Release - Out now
RRP - £49.99
Developer - THQ
REMEMBER all the fun of the 80s and early 90s WWE fair, when Vince McMahon was a tuxedo-sporting commentator, and a wrestling plumber was not cause to rub your eyes in disbelief?
If you do, WWE Allstars is a great way to relive childhood memories of watching stars such Hulk Hogan, Sgt Slaughter and Mr Perfect.
Allstars shuns the realistic approach of the Smackdown vs. Raw games in favour of action-figure style fighters and over-the-top moves that would not look out of place in a Street Fighter game.
This is a refreshing change of pace, and the fast-paced action resembles the fun but flawed TNA Impact, with counters that require precision timing and barely any “selling” by the wrestlers of high impact moves.
Controlling your favourite Allstar is deceptively simple.
While the grapple and strike system is pretty easy to grasp, the action is so frenetic that anyone who picks up Allstars for the fist time is in for plenty of beatings before their first victory.
With grappler, high flyer, brawler and big man categories, the kind of moves that you pull off depends on your character.
This leads to some pretty impressive combinations, but while there is a control list on the pause menu, it would have been a good idea to include a full tutorial mode.
The Path of Champions to sees your character face a series of opponents to get to the final “boss” match
The cut scenes all nice, but do not hide the fact that this is essentially a string of exhibition matches.
However, it is the Fantasy Warfare mode that really impresses, with its “what-if” match ups and brilliantly-constructed videos, introducing both current and legendary performers.
This certainly makes the matches feel special, and urges you on to unlock hidden extras.
However, one issue with Allstars is that once the secret characters and costumes are unlocked, the one player experience will likely diminish.
In game graphics are well done, character animation is crisp, there are no major glitches, and the cartoony graphic style certainly reflects Allstars’ fresh approach.
The overall presentation is exactly what you expect a game from endorsed by the super slick WWE organisation to be.
In short, beat ‘em up and wrestling game fans looking for a different take on combat will enjoy what WWE Allstars has to offer.
RATING 7.5/10