Review

quote

IMPORT REVIEW: Most fans of US wrestling games simply don't understand Japanese wrestling games. While US games focus more on wrestling's superstars, their finishing moves, and raw attitude, the Japanese games are focused more on setting up matches or tournaments and diving right into the gameplay - which is usually slightly more complex than US wrestling games, for better or worse. Square's All Star Pro-Wrestling gets its complexity from slow, sluggish gameplay and an entirely different and unbearably annoying control scheme.

Once you've moved through the numerous options screens - which let you set up matches and tournament brackets, as well as choose what arena you'll wrestle in, who the referee is, and what the time limit is - the match begins with wrestler entrance sequences. These sequences are marked by heavy use of motion blur, which gives them a very surreal look. The entrances make good use of lighting effects, and they generally look neat. Once you're in the ring, the action clears up a bit on the graphical side. In the ring, all the moves are animated fairly well, and transitions between animations are smooth. The walking, however, looks stiff and unrealistic. There are some nice little graphical touches here and there. For instance, when a wrestler's head gets busted open, not only will his face become bloody but also drops of blood will occasionally drip onto the mat, where they'll stay for the rest of the match. Similar to Tekken Tag Tournament, there's a screen-capture option that lets you take a snapshot of the action and save it to your memory card. The game's sound is well executed, featuring lots of nice crowd noise and some decent announcer work. Of course, if you don't understand Japanese, most of the announcing will be completely lost.

Where the game really falls apart is in its control scheme. All Star Pro-Wrestling is controlled almost entirely using the analog sticks of the Dual Shock controller. The left stick walks you around the ring, and the different directions on the right stick are used to pull off moves. Pushing in both sticks lets you grapple with the opponent. There is an option to use the digital pad and the buttons, but this only makes the control more difficult.

If you're already well steeped in Japanese wrestling knowledge, All Star Pro-Wrestling may interest you with its real-life roster. But the shoddy control scheme and sluggish gameplay are more than enough to keep the PlayStation 2's first wrestling game from being any fun - and the game that results stands alongside Driving Emotion Type-S as another reason for Square to stay focused on its bread and butter, the RPG market.

quote

When you think of the name Square, a certain image comes to mind. For the majority of you, that image is most likely that of a role-playing game. If you're one of those types that stray from the norm, you might think of Rad Racer. But regardless of how you think of Square, you probably wouldn't exactly expect the company to develop a wrestling game. But with All Star Pro Wrestling for the PlayStation2, that's just what the company has done.

The game will contain 27 licensed Japanese wrestlers, including ex-UFC fighter, Don Frye. In many ways, the game is identical to every other Japanese wrestling game out there. Not a lot of flair, heavy on technique, and none of the showboating that makes US wrestling so popular. The main difference is in the game's control. You use the left analog stick to move your character and the right analog stick for attacks. You use the shoulder buttons for actions such as taunts. While the control scheme is interesting, the version of the game we played at the Tokyo Game Show was abysmal. The right stick didn't really add anything to the game at all.

Graphically, the game looks OK - until the wrestlers actually start moving around. The current version is severely lacking in the transitional animation department, resulting in jerky sequences of moves. Hopefully some frames will be added before the game hits Japanese shelves sometime this year. Hopefully the controls will see a lot of fine-tuning, as well, because as it stands, this game simply isn't much fun at all.

quote BILFY

Review

quote

IMPORT REVIEW: Most fans of US wrestling games simply don't understand Japanese wrestling games. While US games focus more on wrestling's superstars, their finishing moves, and raw attitude, the Japanese games are focused more on setting up matches or tournaments and diving right into the gameplay - which is usually slightly more complex than US wrestling games, for better or worse. Square's All Star Pro-Wrestling gets its complexity from slow, sluggish gameplay and an entirely different and unbearably annoying control scheme.

Once you've moved through the numerous options screens - which let you set up matches and tournament brackets, as well as choose what arena you'll wrestle in, who the referee is, and what the time limit is - the match begins with wrestler entrance sequences. These sequences are marked by heavy use of motion blur, which gives them a very surreal look. The entrances make good use of lighting effects, and they generally look neat. Once you're in the ring, the action clears up a bit on the graphical side. In the ring, all the moves are animated fairly well, and transitions between animations are smooth. The walking, however, looks stiff and unrealistic. There are some nice little graphical touches here and there. For instance, when a wrestler's head gets busted open, not only will his face become bloody but also drops of blood will occasionally drip onto the mat, where they'll stay for the rest of the match. Similar to Tekken Tag Tournament, there's a screen-capture option that lets you take a snapshot of the action and save it to your memory card. The game's sound is well executed, featuring lots of nice crowd noise and some decent announcer work. Of course, if you don't understand Japanese, most of the announcing will be completely lost.

Where the game really falls apart is in its control scheme. All Star Pro-Wrestling is controlled almost entirely using the analog sticks of the Dual Shock controller. The left stick walks you around the ring, and the different directions on the right stick are used to pull off moves. Pushing in both sticks lets you grapple with the opponent. There is an option to use the digital pad and the buttons, but this only makes the control more difficult.

If you're already well steeped in Japanese wrestling knowledge, All Star Pro-Wrestling may interest you with its real-life roster. But the shoddy control scheme and sluggish gameplay are more than enough to keep the PlayStation 2's first wrestling game from being any fun - and the game that results stands alongside Driving Emotion Type-S as another reason for Square to stay focused on its bread and butter, the RPG market.

Preview

quote

When you think of the name Square, a certain image comes to mind. For the majority of you, that image is most likely that of a role-playing game. If you're one of those types that stray from the norm, you might think of Rad Racer. But regardless of how you think of Square, you probably wouldn't exactly expect the company to develop a wrestling game. But with All Star Pro Wrestling for the PlayStation2, that's just what the company has done.

The game will contain 27 licensed Japanese wrestlers, including ex-UFC fighter, Don Frye. In many ways, the game is identical to every other Japanese wrestling game out there. Not a lot of flair, heavy on technique, and none of the showboating that makes US wrestling so popular. The main difference is in the game's control. You use the left analog stick to move your character and the right analog stick for attacks. You use the shoulder buttons for actions such as taunts. While the control scheme is interesting, the version of the game we played at the Tokyo Game Show was abysmal. The right stick didn't really add anything to the game at all.

Graphically, the game looks OK - until the wrestlers actually start moving around. The current version is severely lacking in the transitional animation department, resulting in jerky sequences of moves. Hopefully some frames will be added before the game hits Japanese shelves sometime this year. Hopefully the controls will see a lot of fine-tuning, as well, because as it stands, this game simply isn't much fun at all.

This forum is dead. But I just put that there for people. How nice am I. eh?



[size=1][color=#666666]This message was edited by BILFY on Aug 15 2003.

Im number 1

When you think of the name Square, a certain image comes to mind. For the majority of you, that image is most likely that of a role-playing game. If you're one of those types that stray from the norm, you might think of Rad Racer. But regardless of how you think of Square, you probably wouldn't exactly expect the company to develop a wrestling game. But with All Star Pro Wrestling for the PlayStation2, that's just what the company has done.

The game will contain 27 licensed Japanese wrestlers, including ex-UFC fighter, Don Frye. In many ways, the game is identical to every other Japanese wrestling game out there. Not a lot of flair, heavy on technique, and none of the showboating that makes US wrestling so popular. The main difference is in the game's control. You use the left analog stick to move your character and the right analog stick for attacks. You use the shoulder buttons for actions such as taunts. While the control scheme is interesting, the version of the game we played at the Tokyo Game Show was abysmal. The right stick didn't really add anything to the game at all.

Graphically, the game looks OK - until the wrestlers actually start moving around. The current version is severely lacking in the transitional animation department, resulting in jerky sequences of moves. Hopefully some frames will be added before the game hits Japanese shelves sometime this year. Hopefully the controls will see a lot of fine-tuning, as well, because as it stands, this game simply isn't much fun at all.


Dude this looks like a pretty mad game!!

Oh, well done!