History of WWF/E Games Part 48
WWE All Stars
Release
2010
Format
Microsoft Xbox 360
Sony Playstation 3
Sony Playstation Portable
Sony Playstation 2
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo 3DS
Time to look at one of the craziest WWE games ever released.
Background
Sal Divita who is probably most famous for his work on Mortal Kombat was one of the main guys behind this game. He also had a hand in the over the top and awesome Wrestlemania The Arcade Game that was released on many different platforms back in 1995. In WWE All Stars he once again gives us an over the top take on the WWE.
WWE All Stars let you put current WWE wrestlers against legends from the past. One huge roster inclusion was Macho Man Randy Savage who had not been featured in a WWE game for sixteen years. WWE All Stars would also be the very first WWE game to be released on the Nintendo 3DS. In addition a special arcade stick and control pad was released to go along with the game. As well as this a special series of action figures. These action figures had codes that would unlock extra attires for the wrestlers.
A sort of sequel called WWE Brawl was announced, but was eventually cancelled. Some video and screen shots were released and the game was even more over the top than WWE All Stars. It looked like a really fun game, and its a shame it never was released.
Presentation
I love the art style of WWE All Stars. The wrestlers look absolutely insane and over the top. They have muscles on top of there muscles. Some people hated this exaggerated style, but I loved it, and it was a nice change of pace from what the Smackdown series gave us each and every year. The wrestlers all had multiple attires which was really cool. The only downside is the wrestler entrances. WWE All Stars does not have full wrestler entrances which is a little disappointing. There was a great amount of DLC for this game. But sadly the DLC wrestlers only had one attire. Also it is worth mentioning that the Nintendo 3DS version had all the DLC wrestlers included right off the bat.
There are not many arenas in the game which was a bit of a let down, but the ones that they did have were really good. They fit right in with the style of the game. In terms of the arenas, one thing that many fans loved was the way that they included the old Smackdown fist arena.
Perhaps the best part about WWE All Stars presentation though is the amazing video packages that are in the game. If you are a WWE fan then this game is worth buying to check out these video packages alone. One of the game modes is all about having a legend taking on a current WWE wrestler. The amount of time and effort put into making the video package for each match is amazing.
Game Play
There are some similarities in spirit with Wrestlemania The Arcade Game, but WWE All Stars does have far more in common with wrestling than Wrestlemania The Arcade Game did. To start with there are no projectile moves or anything like that. All the moves were real wrestling moves, but they were totally over the top. For example if you give someone a pile driver, you would jump in the air and do a flip. It is just insane and crazy, but a great deal of fun. Some of the “High Flyer” wrestlers would do a back flip to jump onto the top rope. Many of the over the top moves are accompanied by some lighting effects. Or if you slam someone really hard the whole floor will ripple like an earthquake has just hit.
All of the wrestlers fit into one of a few different classes. What wrestling class they fall into results in them having a certain style of move set. The classes are “Technician” which would be a wrestler like Bret Hart. “Brawlers” would be someone like Stone Cold Steve Austin. “Acrobat” would be someone like Macho Man Randy Savage, and lastly we have “The Heavyweights” which is a wrestler like Andre The Giant.
The basic game play gives you two grapple and two strike buttons. A weak and strong one for each. What is really cool is this is a game that anyone can pick up and play. There are some really amazing combos that you can do if you learn how to mix certain grapples and strikes together, which makes for a very fun game.
The single player mode is great as it has two really fun modes. First of all we have “Fantasy Warfare mode”. This is the mode where you have a current WWE wrestler take on a legend. There is a fun reason for the matches to be taken place. For example one of the matches is The Ultimate Warrior vs. Sheamus, and the battle is called “Greatest Warrior”. You are given a excellent video package highlighting bother wrestlers and giving reasons for why each one could be considered the Greatest Warrior. This mode is amazing. I just wish they could have made some more matches using the DLC wrestlers.
The other game mode is “Path of Champions”, and this is split into three different sections. First we have “Path Of Champions Legends” where the idea of this match is to win the World Heavyweight Championship from The Undertaker. “Path Of Champions Superstars” sees you trying to become WWE Champion with Randy Orton as the last guy. The last one is “Path Of Champions Tag Team”, and DX are the final opponents in this one.
Now Path Of Champions actually shares many similarities to old school wrestling games where you wrestle a series of matches just trying to become the champion, but what makes this mode so great is that there are these amazing little cut scenes that are really well made. The Undertaker one is just fill of nostalgia, while the other two are really fun as well. Beating a Path Of Champions with a wrestler will unlock there alternate attire. A few wrestlers have three attires which means you would need to beat a path twice.
WWE All Stars is a very fun game, but it does have one issue that hurts it which is the load times. My god does this game have brutal load times. I even installed it onto my Xbox hard drive and it still takes a long time to load. Even the Nintendo 3DS version has bad load times. I mean at the end of the day, if this is the main issue you have with a game then I guess that really is not that bad at all.
Final Thoughts
WWE All Stars is one of the, if not the best WWE game to be released this console generation. Is the game realistic? No not at all, but it is a great deal of fun, and it was just so refreshing to play. I enjoy the Smackdown vs. RAW series, but they are so stiff and uptight in trying to be realistic for me that after awhile they are not much fun to play. WWE All Stars though is a game that is all about fun. If you are not really a wrestling fan then this is the game for you. It is an absolute blast in multi player, and this is a game that I cannot recommend enough.
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