I've got to admit, I've reviewed a bunch of wrestling titles and without exception, they're always deeply flawed creatures. Sometimes they've got a few bright shining jewels, but on the whole, I can't say as I've found a title I'd really recommend. Until now. First, I watch wrestling on a weekly basis, and this game is grounded in some of the most current wrestling storylines from Smackdown and RAW!.
It's old enough that you'll still see characters like Hassan, but certain dramatic events from the storyline of the show have been used to tie together not only the shows, but the first Day of Reckoning game.
Although the story mode isn't voiced, and it is played out in pretty typical fashion, it's definitely a plus point. However, every game has a heart, and this game's heart is definitely the ability to customize a character all your own. Using DoR's character creation mode, you can customize nearly anything about your character, up to and including the pitch and yaw of their eyes. Plenty of dressing options are available, including various types of pants and even full body tattooing.
Plus, once you're done with the character creation, you can create an intro for the character, either completely from scratch, or from prebuilt templates that let you use one of the WWE superstar's intros. Finally, as far as wrestling games go, DoR is beautiful to look at.
It for the most part captures faces particularly well, and the character models aren't copied duplicates of one another with various deformed bodies. Aurally there isn't much here to listen to, as the characters aren't voiced, but there are plenty of theme songs in the character creation mode, so you get a lot of choices in that respect.
Where else can two guys dressed up in tights step into a ring and perform a staged fight to the delight of millions of adoring fans? Unfortunately, there haven't been many stellar wrestling titles for the GameCube so far, which may be somewhat of a downer for Nintendo die-hards who were treated to so many fantastic wrasslin' titles on the N Fret not, though, because the GameCube finally gets the proper treatment with WWE: Day of Reckoning , easily the best wrestling game currently on the Cube.
The actual wrestling in WWE: Day of Reckoning is nicely balanced: beginners will be able to pick up and play it right off the bat, but it's also very deep, and veterans have a lot of possibilities before them. Likewise, the controls are intuitive and responsive, making it accessible to both groups.
The meat and bones is in the story mode, which lets you create a wrestler and then take him from an unknown scrub to a WWE wrestling superstar.
It's certainly serviceable, but it doesn't grant you much freedom in how you want to progress through the game. And unfortunately, many favorite wrestlers didn't make the cut in the roster, which might be a downer for die-hard fans. There are, however, several unlockable characters like Andre the Giant and Bret the Hitman Hart, which might help heal the wounds a bit.
The wrestlers themselves are strikingly similar to their real life counterparts, with both smooth animations and details. However, the audio is probably the game's low point.
While there are several worthwhile music tracks, the rest of the game is pretty bare audio-wise. There's no voice acting of any kind, so ring entrances are pretty tame - likewise, it makes the story mode a text heavy affair.
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