Wrestlemania 21 (Xbox)

I could go on and on about other legends that aren't on there...


Not as bad as people make it out to be   May 27, 2005
Pete H
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I read a lot of reviews on Amazon.com that gave this game really low marks, I think this was unjustified.

While Wrestlemania 21 isn't the greatest wwrestling game out there it is far from the worst. People need to accept we are not going to get another Wrestlemania 2000 or No Mercy like we had back in the day on the N64. New programmers are working on WWE games now and are trying new things.

While this game maybe isn't as polished as it could have been, its a definate step uo from Raw and Raw 2. My only real problem with the game is the basic create-a-wrestler mode. Other than that the matches are fun to play and there is a decent amount of wrestlers availble to choose from.

Wrestlemania 21 has some great ideas and really good graphics. You have to remember this is the first wrestling game released by this company so they were bound to make mistakes. If I sequal is made and the mistakes are corrected then a really good wrestling game can come out of this.


The most disappointing wrestling game of recent memory   June 6, 2005
J. Boothman (Yorkshire, England)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

The XBox has not really held any amazing wrestling games in it's history. The first Raw game was pretty poor. The second one was an improvement, with a pretty cedent Creat-A-Wrestler (CAW) mode, and an alright Season mode, but it was still too slow, and paled in comparison to Here Comes The Pain (released at the same time, and still, in my opinion, the definitive wrestling game). After THQ, however, dropped their original developer, and moved onto Studio Gigante, things looked like they were going to get better. Unfortunately, they didn't

I'm going to start with the plus points. The game has sped up A LOT. Whilst it's not quite at the speed of the PS2 games, the sluggish pace of the Raw titles is now gone, replaced with much smoother action, and the reactions from basic attacks do look realistic now.

Unfortunately, this review only allows me 1000 words, and the good points are now pretty minor and are overshadowed by the bad.

The Season mode is poor, even worse than the SmackDown! VS Raw one. I absolutely love Season modes on wrestling, and was overwhelmed at Here Comes The Pain, but, if you thought SVR was simplified, wait until you see this. You can play as your created characters, and if you end up in a Tag match, with a real Superstar, you can't control them when they're tagged in, but that's not the worst bit. They only scripted the Season mode for one possibility, and that's you winning every match. If you lose a match, the game doesn't adapt to fit that. Instead, you have to play the match again, until you win.

At the end of every match, there is usually a replay. These, however, are poor. In one of the most exciting matches I played (within the 2 days before I sod the game), there were quite a few cool looking moments. Then the replay showed a pretty weak punch that wasn't really a highlight. It's dodgy to say the least.

The game is also quite glitchy. At one point, all the music on the title screens stopped playing, and on the CAW move selection screen, the demonstration screen kept on jerking.

Finally, stipulations such as Hell In A Cell and Cage cannot be played in Triple Threat and Fatal 4-Way matches, need I say more.

Wrestlemania 21 is one of the most disappointing wrestling games I have ever played, even more so than Raw 2. Studio Gigante have certainly improved the pace of the matches, but they should take note from a lot of the things that Jakks have done with the SmackDown! series. Also, why should XBox get less modes than the PS2 games. PS2 may sell more, but if XBox started to get the Elimination Chamber on their games as well, it wouldn't really be a bad thing. If you've got an XBOX, this may well be the best wrestling game you can get, but if you've got a PS2, forget the XBox games, and go staright for Here Comes The Pain or SVR.


Could have been so much more....   March 15, 2006
Finlay Meldrum (Kirriemuir)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

To be honest I was a bit put out with the reviews of Wrestlemania 21 when I first saw them,considering it got alot of good reviews in the preview codes. It was when I first played the game that I saw what the quibbles were all about,the countering system is a good idea but you need ninja reflexes to get them to work properly,also there is a few cases of glitching when moves off turnbuckles etc dont connect when they clearly should. For me the season mode is the weakest part by far in the sence that its over before it really starts,once you win a title you cant defend it like you can in smackdown and once both titles are yours,say goodbye to season mode cos thats you done which is short comings compared to the smackdown games,even the 1st one on the PS1's season was longer. The plus points are the variety of matches you can play which are still less than smackdown but a massive improvement on RAW2 and the graphics are really good but even with these improvements the feeling of "where's the game to go with it" remains as it is essentially shallow in comparison with other wrestling games. The final thing i'll mention is the online options sound good, and im sure they are if there is anyone online to play against I've had x-box live since the start of the year and not once been able to play against anyone. All in all if you have an x-box and want a wrestling game then this is the best of the bunch,but even that isnt really saying anything which is a shame as a wrestling game such as Smackdown would be amazing having the extra graphics boost the x-box can give it. Here's hoping for something special real soon.


WM21 - UKRockers Review   May 28, 2005
Mr. J. Jarvis
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Hello there,

UKRockers are a UK Based clan and we have tested this game online and offline and here is our reivew on the game.

The game is very good online even though lots of sites didn't give it the best rating but we find it very good no lag and loads of stuff to do online and it is alot better then the RAW series on XBOX and it plays almost like SmackDown Vs Raw on the PS2...

You can create Championships online which are titles which can be won by anyone so you can create a belt and you can lose it and have to win it back ... UKRockers have Created a few titles and try and get those it wont be easy from us.

There is Legends to unlock and to play online , loads of arenas and a very good soundtrack to the game..

If you liked the older WWE/F games on the N64 like WM and No Mercy you will like this because it has the same type of Controls.

There is lots of game modes aswell online and it hosts up to 4 players and a very good bonus you can have 2 players on one XBOX which you can have Two Profiles / GamerTags playing online at once...

RATING:

UKRockers - 7/10