The first one showed promise. This one was just awful, almost painful.
Here’s why:
First off the play control in the first one was overly simplified, but responsive enough. This time around it feels “sluggish, like a wet sponge”. Everything was terribly slow to respond and on top of the that there were times it seemed as though the controller input was actually being ignored. Move sets remained largely unchanged and so did the execution of these moves. They revamped the special system and made it almost too complicated. Also, the grapple counter system was revamped as well making it far more obnoxious. At all difficulty levels the AI can almost effortlessly reverse your moves at every attempt. This is quite annoying, especially when you’re new.
On top of all of this the simple brawler tournament format from EVERY WRESTLING GAME EVER CREATED! Now it’s a series of tutorial-esque challenges per level and only one actual wrestling match. For example you have matches you MUST win by submission, KO, or Pin, and only one of the three. There are others where you have to perform X number of reversals, or score a certain amount of damage using striking or slams. It’s pretty annoying since even if you win the match if you do not meet these requirements you lose.
The premise of the game itself is equally unimaginative. Apparently the Insane Clown Posse decided to throw their weight into the development process. They announce that the Dark Carnival is coming to some fictitious town where your created wrestler lives. The “tournament” you’re fighting through is to guarantee your character a spot in the Dark Carnival wrestling matches.
The backgrounds are one of the only salvageable points in this title. They’re good enough with more potential for destruction and violence and even a few extra spots for different tiers to perform elevated slams. Now the main issue is that the backgrounds are still largely void of moveable objects so you still can’t set up a lot the crazy stunts we all really want to see. There are some new, and better items to use as weapons. The backgrounds also feature a new mode of interaction. Instead of merely slamming people through objects or the occasional well placed drop through a table or something there are now interactive animations. For certain items, deep fryers in a fast food grease pit or the office windows, you can now press a button and trigger an animation in which that object is now used as part of a brutal assault. Sadly, this can be reversed. It’s another of those “close but not quite” pieces.
The cast of characters is the only thing that wasn’t totally slaughtered from the first game to the second. The game includes some of BYW favorites and more of the…um, colorful piece of white trash-I mean characters from ICP’s JCW franchise. There isn’t much else to say about that because the move sets are no different. As a matter of fact aside from a few being renamed you can count the newly added moves on your fingers and still have enough left over to count Lindsey Lohan’s stupid, career killing, personal life screw-ups. There’s nothing spectacular here so I’m going to stop taking about it.
The soundtrack is also fairly admirable. There’s more great metal that would have been a perfect compliment to the butt kicking you should have been able to do. Either way, since you don’t actually get to do enough but kicking it’s another pointless coat of polish on an inexcusable turd.
In summation, this crap-tacular game isn’t worth it, at all. The idea to revamp the game’s formulae was a decision that has more than likely destroyed the series. Only the hardest of hardcore ICP fans could possibly find ANYTHING to enjoy in this game. Then again, they enjoy everything ICP is in anyway.