Short And Sweet Review: WWE '12

Another day another fighting game, Fighter's Week has been pretty jam-packed with great fist-pounding and kick throwing goodness.  I've always been a fan of wrestling ever since The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin went at it.  The wrestling games have never reached the state of awesomeness of the N64 days, but I decided to give this new entry a shot.




Presentation:
WWE goes to great lengths to recreate the dramatic and story-driven atmosphere that the WWE thrives on.  That outlandish presentation sets a proper tone for the world of wrestling and completely gets you in the mood of over-the-top writing and sometimes funny scripts.  Flat-out the presentation of WWE '12 is superb.  Many of these characters, particularly their entrances, are highly convincing and life-like.  The teams at THQ and Yukes have gone to great lengths to try to recreate all the new entrances and little intricate animations of the characters.  In this fact, the characters feel unique and never get old to watch in action.  Rope physics, which are new this year, add a new but somewhat minuscule addition to the working formula.  Sometimes the ropes do detract from the games stellar presentation with the occasional weird looking rope.  Other than that I love this side of the game.


Gameplay:
 There are some changes the WWE formula though.  The game's designers have clearly spent a lot of time making every match feel unique and progressive as the match plays out.  Some changes with the controls I feel are for the better and I welcome the with open arms.  They allow players to grapple and chain into light moves and execute more powerful attacks as opponents get weaker.  Dynamic systems for submissions and pins escalate in tension, which create great moments of shouting If youre playing with a buddy on the couch.  The animated transitions between offense and defense are more fluid and smooth.  This gets rid of most awkward moments between the two wrestlers and creates a great experience.  The game contains over 60 fighters.  There are a lot of modes in the but my favorite is Road To Wrestlemania, which has a lot of story.  This lends itself to me because I love stories in games.



Final Thoughts:
I didn't play a lot of online but of the few matches I did play, they were lag free.  This the best wrestling game I've played in a long while.  Great presentation and great gameplay make this a must-buy for fans of the genre.

Final Score = 8.75/10