History of WWF/E Games Part 51
WWE 12
Release
2011
Format
Xbox 360
Playstation 3
Nintendo Wii
Time to look at the start of a new series.
Background
WWE 12 THQ claimed was going to be “bigger,badder, better” in pretty much everyway. Their big upgrade this time was the “Predator Technology” which resulted in the wrestlers looking better than ever before. WWE 12 would also mark the first time that the Playstation 2 was left out of the yearly WWE game.
There was a couple of special versions available. First of all we have WWE 12: The Peoples Edition which had the Rock on the cover as well as a few extras. A few months later though THQ released a game of the year edition which they called WWE 12: Wrestlemania Edition.
Presentation
The graphics in this game are amazing. I thought I was at the point where a character model of a wrestler could no longer really blow me away, but WWE 12 really proved me wrong. I think a huge part of this is because they no longer had to develop for the Playstation 2. Many people argued that if the Wii got a port that so should the Playstation 2.
The arenas in the game I think also looked amazing. Overall I really do not see how anyone could find any fault in WWE 12 in terms of the games presentation. The characters no longer had this shiny look to them that they had in Smackdown vs RAW 2011. Instead they looked more life like, and it really is quite amazing when you see a side by side comparison.
Game Play
If you checked in a few weeks ago you will remember that I said I felt WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2011 was one of the most boring wrestling games I had ever played. Well WWE 12 does make some changes to the core game play. Changes that I personally felt made the game overall more fun to play. You grapple moves now depend on the condition of your opponent. This may not sound like a big deal, but I felt it made the matches far more fun. Another cool thing was how fun it was to target specific body parts on your opponent to damage. You now could interrupt various grapple moves. This was attempted in other WWE games, but for the most part it never worked as the AI would just break up moves for the sake of it. But here they have actually pulled it off very well. Overall WWE 12 was a great deal of fun to play.
Sadly as much fun as WWE 12 was to play from a wrestling point of view, the Road To Wrestlemania mode which once again returned was god awful. I loved this mode in Smackdown vs RAW 2009, but it just got worse each year. This one takes place over a period of 18 months rather than the period between Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania like in the other games. It is a single story that will see you play the role of Sheamus first of all, then Triple H and lastly it a created wrestler called Jacob Cass. It was utter garbage and I have never been so board in my life. The story was just so uninteresting and boring. I think with the single long running story line they were trying to do something like Mortal Kombat 9 did, but they blew it big time. I think maybe if they had let you play as more characters than just these three, that could have helped.
WWE Universe mode also returned and thankfully this mode made up for the abysmal Road To Wrestlemania mode. They added a vast number of new cut scenes and you now had more control over what was happening. Although some people did report that even when they changed things that WWE Universe would still just do whatever the hell it wanted. I was one of the lucky ones who never had this happen. WWE Universe made playing exhibition matches so much more fun and it was great to play the role of the WWE booker making all the big decisions only for a wrestler to get injured and forcing you to make a change.
One thing that was new here; well I say new but it actually was in WWF Attitude that was released in 1999, but this was the first time since then. This mode was “Create an Arena”. This was great and it let you make your own custom WWE rings. Sadly you could not edit the entrance stage which took away a great deal of the charm, but for a first try I really think that Yukes did a hell of a job here.
Final Thoughts
WWE 12 was a great return to form for WWE games. I really needed this after how much I did not enjoy Smackdown vs RAW 2011. I think all the game play changes that were made here were for the better. I actually think if the Road To Wrestlemania mode was not so bad this would have been one of my favourite WWE games. Not only did I enjoy playing this when it was released, but it also made me really excited for the future of WWE games. But as many of us know THQ would only get to publish one more WWE game for home consoles until they had there financial problems. Overall WWE 12 is a great wrestling game and one I highly recommend.
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