WWE All-Stars is a fighting game, not a "wrestling" game.

So, I just read through a magazine of the first official preview gameplay article of All-Stars, and it seems that All-Stars plays as a fighting game, not as a wrestling game as we're used to.

Apparently there are 4 different styles, Big Man, Acrobat, Brawler and Grappler each with skills the other doesn't have. Grapplers have wrestling combos, Brawlers have strike combs, Acrobats have speed moves and can use the turnbuckle, Big Men have power.

There are traditional fighting game health bars instead of momentum meters, and a finisher meter that builds up (and doesn't go down) until you hit L and R to enter "finisher state" where you hit a cartoonish superhero finisher, but being able to build up to a signature and hit the enemy with that will take away the finisher state.

Apparently from what's been said, the preview of the game plays more like Mortal Kombat and matches will only last about 3-5 minutes.

Now for my opinion of this:

This is both a very good thing, and a very bad thing.


Good thing: This is something very different. They are trying something radically new, and it is a radical departure from everything else today, and is definitely going to be an alternative to Smackdown vs Raw, in that it will be NOTHING like it. Which means that no one will be able to compare the two, at all. This could mean that the game could be very interesting on it's own, standing on it's own two feet in a way that cannot be compared to any other game, especially SvR. There are possibilities for this to be something very unique.

Bad thing: A LOT of the depth of wrestling games in general just got lost (since it now officially is not a wrestling game anymore but just a Street Fighter-esque game with WWE's name), and I can already feel the replay value of this slipping out of my hands like sand. 4 minute matches, traditional health bars, finishers that are essentially Street Fighter IV ultimate combos? This means that there won't be many match types, and the game will be incredibly simple and short, and just a series of fighting bouts. While it is new, it's also more Soul Caliber than Smackdown vs Raw for sure.

In the end, this game will be more like Street Fighter IV or the new Mortal Kombat, which isn't bad if you look at it like one of those. It could be a good fighter.

This means I am actually a little more excited to play the game since all comparisons to SvR is officially out the window and this has to be looked at as a fighter. However, fighters I don't enjoy as much as I do SvR, so.. yeah.

This all seriously downgrades my interest in the game, TBH.

A simplified arcade style wrestling game would have been fine. Wrestlefest for the new generation consoles. That I would have welcomed.

But everything I have just read there suggests to me something where I am going to have to do fifteen twirls with the sticks and press 65 buttons in order to pull off big moves.

Not what I wanted at all.

I'll still keep an eye on it and see when its out. But I am a lot less excited about this game now than I was.

Well, I should have clarified that there are no directional D-pad attacks like any "hadouken" type move inputs.

Just the general system of a health meter that dimishes as you get damage weakening you into a pin, a building meter to enter a finisher state (that doesn't go up and down, it only goes up as you do more damae), and then hit your finisher, or do a stored signature to counter the finisher.

I believe the game still relies on a system of grapples and strikes with analog sticks for grapples and face button for strikes however.

But more a fighting game in the sense of dimishing a health bar and short, fast battles. And super simplified controls.

Also, apparently the animations for moves are ridiculous. For instance, the Attitude Adjustment consists of a superhuman leaping jump into the air and pounding the opponent so hard into the mat that it causes sonic shockwaves and things.

Maybe another way to say it is that it's kind of like the very first Smackdown game where it was super simple and insanly fast. I recall that game also felt like a "beat them up like Tekken until you pin" game.

But yeah, I was slightly crestfallen as well when I read that matches are bouts of super moves that last for 3 minutes. To me it sounds like it's more like a refined, more fair version of Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game crossed with Smackdown for playstation 1.

Hmm, well we shall see I guess.

I do completly understand your feelings, though.

I was shocked by it, but at the same time, somewhat more intrigued by the idea of something completely different than anything else. Of course, it could still turn out to be an immense disappointment.

But it's a very unique sounding game, even if it fails.

.......Yes, so was that WWE themed driving game!

I was about to post "What WWE driving game?" but I think I remember it. Wasn't it the sponsor for SD! at one time when it used to be broadcast Saturday morning on Sky 1? Can't remember what it was called though.

Also, 3 - 5 minutes for a match is pretty long I think. On this instalment of SvR I can win a match in about 90 seconds

Yes it was, and no I can't remember the title either.

I thinkthe point is that you CAN win in 90 seconds, but don't have to. The match isn't over until you decide to pin. So you can have a long match, let the computer make a comeback, or punish the opponent. On this new game with the energy bar you will only be able to do so much damage before the match is over.

WWE Crush Hour

That's the one. Abysmal.

Can't say I ever had the pleasure of trying it.

Looked like a pile of wank though

Ever played "WWF Betrayal"?

It's that Final Fight style beat-em-up on Game Boy Color where you play as Stone Cold, Rock or Taker and beat up like a hundred referee's and security guards to "rescue" Stephanie McMahon.

Worse than Crush Hour, and most definitely the biggest piece of shit that WWE has ever had their license on, without a doubt.

Did any of you ever play Saturday Night Slam Masters? This WWE All-Stars game sounds a lot like it.