Red Hood

AEW announced today that they have partnered with Yukes, makers of WWF/E 2K series and the Geta Iwashita, director of WCW/ NWO Revenge, Wrestlemania 2000, No Mercy and Virtual Pro-Wrestling 1 & 2, to make a wrestling game based on their company. They showed footage of the game in the early stages today on YouTube


I’m extremely excited as I consider those wrestling games mentioned above to be the best ever made for the genre. They are fun, easy to play and much better than the crap that WWE has put out for the past 19 years.

The Questyen

You are aware that Yukes is responsible for most of those crap WWE games that have came out over the last 10 years right?

Red Hood

Yes. Yukes games started good and then went to shit once THQ took more control and then shit hit the fan with the move to 2K.

Mike86

I fucking hate Kenny Omega. I might be interested in the game despite of the fact that I really don’t like the AEW product. The Yukes era wrestling games were fun when done right.

Maxflier

Game looks stupid imo. Jericho looks obese.

Red Hood

The AKI series of games was like that. I believe AEW is trying to resemble that

Red Hood

Watching those videos always reminds me of how petty Eric Bischoff was that he excluded Ric Flair from the Revenge game due to their ongoing issues at the time and how the Big Show was removed from the No Mercy game as a punishment for him being overweight.

New Lurker

That AKI engine is the best engine in the history of wrestling games. It's not just nostalgia. I've popped in WCW/nWo Revenge within the last 6 months and had a blast playing it. Nothing in the past 20 years touches those engines. If they can capture that engine they are gold.

The graphics are getting a little bit of hate. But I don't get why. The best games ever were ones that didn't go for realistic replicas of the people. Take WWF Wrestlefest for example (not an AKI engine game) but they made their character models look like action figures. And lots of people love that game. Revenge / No Mercy / Virtual Pro Wrestler looked like LJN figure chunks wrapped around cardboard, but those games were fun as shit. I actually like the slightly cartoony / action figure look for character models that they're using way better.

It may be a generational thing tho. Anyone under 20 that grew up only knowing the Smackdown / Smackdown vs Raw / 2K series of games just don't understand because they didn't experience n64 wrestling games. If you're one of those people, give it a chance. Don't worry about the stylized characters, just give the game play a chance.

JasonX

My favorite wrestling game ever by a wide margin was Giant Gram 2000: All Japan Pro Wrestling 3 for the Dreamcast. That game had an intuitive yet very fun attack system, a ton of possible moves for each wrestler, an enormous roster of playable characters, an amazing create your own feature, and was just a blast to play from start to finish. I fire it up every 6 months or so. If anyone can replicate anything close to that with more modern graphics, I would buy it instantly.

fujishig

Have you guys tried Fire Pro? That's some old school fun right there with a deep CAW system.

This game is a year or so out, so I can understand the rougher graphics. I don't mind a more cartoony look because it's probably easier to make a comprehensive CAW system, but I'll wait to see what the final product looks like. A year from now the AEW roster might look a hell of a lot different. I do appreciate just how many wrestlers they involved in this promo, though, even if I will never download that casino game. Plus the references to old school games. Ken Griffey was a great game.

New Lurker

Imagine the n64 engine and having a playable Hardy Compound arena. Or The Stadium Stampede arena / Jacksonville Jaguars field with the Jaguars mascot as a playable character. Or being able to run the top rope as Rey Fenix and pull off cutters on dudes doing springboards. I know I need to temper my expectations but so much potential to finally have a fun wrestling game again.

beavis69

Jericho is obese.

I'm 100% in if it has the simplistic controls of the N64 games and I don't even watch AEW. Give me those controls and a deep CAW system.

Maxflier

I just looked up some recent pics of him and holy shit you ain't lyin'. Dude has really let himself go.

Mike86

Yeah, it feels like Jericho is just coasting along until retirement in AEW. He started fairly strong as the champion, but since losing the belt he’s been doing a lot of stupid shit, and even before then he was letting himself go as far as his physique. I once was a pretty big fan, but I’ve kind of fallen off his bandwagon.

Red Hood

I think he can still go and have a great match but he has let himself go. Is not that he's out of shape, but compare him to how Shawn Michaels, Booker T or HHH have maintained themselves fit at the same age, and you can see that he's not putting the work at the gym. His pecs will always look weird due to the pectoral injuries he's suffered throughout the years. Both Taker and Kofi have developed the same unflattering pec look because of injuries, but Jericho let himself grow a gut.

I used to be a huge fan of his, but his politics, like his stupid comment last week on Twitter, have turn me off on him.

Red Hood

As for the game, besides the active talent that AEW has, I hope that they add some playable legends like Jake Roberts, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Taz, Dusty Rhodes and other recognizable games to the roster. Sting may be available for the game as his contract with WWE is over. Maybe others like Dean Malenko, Jerry Lynn, and Nick Mondo may be added to as they work backstage for the company. Maybe wrestlers from All-Japan, New-Japan, NOAH, MLW or even IMPACT as they seem to have a good relation with those guys.

swampconcept

That game looks really cool. I got the last 3 WWE 2K games, quality went down with each release.

Red Hood

The last one is unplayable. It's why both WWE and 2K decided to take a break with the series.

fujishig

I know you know this but to clarify for others, one of the main reasons it's unplayable is because they took Yukes off of it and gave the code to Visual Concepts.

beavis69

This is all I've wanted since 2000. This looks like Wrestelmania 2000 with updated graphics. Man I hope this plays well because I am ecstatic about this footage.

Also, I actually really liked the last WWE2k game. However, one of my biggest grips is how easy it is for people to kick out of stuff, especially online. This looks to solve that like the older games did, where if you are too fatigued you are not going to kick out.

Mike86

This is finally releasing on June 29th. The fact that it’s been in development so long and is dropping so suddenly makes me wonder if it’ll be any good or if they’re just putting it out because they don’t want to delay it any longer.

rocket1312

I believe last fall was their original target but a litany of non-development related issues delayed it. At this point they just need to get it out there. If you watch AEW tv week to week, you could kind of track the behind the scenes rollercoaster based on how they would start hyping it for a few weeks and then suddenly go radio silent for weeks or months, only to pick it back up and do the whole routine again.

I have to imagine, unless they've used the delay to update it, that the game will be pretty outdated in terms of roster/wrestler appearance/storylines/etc. At this point there's almost no chance it will live up to the early hype/promise, no matter how good the game might be. I just hope it's not D.O.A. and isn't abandoned right out of the gate. The talk was that they weren't going to be doing annual releases, but instead would actively develop updates. If it doesn't do well, I'm afraid it will be one and done.

fujishig

Also they have a new show dropping in June so maybe this is to try to ride the hype train from that? Especially if Punk returns, since I believe he's still in the game.

rocket1312

Absolutely. It's also the week after Forbidden Door, so I'd expect the hype train to go into overdrive soon. I could see it launching alongside some sort of NJPW themed dlc or something.

beavis69

Still very excited about this, but trying to set my expectations low. As long as the core mechanics (grappling system, character movement, etc) are solid and the roster has at least 40 people on it I think it will be worth the price out the door. The biggest question is will this have enough support for them to actually continue to release updates. The plan was to just continually release updates rather than a whole new game. If that is the case the timeline of release won't be a huge factor.

The lack of community creation is a bummer. I guess as long as the customization is solid people will post their CAW stats online for others to replicate.