Bad Part of Good Game, Good Part of Bad Game

[Mozenrath]

I was thinking, there are many awful wrestling games, and a good number of good to great games, but there is no perfect wrestling game. There's always something that another has over it. I figured it'd be fun if people could name two games, one being a flawed game and the other, one of the better ones, while coming up with something that the lesser game has going for it, and a strike against the better game. They do not have to be connected. Case in point:

No Mercy has extremely limited masks, making it kind of bad for making any number of beloved wrestlers. Additionally, it lacks a good body option for heavily muscled men like Brock Lesnar, Sid, or Billy Jack Haynes and Hercules Hernandez if you want to go retro.

WWF Attitude is not a very good game, but it has a pretty robust roster, including many who are either in no other games or in an extremely limited number of games, so it's still kind of worthwhile for a snapshot of history.

[Andee9001]

TNA Impact had a fun engine which was better utilised in WWE All Stars

All Stars was super fun but could have used an option to turn off KOs.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Day of Reckoning 2 was really fun but good god was the story mode annoying to me.

[I'm Team Bayley and Indi]

I do like the create a match types in WWE 2k20, it's fun doing stuff like a fatal four way iron man match (before nXt did it)

[Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite]

Fire Pro Wrestling World/Fire Pro in general, GREAT series but has some minor annoyances

*Strikes often miss because it's a 2D Game, you have to be lined up JUST right to connect

*Computer controlled wrestlers just REFUSE to wrestle in the aisle and immediately return to the ring.

WWE Legends of Wrestlemania had a Great Roster, presentation and premise, but the actual game play was so disappointing. Instead of it being a simulation like the Raw Versus Smackdown series, it was an extremely shallow Arcade game.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

When newLEGACYinc played Backstage Assault in May, the big takeaway was that the game is actually low key great in so many ways, except for the stuff that actually counts. It's Create A Wrestler mode is one of the huge surprises, arguably one of the best CAW modes of the N64/PSX generation. Lots of attires available from late-era WCW characters not in the game, and some blatant knock-off gear of WWF wrestlers at the time. And there's even an option where you can give your character a mask that adopts the texture of the wrestlers pants, which is ingenious. And it's one of the few wrestling games with light tubes as a possible weapon even.

That said, all of these cool things are irrelevant because you are still playing WCW Backstage Assault.

[EvenBaldobombHasAJob]

No Mercy: even for it's time it looked kinda crappy graphics wise.

Smackdown! Just Bring It: the mad libs commentary turns into unintentional comedy gold.

[Mozenrath]

Jul 13, 2021 6:52:44 GMT -5 EvenBaldobombHasAJob said:

No Mercy: even for it's time it looked kinda crappy graphics wise.

Smackdown! Just Bring It: the mad libs commentary turns into unintentional comedy gold.

I feel like a lot of No Mercy looks fine, though some wrestlers like Undertaker, Rock, and Triple H have really awful looking faces because they tried to go ultra-realistic, and it just made them look like old people with stomach flus. Compared to WM 2000, Rock just looks off. The N64 games also never got D'lo's head right at all, and entrances were a step down from WM2000.

Raw is the worst of the WWE games of its generation, I'd say, but I'll be damned if setting traps wasn't one of the funniest things I've ever seen in a WWE game.

[bob]

I love No Mercy, but some of the tasks needed to complete the story mode are brutal

beat Chyna in 2 minutes or less comes to mind

[Mike Strike]

No Mercy: Not being able to edit movesets is confounding. You could change the Undertaker into a short, black woman name Stacy if you wanted to but God forbid you change his Front finisher to a Tombstone.

[Phosphor Glow]

Raw 2's gameplay is just not very good at all, but the season mode makes it worth it to me. There's just so much you can do in it. It handles feuds pretty well without them getting worn out, setting traps is hilarious and fun, it's multiplayer, and just all of the different interactions and stuff you can do is great. Plus, it doesn't take wrestler gender into account. Lita won the WWE Championship when I was playing with friends once. It ruled.

Day of Reckoning 2 is one of the greatest wrestling games of all time from a gameplay standpoint, it does all of the stuff that I wished the Smackdown series would've done, despite being from the same developer. Being able to interrupt moves other wrestlers were doing was cool. The submission system was interesting and fun. It was gorgeous. But that roster. Hoo boy. It's an extremely bad roster.

[Macho Pichu]

Jul 13, 2021 3:54:22 GMT -5 Andee9001 said:

TNA Impact had a fun engine which was better utilised in WWE All Stars

All Stars was super fun but could have used an option to turn off KOs.

I disagree on that last point. I always felt like winning by KO was more fun and pinfall victory always felt lucky. KOs only is the way to go.

[67 more]

Jul 13, 2021 6:52:44 GMT -5 EvenBaldobombHasAJob said:

No Mercy: even for it's time it looked kinda crappy graphics wise.

Smackdown! Just Bring It: the mad libs commentary turns into unintentional comedy gold.

Just Bring It: You can actually sit on the chairs. It serves no purpose unless you want to arrange a game of musical chairs with your friends, but God damn it you can do it

[Hypnosis]

Fire Pro World:
-Not having enough belt customization like in the WWE games
-Moves, wrestler parts, Fire Promoter, etc. made the base game even more expensive than it should have been when FPW was first released
-Grappling system has a steep learning curve for most people
-Wrestler CPU logic takes a long time to figure out
-Fire Promoter can't be booked like a weekly televised show
-The quality of Edits for the PS4 version aren't as good as Steam's, and some indy wrestlers are hard to find on the FPW database

WCW Thunder:
The rants were hilarious.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

The TNA game is very poor, but exactly broken enough that playing it is just madcap fun rather than the hideous grind of, say, Nitro for PC.

[chazraps]

Original NES Wrestlemania - Amazing music, the best music of any wrestling game the console would ever have.

Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth - As amazing as your CAWs looked, there was an absolute ceiling for how strong you could make them, so inevitably they would all become jobbers when integrated into your season mode.

[Jake, The Jake, Jake]

Crush Hour is a repetitive and overall not very good game, but the level Running The Gauntlet which requires you to ramp from rooftop to rooftop and collect stars before the other players do is quite fun. My brother and I used to play to fifty, which would take like an hour and a half to finish.

[Magnus the Magnificent]

Jul 13, 2021 2:24:14 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I was thinking, there are many awful wrestling games, and a good number of good to great games, but there is no perfect wrestling game.

alt

[nickcave]

WWF Betrayal: The idea of a beat em up game involving saving Stephanie McMahon on the GBC is funny

[Oak: Certified Jade Hater]

WWE 2K20: I thought the mini story modes were inventive and fun. Southpaw’s women’s division, Seth Rollins and Samoa Joe in a Mad Max world, plus the special commentary all made it feel rather cool.

Fire Pro Wrestling Word: Maybe it’s just me, but downloading CAWS is so tedious and time consuming.