Can you smell what the Cube is cookin'?
From the bootleg bloodbaths of the 70’s to the plight of superhero wannabes in
the 80’s to the incendiary rhetoric of today’s pec-powered, thrash-metal, Days
of Our Lives extras, pro wrestling has evolved to keep up with the times...with
some bras & panties scattered in there to keep the casual fans interested. How
far the WWE has come from the Junkyard Dog days causes as much wonderment as
spray cheese on Matzo balls, though the foundation of muscle, attitude and
athleticism has remained unchanged.
The same can be said of wrestling games -
same deal, different mafia. The latest installment, WWE: Day of
Reckoning, follows the family formula to a tee. Over 35 wrestlers are
available, including Triple H, Kane, Rhyno, Ric Flair, The Rock, Y2J, The Big
Show, Undertaker, Rey Mysterio and even unlockable old-school fools like Andre
The Giant and Brutus Beefcake. BEEFCAKE!
 A
quick, well-executed Tutorial will get your fingers primed to unleash the beast.
Exhibition Mode comes in Single, Tag Team, three and four man melees, two versus
one, and Royal Rumble formats. Every match type except Royal Rumble can be
played using a number of rule types, such as Hardcore, Ironman, Hell in a Cell,
Steel Cage, Ladder Match, or TLC. If you’re thinking “Tender Loving Care,” it’s
about time you had a Table, Ladder, and Chair swept across the cranium.
Speaking of which, you can even pit Trish
Stratus, Stacy Kiebler, Molly Holly or Victoria in a shamelessly gratuitous but
definitely fun Bra & Panties match. God bless America, indeed.
A surprisingly deep Create a Wrestler
feature lets you choose from loads of body types, change your bodily proportions
and equip hundreds of accessories and moves to pimp out your style. An hour will
fly by before you’ve even gotten to use the optional paint tool. Once your
modern day gladiator is ready to brawl, you can beef him up and earn cash for
unlockable arenas, costumes, and moves through the game’s strong Story Mode,
which takes you through the trials in WWE Development as you work your way up to
Wrestlemania.
After your created superstar runs through
the rookies in Development, you will join either the RAW or Smackdown! roster.
This early fork will determine the rest of the opponents you’ll face along the
way to WWE gold. Some matches occur in a steel cage, during a Royal Rumble, or
have you teaming up with a member of your wrestling faction to go for the Tag
Team Belt. To keep it interesting, certain matches have special conditions for
victory, such as working the opponent’s legs and going for a submission or
performing your finishing move at least twice. All the while, the TV-worthy
drama of your faction continues to unfold as pre-fight locker room beat downs
send the message that you are either one bad hombre or some B-class jobber
unworthy of spandex.
 While
the modes and depth are worthy of praise, the enemy AI is generally on the easy
side. The increasing difficulty is mainly a result of more frequent move
reversals, which isn’t very realistic and can feel a bit cheap at times. Still,
successful countering is rewarding and keeps the game fun.
None of the female wrestlers you create
can be imported into the Story Mode, however, which does limit the single-player
replay value. Nevertheless, Day of Reckoning has so many
customization options, your gaming crew will not throw elbows as to who gets to
rock the lizard’s tail.
The main gameplay engine has not changed
much from the earlier Smackdown! games on the PS2, which itself
has not changed much from WCW vs. NWO back in the old N64 days.
Fierce or light strikes and grapples focus on tenderizing certain body parts in
order to get a better chance of scoring a submission or pin. The speed of the
matches is faster in Day of Reckoning than in games past,
though, and your selection of grapples and strikes are paced to save the game
from a button masher’s pinfall.
One major feature has been added to the
fray: Momentum Shifts. A momentum meter changes color depending on how badly
you’re taking or dishing out the hurt. If it’s at its highest level and you’re
an inch from a eulogy, you can perform a Momentum Shift maneuver and swap the
meter values. To dodge the cheese factor, each player can only use this move
once per match. In true-to-television fashion, Day of Reckoning
gives you just the right amount of time in performing counters to shift the
momentum. Every match is exciting and will grab your full attention, whether
you’re on the mat recovering from a People’s Elbow or knocking out the ref to
pull a sledgehammer out from under the ring.
 Graphically,
Day of Reckoning does a great job rendering all the wrestlers’
musculature, facial expressions, and environments. Lighting effects and stage
fireworks deliver the techno-circus feel of the WWE well. The physics are tight
and the character models interact realistically, although the player targeting
system does need a bit of work. Tapping the C-stick five times in the same
direction to finally target the bogie charging at you gets annoying.
Like the real thing, the game’s music is a
mix of metal and rap. There aren’t many tracks, though, so get used to
redundancy. At least the audience reacts believably to the action, cheering for
reversals, oohing and aahing over special moves, and booing for the garbage can
being repeatedly slammed on a bloodied opponent.
WWE: Day of Reckoning
delivers the blood, sweat and tears Gamecube wrestling fans have been waiting to
digest. It might not offer much new to the wrestling genre, but a win is a win,
right
WWE: Day of Reckoning
If there's one thing wrestling games have taught us, it's, You can't have it
all. You might have great gameplay but too few modes or plenty of match choices
but a lousy create-a-wrestler or a great premise with uninspiring action. Or you
could have just about everything . . . but it's in Japanese. Unfortunately,
WWE Day of Reckoning seems to take a step-and-a-half back for every
step it takes forward, the result being a very good game that feels incomplete
in all but the most important areas.
Here's what's done right: graphics, gameplay, and CAW. Pretty much everything
else needs to go back to the shop for some retooling. Of course, graphics,
gameplay, and CAW are pretty damn important to a wrestling game.
Building the perfect beast
The characters certainly look good, the backgrounds get the job done, and the
created superstars convincingly blend in. The only major grievance related to
visuals is the sometimes embarrassing slowdown in four-player matches. I've
heard complaints about slowdown in some previous WWE titles, but this is the
first one where I found it to be distracting. Overall, though, this is an
attractive, if overly shiny, game, with realistic character models and passable
animation. Not bad so far.
The gameplay is definitely Day of Reckoning's strong suit. This
is the most satisfying wrestling engine I've played yet, with each moment of
competition full of possibilities. You can go for a grapple move, a standing
strike, or a running or rebounding move with lightning speed and precision.
Flying moves connect more surely than ever before. Up to five special moves can
be assigned per wrestler, giving you extra reason to be jittery when your
opponent is on fire. Smaller grapplers trying to body slam huge monsters have to
contend with a lift meter filled by rapid button presses, and there are other
instances where it pays to jam A, but it's all balanced out with the timed
maneuvers. And an on-screen display keeps track of how damaged each part of the
body is, to better help you plan your finishes.
Reversals take center stage, and developer Yuke's steady evolution continues
with the addition of a "Momentum Shift" super-reversal move. When a wrestler's
momentum meter is on "Danger," hit a grapple with A and B to switch meters with
the opponent. Simple but highly effective. It's a welcome addition to a great
engine and is one more step in capturing the excitement and strategy of a
real-life match. It's the digital equivalent of a low blow or a thumb in the eye
as the opponent goes in for the kill.
Now we're cooking. And create-a-wrestler keeps it going strong with deep
features and user-friendly presentation. Individual face and body parts are
customizable for shape, size, and color. The clothing and accessories selection
isn't too shabby, and with placement and paint options, you have no excuse for a
sloppy CAW. As usual, the order in which options are listed is a bit off, so if
you're not a veteran of WWE character creation you may find yourself
backtracking when a late choice undoes an earlier one, but it's not nearly as
bad as in Raw 2. Best of all, once the wrestler's look is just
right, you can pose him or her for the snapshot used in the select screens!
Fire Pro and SmackDown have used a default set of
portraits and other games only used a silhouette, but this is the first time
I've seen an option to save a portrait made from the actual model.
Speaking of Raw 2, Day of Reckoning takes the same
type of entrance builder we saw in that release and improves on it. Personally,
I don't view entrances more than once or twice, but it's still rewarding to put
together a custom walk to the ring, dictating pyros, camera angles, lighting,
music, video, and the way a wrestler walks and gestures. There is only one
non-Superstar Titantron video to use, as usual, and the music tends to have
annoying lyrics, but it's still a decent package.
Moves are assigned a letter grade depending on how effective they are, and
attribute points can be allocated in different ways depending on what kind of
wrestler you want. By default, moves are grouped by type in any one list, but
they can also be sorted alphabetically. There is a generous selection à la carte
and in some prefab templates featuring wrestling stars past and present,
American and Japanese. No major complaints here (besides the usual whining about
how Fire Pro's personality creation tools are so much better - but
I swore not to mention that game too much when reviewing other series).
Yuke's hits the Rock Bottom?
But for all that Day of Reckoning does right, the game is still
a letdown in many areas. Story mode is linear and only accommodates one player.
The only choice you are asked to make is whether you will join the Raw or
SmackDown roster, and that doesn't affect anything besides the characters
involved. The storyline remains the same, whether you like playing as a heel or
a babyface. Even when the game looks like it will give you a second branching
path, you are dealt a swerve.
If you don't mind all that, the story is all right. Your created wrestler
starts out in the minor leagues fighting nobodies and eventually makes his way
to Wrestlemania. The whole thing takes several hours and includes enough match
types and special conditions to keep it interesting. A grade after each match
translates into points that you can use to pump up your stats. There are
backstage cut scenes, but no areas to fight in behind the curtain. The farthest
you can go is the entrance stage.
I was never a huge fan of backstage areas and the Elimination Chamber, so I
don't personally mind that they were left out of Day of Reckoning,
but multiplayer season mode and title defenses outside the story would have been
more than welcome. And I'm still not sure why the Royal Rumble is as messed up
as it is. Once your character is eliminated, that's it. You can't assume control
of another wrestler, and if all the human players are eliminated, the match just
stops. To put it bluntly, that's just stupid.
I don't really want to put down this effort too much, since the gameplay and
create-a-Superstar are going in the right direction, but I can't in good
conscience call this an excellent game, either. I think when all is said and
done, I will look back on this game with more negative memories than positive
ones - unless Yuke's takes out even more features in subsequent releases. The
ideas are there, we just need to take it home. In wrestling terms, WWE Day
of Reckoning is like a thrilling match that ends in a count-out.
     
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