For those of you who don’t like to read a lot, let me say that the XBL feature of this game is glitched and you won’t be getting online until somebody fixes the problem. How this game managed to ship without anyone actually testing a retail copy of the game is beyond me, but someone needs an asskicking. Earlier builds of the game allowed XBL – I should know, as I was given the opportunity to take it online with the guys here a month ago. That’s my public service announcement. You now may commence reading the rest of the review. Studio Gigante’s take on Wrestlemania is fraught with bugs, glitches and options that appear in the manual but aren’t anywhere to be found in the game itself (auto targetting system). As previously mentioned, the online portion of the game is currently unplayable as you cannot connect. So things aren’t off to a rousing start. I should preface these complaints with the following: it’s the nicest looking glitchiest product I’ve played in recent memory. Wrestlemania XXI (XXI for short through the rest of the review) does a fine job presenting the gamer with as realistic a take on an unrealistic sport as possible. The roster of brutes and phillys, while a little light in the coffers, is fleshed out well and in my personal opinion I would say at least 2/3s of the wrestlers look excellent. Even if their faces are a tad mashed and unnatural, the bodies are all done well and dripping literally with details such as sweat and other glistening fluids. Entrances are over the top and while certain sticklers will complain that so and so doesn’t do his dippity doo while walking into the arena, most of us will be fast forwarding these presentations after day 2. Customization of your personal created character is very well done and brimming with options. You won’t find this area of the game lacking in the slightest. Taking that created wrestler through the Career mode can be a slightly more frustrating endeavor. Wrestling is all about reversals and the almost endless array of counters at your disposal makes XXI extremely entertaining. With a stable of 200+ counters and reversals available to you and your opponent, you will notice on higher difficulty levels that you’ll barely be able to get a move in edgewise. Almost everything you throw at your CPU opponent will be reversed and you’ll be going down. You will also find that once you go down, it’s extremely hard for you to get back up. For this very reason, I am going to call the higher difficulty mode at best unenjoyable and at worst virtually unplayable. It’s not balanced at all and the CPU is always in favor. Where Studio Gigante nailed the feel of wrestling along with the reversals available is the Heat gauge. This gauge will increase the more you dazzle the audience with your moves and combos- which is possible on the easier difficulty. Get the gauge high and you’ll be blessed with the ability to pull off your characters finishers. The presentation of XXI left no stone unturned in terms of wrestler recognition. The wrestlers real voices are present and as mentioned they are visually stunning. Most of them anyway. The Career mode is a fun way to pass the time and much like TV wrestling you’ll spend your time fighting for revenge, fighting for advancement and fighting for more revenge. Contrary to forum posts, Career mode IS playable. I’ve went through it twice without any hitches. Although it should be noted that older Xbox systems with the Thompson drive may experience freezing, lockups and long load times which may lead to freezing and lockups. Played with 4 real players who have an intricate knowledge of the game, XXI’s worthiness becomes apparent, but only because of the aforementioned reversal system. It really does make videogame wrestling that much more entertaining. Once this game goes online and if the XBL features turn out to be as good as promised, there may be a very good reason to look at XXI more closely. As it stands now, XXI seems unfinished and in desperate need of some sort of patch to fix a few glaring issues. Had this game been sent to me as a build, I wouldn’t have reviewed it out of professional courtesy. Unfortunately I’ve been playing a store bought copy. Until the bugs are worked out, pull off a reversal of your own and keep this one on the EB store shelf. |