WWE Wrestlemania X8
July 24, 2002
Why must THQ be run by a group of highly unintelligent chimpanzees? Instead of leaving the license with the wrestling game aficionados at AKI, it has been given to the highly undeserving Yuke’s. The greatness of games like WCW/NWO Revenge, WWF Wrestlemania, and WWF No Mercy (all for Nintendo 64) did not seem to matter to the geniuses at THQ. Nintendo’s wrestling games now officially suck. They used to beat the pants off of the Smackdown series, but no longer! Hopefully, THQ will realize its mistake and correct it, but they probably won’t legally be able to. Where is the career mode? Every game, no matter what genre, has some sort of career (or story, or what have you) mode, but not in Wrestlemania X8!
Now that the ranting has paused (there will be more), this 짡meî £an be described. When loading it up, there are a few choices to be made. The different modes are Exhibition, Path of a Champion, and Battle for the Belts. Rounding out the main menu is Create-A-Wrestler. Wrestlemania X8 has many different match types to choose from. It has normal, tag, three-way, fatal four-way, table, ladder, Hell-in-the-cell, pretty much anything you see on the shows. After choosing your wrestler, match type, and venue, the wrestler enters the arena accompanied by his/her video and theme music. At this point, everything seems fine. Then the match startsÖ?
Once again, this question is asked, ì—¨y?î Why does my character have so few moves? Why is the animation so terrible? Everything about this game seems to be done wrong. The controls are incredibly simple (although having to push two buttons at the same time to do some moves was maddening. There are so many buttons on the controller, couldn’t they have come up with something better?) Although the simple controls make it easy to pick up and play, there isn’t much that a more seasoned player can learn to do. The enemy AI is also terrible. Example: While participating in a table match, I selected Scott Hall as my wrestler and was wrestling The Hurricane. To win a table match, you must put your opponent through a table. I got wasted the entire match (it lasted about 20 minutes) but apparently the AI didn’t know it had to put me through a table, so The Hurricane kept trying to pin me. I ended up winning. Awful, awfulÖ?
The graphics in this game are the saving grace. Although the animation is a little sketchy, character models are very good. Every wrestler is instantly recognizable. Each wrestler’s appearance can also be edited to keep up with the constant changes on TV. And the bane of all wrestling games, long hair, looks pretty good as well. Something doesn’t fare quite as well as the graphics, and that is the sound. The music played during matches sounds like something from the easy listening station, the commentators are sitting at the table but not talking, and the crowd sounds good but cheers at very odd times. Any semblance of a real wrestling match is gone. And this one really irked me: each character has signature taunts, yet when they are done, the crowd doesn’t cheer! The wrestler will go through some elaborate dance and it will be dead quiet!
What saved this game from failure? Create-a-wrestler. Everything (literally) about the created characters can be tweaked- height, color, weight, size, moves, taunts, everything. After taking this wrestler through some of the modes, his/her attributes can be increased. It’s a good system with one fault, and that is that in order to increase the attributes, you have to play this game. Therefore, it didn’t save it from failure, because no matter how fun a create-a-wrestler mode is, if the game sucks, then it means jack squat.
In case you couldn’t tell, I hate this game. Yuke’s has never programmed a fun wrestling game (I dislike the Smackdown games also). The horrible sound, horrible gameplay, and lack of career mode do not make a fun game. Only buy this game if you are looking for a very expensive frisbee or coaster.
CVG Report CardWWE Wrestlemania X8
Rating: D-
Platform: GameCube
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