Kong Bundy, Koko B. Ware, Michael P.S. Hayes, Mr. Perfect, Nicholai Volkoff, Ric Flair, Rick Rude, The Rock, Roddy Piper, Sgt Slaughter, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ted DiBiase, Ultimate Warrior, The Undertaker and Yokozuna. Also present were Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart, Mr. Fuji and Paul Bearer as managers (each of whom had special abilities, some specific to characters e.g. Bearer recharging Undertaker via the urn); Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross were on commentary; and Howard Finkel was the ring announcer.

Of note, this was Warrior's first appearance on a WWF/WWE game since 1996, so his inclusion here generated massive excitement. This was also the first Legends appearance for Boss Man, Studd, Duggan, Honky, Kamala, Bundy, Koko, Hayes and Yoko. In addition, some old faces (no pun intended) returned to WWE games such as Hogan, and it was cool to see retro versions of HHH, Flair and Shawn for the first time. Add to that the chance to import many wrestlers from the then-current SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 (45 in all, bringing the total to 83, the largest ever on a WWE game at the time), and you have a perfect roster, right?

Well, no; there were many missteps or questionable decisions. The size of the Legends crew, and it being smaller than the SvR imports, was the main one, and there were a lot of notable absentees, the most obvious being Macho Man Randy Savage. Other glaring omissions were Demolition, Ricky Steamboat, Sid, Lex Luger, Razor Ramon, Owen Hart, Diesel, Mankind and a retro Kane; but also missing were Mr. T, Mr. Wonderful, George Steele, Hillbilly Jim, Tito Santana, Rick Martel, Marty Jannetty, The Nasty Boys, Typhoon, IRS, Bob Backlund, Jeff Jarrett, Lawrence Taylor, Goldust, Ahmed Johnson, Faarooq, Ken Shamrock, The New Age Outlaws, X-Pac and a retro Big Show, amongst many others (the timeline covered the 1985-1999 period and WM in particular), as well as the absence of any female characters.

Plus, some of those who were in were questionable, especially Hayes whose only WM appearance was in the Gimmick Battle Royal in 2001. And whilst importing wrestlers from SvR 09 was cool, it would have been better had it been the other way round or to SvR 10, especially given the frankly insane decision to have DLC for SvR 09 released around that time which consisted of The Bushwhackers, Doink, Earthquake and Vader, and to not only have them playable on the Legends game. All in all, a good roster, but with many absentees, something that DLC could have at least partly remedied (this is the only WWE game of the last seven years not to have downloadable content).

The gameplay was very different to SvR. Here, basic button presses and combinations were used for moves, with each wrestler having some signature moves and a finishing move combo consisting of two set-ups and the finisher. Move sets didn't have much depth, especially in some matches that were largely punch-and-kick battles (such as Royal Rumble bouts). Many commented how lacklustre this made actual matches, and I agree that move sets should have been more expensive. However, this was designed to be an arcade game experience, which the simplified controls help to achieve. And the game is far easier to pick up and play than the flagship series; in fact, it is impossible to give that description to the likes of WWE 2K15. Plus, for some of the older names like JYD and Volkoff, how many moves can you remember them executing? Older matches didn't have a lot of variety and action, so in a way it's fitting that matches here are the same, although I still would have liked a few more moves for each wrestler.

Match types included Steel Cage (old-school cage), Ladder, Hell In A Cell and Iron Man. They had some restrictions (e.g. you had to start a Cell match on the roof in tribute to the Mankind-Undertaker match, even though Mankind and the host event King Of The Ring 1998 aren't here), but they were still enjoyable and in some ways more realistic; for example, ramming someone into the cage immediately busted them open. And in the Cell match, by sending your opponent into the steel stairs on the top left corner of the ring, there is a hidden bag of thumb tacks which can be used as a weapon, something still yet to be seen in the flagship series.

The main game modes were WrestleMania Tour and Hall Of Fame. WM Tour focused on a selection of classic bouts from the first 15 Manias, with in-match challenges to properly relive the moment (e.g. Hogan slamming Andre), although they were split into Relive, Rewrite (the opposite result) and Redefine (a new stipulation). This was all very cool and enjoyable, and each match had a superb video package, plus extra video packages were unlocked later on. Its main drawback was the limited number of matches; there could have been at least double the amount of matches, given the wrestlers who were available. Still, it was all very enjoyable; this game debuted the concept of reliving classic matches down to their key moments.

Hall Of Fame was a bit different. Using a created wrestler, you had to win several gauntlets, before the final gauntlet wherein you had to defeat all 38 Legends in a row. It sounds very daunting, and it was (the chance to save progress during this match would have helped), but not to the point of you trying over and over again; I completed it first-time in less than 90 minutes. For each main mode, you won medals which could be viewed in a cool-looking museum. This game would really have benefitted from a text-based season mode; with the Legends involved, it could have been awesome. Nevertheless, what we did get was still adequate.

Elsewhere, the arenas of the first 15 Manias were here, as well as a classic venue for Royal Rumble 1995 (the first appearance for most arenas). This was great, but there should have been a few more, especially old-school arenas for SummerSlam and Survivor Series. You could create 32 Legends, make stables, design entrances and modify move sets. Several alternate attires were hidden, including Brutus Beefcake's Hogan-esque costume from WM 9. There was an online feature, although it was a bit limited. It was the first WWE game on PS3 to have trophies. And the camera angles were interesting; as you fought your way around the ring, the camera went with you rather than sticking in one place, in front of a somewhat blurry background (which was slightly disappointing).

As a spin-off from SmackDown vs. Raw, one which lacked many options, this was by design a limited game. So why do I love it so much? Simple: it perfectly recreates the vintage eras of WWF/WWE history. When you're reliving Hogan-Warrior at WM 6, having Jake Roberts set a snake on his opponent after a match, watching Ted DiBiase stuff dollar bills down his adversary's mouth, summoning the powers of the urn from Paul Bearer to The Undertaker, or bringing many icons together for an old-school Royal Rumble, this is a real treat for longtime fans. This is a game designed around the Exhibition bouts so if you don't like the control scheme, you will not enjoy the game; I freely admit it could be better, but as a pick-up-and-play wrestling title containing classic names, it is a vintage wrestling game. The only major downside for me is that there hasn't been a sequel.

True, recent WWE titles have included many Legends, and 2K14 redid the Tour mode with more matches covering more years, and featuring stars like Randy Savage. But for a true Legends experience, I still hope for another game, as an exclusive for this generation. For one, the roster of Legends could easily exceed 100 if not 125, ensuring that all worthy icons were in. It could easily include dozens of classic arenas, covering all major PPV events and TV shows. Having the required stipulations wouldn't be a stretch, as would an expanded create suite to include the likes of Create An Arena, and with the online features accommodating Community Creations. Theme songs for all the Legends provide the menu soundtrack. And a real Season mode covering a year in the old-school WWF, the New Generation and the Attitude Era would be phenomenal, plus the chance for the likes of WM Tour or a Showcase could still be there. Hopefully, one day it will happen.

If it doesn't, though, then WWE Legends Of WrestleMania will stand out even more as a classic WWE videogame experience. This has a good amount of content but it is limited; however, it is intended to be a feel-good title, one to provide a nice fix of nostalgia, one to bring a smile to your face as you relive the good old days. In that sense, this game is brilliant and, whilst it definitely could have been expanded or improved, for the aforementioned reasons, I still consider this to be one of the top five WWF/WWE videogames ever. And with WrestleMania 31 just days away, there is no better time to go back and relive the early years of The Show Of Shows via WWE Legends Of WrestleMania.

Overall Rating: 9/10 - Outstanding