i-Rix Review: WWE All Stars

Professional wrestling's been a big part of my life ever since I was a child. Take that as you shall, but much like the industry's quality, even I'll admit that the quality of professional wrestling games fluctuates from great to embarrassingly bad. From that heap arrives WWE All Stars. Between its list of classic wrestlers and fun over-the-top action, there's a lot to potentially love in THQ's latest foray into the squared circle. However, a laundry list of finicky issues and lack of compelling content cut-down this top prospect in its prime.

CONTENT

The first big failing in WWE All Stars comes from its rather meager selection of modes and match types. There are one to four player variations in standard matches, tornado tag matches, cage matches, elimination matches, and "extreme rules" matches, but that's about it. Also, because of the way each match plays out, there's just not a lot of variation even in these different match types. These all play into the two main single-player modes, Path of Champions and Fantasy Warfare.

In Path of Champions, you take a superstar of your choosing through one of three "story-lines" in order to become a WWE champion. Each of these is accompanied by some pretty brilliantly produced cutscenes that have the champion of the given path taunting you in true professional wrestling fashion (the best of these involving the Undertaker and PAUL FREAKING BEARER cutting promos from their funeral parlor), which flesh them out more than simply being a series of matches on an arcade-style ladder. Fantasy Warfare, on the other hand, takes one superstar from the current generation and pits them in a "dream match" against a classic superstar. While the video packages that splice actual footage of both superstars together as if they were actually feuding are spectacular, and matches like Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. CM Punk for "Superior Lifestyle" make complete sense, some of these just feel a little forced. I'm sorry, but there is NO competition between John Morrison and Randy "Macho Man" Savage for "Most Charismatic". Throw in a pretty meek suite of online modes, and you've got all that WWE All Stars has to offer.

GAMEPLAY

Of course this is a wrestling game. Wrestling should be tantamount here. And for the most part, WWE All Stars is a lot of fun. Four attack buttons and two defensive buttons make up your combative capabilities, and by combining these together, you can string strikes, grapples, strikes and grapples, and signature maneuvers together in creative ways. There's a good, almost fighting game level of depth to the action that makes experimentation both fun and rewarding. The first time I saw my little brother bounce a guy up with a powerbomb, grab him out of the air and flip him over only to Spear him out of mid-air with Edge, I knew there was some big potential here.

Further adding to the variation is the fact that each wrestler falls into one of four categories that help determine his moveset and abilities. For example, Big Men like Andre the Giant and Kane have devastating strikes and grapples that throw the opponent around the ring and can absorb more punishment, where as Grapplers like Mr. Perfect and Jack Swagger can link together grapples into a near-infinite chain of punishing slams and submission holds. Further adding to the mayhem are Signature and Finishing moves, each governed by their own meters. A multi-tiered bar (which also governs your wrestler's stamina for running) can be expended to use a Signature maneuver, which are unique, show-stopping moves that can devastate your opponent and turn the tide in your favor. They also help substantially fill your Finisher meter, which when full, lets you charge up your wrestler's finishing maneuver which can end a match outright. Knowing when and how to use these, and experimenting with them is all part of the fun of All Stars.

But sadly, there are some extreme caveats to that fun. As I stated, All Stars is pretty lacking in modes. Once you beat the Path of Champions a couple times through with different dudes and finish up Fantasy Warfare, there's not a ton left to play around with. Part of this is due to a disappointingly small roster and, whilst other competitors are already up for DLC and more have been announced, the way THQ is dolling them out at a snail's pace isn't doing the game's short shelf-life any favors. This is expounded by the incredibly weak online options. It's enough that the modes and options aren't there, but with no penalty for rage-quitters, copious lag, and nobody playing online, there just aren't any legs to the game.

Lastly, even the minute to minute gameplay in All Stars has some big blemishes. For one thing, certain options in combat aren't viable in the least. Options like using weapons are worthless. Spotty hit detection and random happenings may be acceptable in wrestling games as a norm, but that doesn't make them any less aggravating. All Stars is no exception, and the fact that this is a game much more about fighting game execution than any other, that is doubly so. The first time you botch a reversal that you KNOW should have worked, or when your rope spring miraculously doesn't hit the opponent despite passing right through him, you'll be making a Cornette face.

PRESENTATION

The presentation in All Stars is similarly spotty. The cartoony artstyle fits perfectly with the action in-ring, and the animations given to these over-the-top moves are smoother than any recent wrestling game. Epic moments even occur in the slow-motion uber versions of your given wrestler's Signature and Finishing moves, and although the exaggerated physiques of each ring warrior look a little ridiculous, ridiculous is what this game's all about. Of course, the video packages and in-engine cutscenes (complete with more than competent voice-acting) are the best parts of the presentation here. Sadly, there's just a lack of character in the rest of package, and even some of the action is stilted with emotionless wrestlers going at it and some minor clipping. Also, as repetitive as this game already is, having to look at the same five or six rings doesn't help matters at all.

FINAL VERDICT

WWE All Stars is a fun game that is kept from greatness with its inconsistency. There are good ideas in the game's content, but it's overall lacking. The gameplay has some spectacular innovations, but a lack of polish keeps it from elevating above a certain base level of enjoyment. The presentation is inspired in points, and lazy in others. Overall, if you're a fan of professional wrestling, you'll want to check out All Stars if only for a novelty. There's something potentially special here, but there are just too many mistakes in this rookie outing. It's a prospect to watch, but right now it's just middling in the mid-card.

WWE All Stars gets 3 stars out of 5.

Rix SmackDown! Sum-up 4/22/11

So, did you guys miss this week's installment of SmackDown!? Well... surprisingly, so did I. Yeh, sometimes these things just slip my mind, or I find something else more pressing than the watching of professional wrestling (BLASPHEMY). Nevertheless, as I assumed this week's SmackDown! would more than trump RAW, and because I genuinely was interested in seeing how some of the storylines went down.

And from what I saw from the raw (and I mean raw, as the video quality is terrible) footage from SmackDown! from WWE.com, I was right to be hopeful. In the weak prior to the shake up that is the Draft, SmackDown! finishes strong with some good matches, good story-telling, and just a good overall feel. I can't go quite as in depth with all the stuff that happened this week, but here goes my analysis.

• The Bombastic Bag Man: Cody continues his descent into madness as he hits the ring and, following another melodramatic speech, he starts distributing paper bag masks to the audience (I shit you not) as some form of symbolic "hiding" of everyone's inner ugliness... or something. Yes, this could be considered some form of rip-off of the Beautiful People's schtick they used to do, but hey it was fun. I'm liking Cody's ridiculous new Phantom of the Opera deal, and this new paper mask thing just adds another layer of crazy.
• Oh, and there was also a match. In a rematch of their Wrestlemania battle, Rhodes faced off against Mysterio. The finish of this match seemed to come relatively out of nowhere, but that was soon revealed to be because the two had 10 or so minute segment where they brawled on the outside, in the audience, and all over the place. It wasn't horribly exciting stuff, but luckily, the feud that's been brewing between these two helped to sell the idea of them really wanting to hurt each other. In the end, Mysterio takes the match, but Rhodes gets the last laugh by laying out Rey and slipping a paper bag over his head. Goofy stuff, but goofy in a likable way.

• Team Tensions: The Corre continues their slow train wreck of a disbandment into this week's SmackDown!, but at this point, the amount of bitching they're doing to one another is fairly entertaining. I personally like most of the members of the Corre (not you, Heath), and whenever these guys get more screen time, I'm a fan, but I was getting tired of them being made to be such a TERRIBLE team for no goddamn reason. Now, at least their constant in-fighting makes it obvious why these guys aren't living up to their potential. Various Corre members see action later in the night.
• But of course who cares about that stuff when LayCool are having relationship issues!? Yeah, I personally could really care less about this dumb angle, but I have to admit that I didn't hate their small segment here, mainly because it ends with Michelle McCool attacking Layla. Are LayCool over? Well, methinks the Draft next week could end with these two ladies ending up on different shows. That's alright by me.

• Swagger Squash: Jack Swagger has sadly been caught in a bit of a dead-end angle lately playing second banana to Michael fucking Cole. I have to admit my gut reaction to when I saw Swagger premier (around the time I stopped watching wrestling) was to automatically hate the guy. However, since then, I've come to realize he's actually a pretty good worker, and though I don't think he's the next Kurt Angle (which seems to be the direction WWE wants to take him in), he deserves much better. Perhaps as a way to keep him still somewhat threatening, he gets a short squash match here against Trent Beretta. Swagger hits all his big spots and gets the win. A squash is a squash, but this one at least seemed to have some purpose.

• New Tag Champs: Returning to the Corre's troubles, it was only a matter of time before they lost some gold. Wouldn't ya know it, but Gabriel and Slater drop the belts this week to Big Show and Kane. Big Show showed some good athleticism here, but more than anything this match was basically used to progress storylines. The Corre now loses their tag belts, and Gabriel and Slater are at each other's throats. Do I suspect Show and Kane will stay tag champs for long? Maybe not, but I've got no problem having those veterans carry the straps for a while.

• Masters vs. McIntyre: My man-crush on Drew McIntyre continues this week as he takes on Chris Masters in a really entertaining match. Honestly, the good part about McIntyre at this point is they've established him as a threat, but one whose arrogance and overconfidence can cost him any match. They play that up here as Masters and McIntyre actually have a really good back and forth. Stiff as they are, there were some really good high-impact spots between these two, including a diving shoulder block by Masters and McIntyre nailing ANOTHER hugely stiff clothesline. I can't attest to what it's like to wrestle these guys, but with the intensity they provided in the match and their own stiff styles, it was just a lot of fun. McIntyre picks up the win in what was my favorite match of the night.

• Barrett Escapes the Boom: Fairly entertaining match between Kofi Kingston and Wade Barrett for the IC Championship. Again, the storytelling, particularly with Ezekiel Jackson at ringside, made up for any actual shortcomings, but these two are talented dudes who know how to work. The thing I disliked about this match was the finish. Barrett cheats to sneak past Kingston, but it just perpetuates the feeling that nobody in the Corre is an actual threat. Sure, Zeke took out Kingston a week ago, but Barrett, Slater, and Gabriel are constantly being made to look dumb. Fine match, I just wish the finish would have had Barrett actually taking the match with skill rather than cheating. It's also of note that the crowd's reaction (the show was in London) when Barrett nearly landed Wasteland was pretty hilarious as a collective roar seemed to erupt, followed by a disappointed hush when Kingston countered.

• ADR is Poop: Lastly, Alberto Del Rio throws a retirement party for Edge. Remember that terrible Michael Cole segment from RAW? That was goofy "not wrestling" nonsense done wrong. This was goofy "not wrestling" nonsense done right. Del Rio genuinely seemed to be having fun as he unveiled gag after gag, and that fun was not lost on me (though it may have been on the audience). Of course, Edge appears and does his usually devastation on the microphone (including calling ADR and his party-goers "poop"), and Christian comes in to physically break up the party. A good way to end the show, one that can't be faulted for lack of wrestling because, there was actually a lot of wrestling on this damn show (imagine that). It was fun, and it's good to see Edge again while he's still there.

Overall, the SmackDown! before the Draft was darn fun, and it's bittersweet that a majority of this talent will likely find its way onto RAW following Monday. I give SmackDown! for the 22nd a solid 4 stars out of 5.

Monday is the Draft, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it to provide my own apt brand of analysis to it. Look for that, and more blogs relating to wrestling, video games, comics, and everything in between, in the coming week.

Until then, stay tuned to The Machine...

Rix RAW Recap- 4/11/11

Professional wrestling has been a passion of mine since I was just a small Hulkamaniac. I've found my love and respect for the industry has grown and evolved over the years, through ups and downs. Despite many assertions that mainstream professional wrestling isn't at its top form right now, I've somehow managed to get back into it to the point where I find myself not only willing, but qualified to comment on some of the live events.

This post will be something of an experiment to see if that thought is true, as I'll run down the events of last night's episode of WWE RAW and give my impressions about its individual parts and itself as a whole.

• The Gauntlet is Thrown: RAW opens with what tends to be its opening, and that is a lot of exposition. However, I actually like the direction this RAW took, and as Cena started talking about the predictable stuff (his Wrestlemania experience, his challenge to the Rock), he's actually interrupted not by one, but by four other superstars each asserting their right to get a piece of the spotlight Cena seems to bogart all for himself. What results is the issuing of a 5-man Gauntlet match with Cena, Orton, Ziggler, Morrison, and R-Truth for the number one contender's spot. I like the almost self-referential nature of this opening, and felt it was a nice carrot on a stick to keep you around for the main event, if only to see something different.

• Kong is koming: A promo for Awesome Kong plays, which for me is both good and bad. Good because I think Kong is great and will bring a much-needed element to a fairly weak women's division in WWE (outside of Beth Phoenix, Naty Neidhart, and a few others), but also bad because I'm not sure if WWE's audience ever cares that much about actual competitive women's wrestling. Case in point...

• Eve Torres Loses to one of those Bella twins: This wasn't a bad match, especially not from a Diva's standpoint, but the fact that nothing got any sort of crowd reaction, not even the finish (which came out of nowhere, if you ask me), just reinforces how bored the WWE audience is with the Diva's title. It changes hands. Nobody cares. Even I, who acknowledge it was a decent match, didn't FEEL anything from it (and don't take that out of context).

• Sin Cara Arrives: A luchador getting a huge push in WWE? Well, I don't expect it to last long, but Sin Cara has been pretty impressive with his athleticism in limited appearances. Here on RAW, he puts on a great match with Primo, and I mean MATCH because it isn't a squash by any measure of the term. Great spots, good back and forth, and despite a botch towards the end, an impressive finish. I look forward to seeing a lot more of Sin Cara.

• Corre-ing the APPLE: The Corre nearly disbands after some in-fighting, which made me VERY hopeful as the Corre has done worse than nothing in recent weeks. However, they're interrupted by the odd comedy stable of Santino Marella, calling themself APPLE (which has the "way too talented to be here" Daniel Bryan on it). I expected APPLE to win and the Corre to be over and done with for good, but sadly the Corre squeak by and live to see another week in a forgettable 8-man tag match. Probably the lowest point of the show.

• Edge says Goodbye: Edge has been one of the superstars of WWE that I've seen arrive and now leave in my lifetime, and it's really sad to see him go. In an extremely heart-felt speech, Edge relayed his health troubles, recanted memories (all of which I remember personally), and said goodbye to the business and fans he loves. Genuinely heart-wrenching, and I am one of many who will be an Edge-head for life. Thanks, Edge.

• The Gauntlet: Lastly, the lengthy main-event takes place with Miz and Riley at ringside. While that personally made the ending of the match fairly predictable for me to call right off the bat, this was still a fairly entertaining main event. It had its high points and low points, but it was pretty damn hard to call, especially after Orton was eliminated early on and R-Truth made it all the way to Cena. Even the "predictable" ending turned out to have a swerve, as after Miz and Riley interfere with the finale of Cena vs. R-Truth, the RAW GM buzzes in to make the Extreme Rules title match a triple threat between Truth, Cena, and Miz. I'm not certain how the match will turn out in the end, but the Gauntlet was entertaining, made R-Truth seem like a genuine contender, and gave the writers something to build up over the next few weeks.

Overall, last night's RAW was extremely enjoyable. It did have its ups and downs, but bolstered by some good story-telling, a strong showing by Sin Cara, an emotional farewell by Edge, and a lengthy and fairly entertaining main event, it was a RAW that used its time effectively and has me intrigued to see more.

4 stars out of 5.