Wrestlemania X8 Preview

At this year's Wrestlemania event held in Toronto, we had a chance to take a look at THQ's forthcoming WWF wrestling game for the GameCube, appropriately called Wrestlemania X8, which THQ hopes will follow in the footsteps of its Nintendo 64 WWF games. In fact, Wrestlemania X8 plays much like its predecessors with its slower pace and more methodical style of wrestling. However, fans of the Smackdown! series will find many elements of those games present in Wrestlemania X8 as well.

The change in direction for the game was somewhat expected given the change in the game's development team. This time out, Yukes, the developer behind the Smackdown! games, will replace Aki, the company that created WCW/NWO Revenge, Wrestlemania 2000, and No Mercy, as the game's developer. As a result, you'll find that the gameplay is a mix of elements from the previous WWF games as well as newer arcade-style features seen in Yukes' titles.

Basic moves will be performed by a combination of single button presses used in conjunction with a direction on the analog stick. Pressing the B button while stationary will throw punches, while pushing forward on the analog stick will trigger kicks. For some wrestlers, pressing the punch button repeatedly will yield a trademark combination such as the Rock's spit-to-the-hand combination. Anyone familiar with the Smackdown! games should be able to adjust to this element of the game right away since the timing and mechanics are essentially the same. However this may disappoint fans of the No Mercy striking system, which measured striking strength based on how long you held the button down before releasing it.

There are a few more elements in the game that have been borrowed from the Smackdown! games. The basic grappling system requires you to press the A button and a direction on the analog stick to execute a move. You won't actually lock up for a brief moment before executing a move--it happens almost immediately. If you want to throw an opponent into the ropes, you'll have to press the A and Y buttons at the same time along with a direction on the analog stick. It's an incredibly simple system, making it possible for novices to jump right in.

You'll also find something of an alternate grappling system that closely resembles No Mercy's. After knocking an opponent down, you can either pick him up regularly or pick him up and immediately go into a standing grapple. The advantage to this grappling move is that you and your opponent will be locked up for a few seconds, buying you some time to decide what move you want to use next. This can be extremely helpful, since it not only gives you a free move to execute on your opponent, but also gives you a chance to impress the crowd with a new maneuver and raise your crowd popularity meter.

The popularity meter and special move combination offer a mixture of elements from both Aki's and Yukes' games. To execute a special move, you need to charge up the crowd popularity bar located underneath your wrestler's name. Each time you execute a move, the meter will fill, and every time it fills completely, you'll be rewarded with a special move that you can execute at any time. It appears as though the crowd can become unimpressed with specific moves if you use them repeatedly, which offers an element of challenge to charging the popularity meter.

Special moves can be executed in a few different ways. You can press A and B together to perform the Stone Cold Stunner, the Pedigree, the Rock Bottom, the Olympic Slam, the Last Ride, or other moves that require an opponent to be standing. Other special moves depend on the positioning of your opponent. For example, if you're playing as The Rock, and your opponent is on the ground, you can do the People's Elbow. As Stone Cold, you can perform the Million Dollar Dream (his special move when he was managed by the Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase) when your opponent is facing the opposite direction.

To the right of the meter, you'll see a large green block that indicates your wrestler's momentum. Just as it did in the Nintendo 64 games, the momentum meter will change color to indicate if a wrestler is doing really well (shown by the color red) or if a wrestler is close to defeat (shown by the color blue). Momentum can be gained by performing a variety of maneuvers. You can use the basic assortment of punches and kicks and the usual assortment of suplexes and slams, top-rope moves, and clotheslines. You can even do rope-specific moves such as slingshots into the bottom rope, or you can use ground moves. In addition to the stomp, wrestlers can execute a number of ground maneuvers, most of which are simply submission moves. Although the submission feature wasn't actually in the version of the game we played, it looks as though it will be simple--wrestlers will simply submit after a certain amount of damage is inflicted on them, which differs from the submissions in No Mercy, which let you target specific parts of the body. In the version of the game we played, the momentum bar didn't seem to have much of an impact on the match either way--several times a wrestler with a red momentum bar was beaten quite easily--but we expect that will probably change before the game's final release.

Other than the aforementioned alternate grapple, what makes Wrestlemania X8 even a little more methodical is the reversal system, which lets almost any move in the game be reversed. By pressing the L trigger on the GameCube controller you can reverse grapple moves, and by pressing the R trigger you can reverse punches. Pressing both triggers at the same time lets you reverse special moves. Even in this early build of the game, the animation was so well done that you could get the timing of your reversals down within 15 minutes or so. However that doesn't mean you or your opponent will reverse every single punch or move that's executed. In fact, a major part of the gameplay requires you to add variation to your offensive and defensive strategies. You'll have to decide whether or not you want to go straight for the grapple or throw some punches and then shoot in. Or maybe you'd rather perform a running maneuver at your opponent so that you can take him down and get him into a lockup or a submission.

While some of what's been discussed may change before Wrestlemania X8 is released, there's no denying how impressive this early version of the game is. Unfortunately, the selectable roster featured only five wrestlers--The Rock, Kurt Angle, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and Triple H--each of which had two different costumes you could select from in the wrestler select screen by pressing the L or R trigger. The Rock was sporting his leather vest and pants as his alternate costume, while Stone Cold was wearing his "What?" shirt. Triple H donned a pair of jeans and his trademark jean jacket as his alternate outfit. For Kurt Angle and The Undertaker, the two outfits weren't much different from each other.

Yukes plans to have 42 wrestlers in the final game, which will include characters from the WCW/ECW invasion storyline, such as Rob Van Dam, Booker T, DDP, and The Hurricane, but more importantly, it will also include wrestlers from the NWO--Kevin Nash, Hollywood Hulk Hogan, and Scott Hall. Needless to say, it was quite exciting to see the wrestler select screen with so many open slots. After selecting a wrestler, the game transitioned to a matchup screen that featured pictures of the two wrestlers, competing in the match.

The build we played had only one mode--one-on-one--but of course there will be several more featured in the final version. Right now, there are plans to include 35 match types including single, tag, fatal four-way, hell in the cell, cage, TLC, and royal rumble. There will be no story mode in Wrestlemania X8; instead, a challenge mode will be offered to fill that void. The challenge mode will function much like the title mode in WWF Raw for the Xbox--you'll be able to select a wrestler and go after a particular belt. It will also have a create-a-wrestler feature that will let you create your own belt as well. Wrestlemania X8 will also include a number of different weapons you can use to attack your opponents. In addition, no fights will take place backstage or in the crowd. You'll simply be restricted to the general ring and stage area of the six arenas in the game.

As far as graphics are concerned, the game looks great. The overall look of the game is significantly a notch above that of Smackdown! Just Bring It. While most of the wrestlers didn't actually have any facial animation implemented yet, it's worth noting those that were shown. Facial expressions, such as when Triple H grimaces with each move, are coming along nicely and look as though they'll add quite a bit to the game's feel. The lighting effects shown were also particularly impressive and did an excellent job of highlighting details on the wrestlers even when you're in the default camera view. However, the engine is capable of supporting only four characters and the referee onscreen at once, so there won't be any match interference if four characters are already in the ring.

However, a four-wrestler match can be just as exciting as any other, especially if you're playing with other people in a tag match. Some tag-team special moves will require you and your tag-team partner to cooperate with each other. For example, to execute the Dudley's 3D, you'll have to position Buh Buh Ray in back of D'Von. Likewise, if you and another person are playing as the Hardy Boyz, then you'll have to work together to perform moves such as Poetry in Motion.

While Wrestlemania X8 bears much in common with Smackdown!, the pace of the game is much slower, and there are certainly times when it feels like a much different game. Reversals, along with the momentum system and the alternate grapple system, seem to add some depth to the game. Still, the version we played was only around 65 percent complete--though representatives from Yukes stated that the game was about 85 percent complete--so many of the features and gameplay tweaks hadn't been implemented yet. We'll have more on Wrestlemania X8 as its release draws near.