Recently, wrestling fans that own next-generation consoles have been given two new titles from THQ: WWE Wrestlemania XIX and WWE Raw 2. Wrestlemania XIX is the sequel to last year’s WWE Wrestlemania X8. THQ and Yukes have made many improvements over X8, continue reading for a full review of WWE Wrestlemania XIX.

XIX’s control scheme is quite similar to Aki’s WWF No Mercy, for the N64. This time around, a grappling system has been added. This system consists of both weak grapple, and strong grapple. The weak grappling is intended for the beginning of a match, and as the title suggests, is much weaker than strong grappling. Strong grappling takes longer to execute, and it is much easier to reverse. Every single move in the game can be countered. To block a striking move, simply time the opponents strike by hitting the R button. Your wrestler will stop the attack from happening, and have the opportunity to attack back; the opponent can also counter your counters. The same can be done with grappling maneuvers by using the L button in place of R. You can even reverse special attacks by timing the grapple with both L&R buttons. Like last year, reversals are a huge part of Wrestlemania XIX.

Specials are one of the many changes from Wrestlemania X8. This time around, when you’re special meter is fully charged, you hit A+B and your meter lights up. The music changes to become more fluent with the match’s momentum. Another change apart from Wrestlemania X8 is the Create-A-Wrestler mode or ‘CAW’ as it is called throughout the Wrestling world. XIX is jam-packed with an incredible amount of options for you to create almost anything your heart desires. I even found a combination of outfits to create the perfect Chun-Li!

A cool new feature has been added to Wrestlemania XIX, it’s called location-specific damage. Say you work on your opponents left arm for five minutes or so. The opponent now holds his left arm, as it has become damaged. Now, when you perform a submission maneuver that strains the left arm, he will be more prone to tap out then if you were to do a submission maneuver on another part of the body. This feature, absent in X8, gives XIX a lot more depth to the Gameplay.

Now lets talk about the not so good parts of XIX’s gameplay: the Revenge mode. The revenge mode is essentially just a story mode. Now, I was excited to hear that a story mode was included in XIX, as it was absent in X8. After playing through the Revenge mode, I found it to be both frustrating and disappointing. The story of Revenge is that you (the wrestler you chose) has been kicked out of the WWE by Vince McMahon (current CEO of WWE). Stephanie McMahon (General Manager) is giving you a chance to get back in, but you must do a series of goals in order to do so. Most of these goals seem stupid and pointless (i.e. break five Wrestlemania signs before time runs out). Overall, the revenge mode is just plain terrible, and should not have been put in the game. Unfortunately, you must play through the Revenge mode to unlock special items and secret wrestlers.

Visually, Wrestlemania XIX is not the best thing the Cube has to offer, but it is pretty good. The character models look much better than they did in X8. They look a lot less ‘cartoony’ and a lot more bulky in XIX. Although some body parts still appear to go through each other when a larger wrestler is fighting a smaller wrestler, it wasn’t as bad as in X8. The backstage arenas look great, and are highly detailed with destructible environments.

In most matches, wrestlers become bloody if they take too much damage to the face. Whenever this happens, the camera zooms in on the wrestler, and facial animation occurs in reaction to the blood. Although the blood doesn’t actually drip or stain the mat, it is the first time blood has been used in a WWE game since WWF Attitude (1999).