WWE:13 is a game about men in tight lycra, hugging and sweating whilst a commentator layers over the action with lines like “tossing him off” and “going at it hard” (real in-game dialogue). The identikit fans in the audience produce banners from their seemingly limitless pockets, animatedly cheering along to the pantomime violence. I would call it an aesthetically pleasing, balletic display of choreographed violence; except it isn’t.
The game’s main chunk of action lies in the Attitude era, story mode. In this mode you play through the storylines of yesteryear, living through some of the finest moments from some of the most popular superstar’s careers. In this mode you have bonus objectives: like performing a jumping attack from the top rope, or hitting your opponent with a chair; basically things that happened in the actual fights when they were aired.
The bonus objectives are a nice addition, adding a layer of thought to the pretty basic combat. The problem is, it feels more than a little ironic, as the game seems stuck in the past along with its storyline. Last time I played a WWE title was about eight years ago, and it seems that the series hasn’t really gone anywhere since, other than a few changes to the control scheme.
The controls are pretty basic: one face button for strikes, one to grapple, one to irish whip etc. Holding down the grapple button performs a submission, during which you have to batter all your face buttons, which nearly broke my pad. One shoulder button makes the character run, another causes you to climb in and out of the ring or pick up weapons, and another performs a reversal. The timing window for a reversal is slight, but rhythmic taps will see you through the majority of encounters.
One thing that fans of the series will love is the amount of content packed onto the disc, as there are countless match types to sweat through. There are all the modes you expect from a wrestling game and on top of that there is a hugely comprehensive create mode, where not only can you create the gimp-like wrestler of your dreams/nightmares, but you can create whole stories to play through: controlling every aspect including creating rivalries, match types and even camera angles. There really is a lot of potential with this mode, and with the ability to share your creation/abomination online, there is a limitless pool to dip into.
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