WWE WrestleMania XIX Review

By Julius Cruz

The game is the sequel to WWE WrestleMania X8, which came out last year (2002) on the GameCube. This game was published by THQ and developed by Yuke’s, the same team behind the SmackDown games on the PS1, and the PS2. The game featured an average number of match types and an average number of wrestlers to choose from, but the wrestlers had limited movesets (and there was a limited number of moves, to the point where some wrestlers didn’t even have their own finishers! For example, Jacqueline does a hurricanrana as her finisher, when in real life, she did a tornado DDT.) The Create-a Wrestler mode was also limited, only having a few parts for hair, tops, bottoms, and shoes (you can’t even make a barefoot wrestler, which means you can’t create an accurate Yokozuna or Jimmy Snuka) You couldn’t even make your own face! Instead, you had to choose from the faces they had available, and they only had a few. It is good for recreating some wrestlers who aren’t in the game, since their parts are in the game. For example, you can create Shawn Michaels, X-Pac, Ivory, Debra, Steven Richards, Perry Saturn, Billy Gunn, Mankind, and a few others. The main mode of the game was called Path of the Champions. You choose a belt, pick your wrestler, and win random matches on your way to face the champ, win the match, and take the title. This is also where you can unlock new wrestlers and arenas, such as Chris Benoit, Raven, Rhyno, Ric Flair, Stacy Keibler, and Vince McMahon. You can also unlock the original SmackDown arena from 1999-2001 if you beat it with The Rock. 2 other arenas, WrestleMania X7 and Royal Rumble 2001, can be unlocked by playing in all arenas and winning a 30-man Royal Rumble by yourself. Last but not least, we have the Battle of the Belts mode. There are a lot of belts in this mode, and if you win it, you get to change the outer color of the belt! You can even put that belt on the line against other players! For them, it was an OK game, but they felt like they could do better. Thus, they worked on a sequel that would be released the next year. That game would be WWE WrestleMania XIX, named after the WrestleMania that year. How did they do? Let’s find out.

+: The game now features a new match type, First Blood, although when a wrestler bleeds is completely random. The match can start and one punch is all it takes to them to bleed, while someone can get DDT’d onto a chair, get smacked in the face by weapons, and even get hit by finishers such as the Pedigree, the Sweet Chin Music, or a F5 countless times, and their face will not be covered with blood. The wrestlers also now have more moves (and on top of that, new moves have been added! Every wrestler now has their own finisher, expect for wrestlers like Stacy Keibler, Dawn Marie and Torrie Wilson, since they’re weren’t really wrestlers (expect for Torrie later on her career) The Create-a-Wrestler mode has been improved, now you can literally customize every part of your wrestler. You can now create your own face, create your entrance, choose how the AI will play with your wrestler, and choose if you’re a face or a heel. You can also now play in a King of the Ring tournament, and if you want, you can hold a tournament for a singles belt, or a tag team belt.

-: The roster, when compared to Raw 2 and HCTP, falls short. You have the usual wrestlers, such as The Rock, Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels, but it also doesn’t have Rhyno, Kevin Nash, The World’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin), Molly Holly, Ivory, Jacqueline, and Gail Kim, but it does have Chris Nowinski. The Revenge mode is a mode you will either like, or hate. If you’re expecting a season mode where you play storylines like in WWE TV, you might as well play a different game. In this mode, you choose either a WWE wrestler, or a wrestler you made yourself, and get fired by Vince McMahon. Stephanie McMahon, his daughter, offers you a contract to get back at the very man who fired you. You do this by, get this, murdering random construction workers, security guards and bikers by throwing them out a tall building, making them bleed, and having them get run over by cars. There are very difficult missions you have to do in Revenge mode, so you need a lot of patience if you want to beat it. Otherwise, get ready to rage and spike your controller.