This time next year will mark 10 years since this review site/blog began and the second ever review I did was the first “Wrestling Game Rundown” review… safe to say I haven’t gotten through these as quickly as I’d hoped back then! Still, I want to see if I can get through the remaining ones before we hit that milestone next year, and given its WrestleMania XL weekend right now why not get the next entry up, given it’s a WrestleMania game! XIX will forever be remembered for its frankly bizarre, almost scrolling beat ‘em-like “Revenge Mode” but what about the rest of the game? Let’s take a look!
Background:
It’s the one and only screenshot of Chris Nowinski you’ll see on this site!
WWE WrestleMania XIX was released exclusively for the GameCube on September 8th and 19th 2003 in the US and Europe respectively, with a Japanese release coming November 7th that year. After X8 was just a rushed mess, this at least starts to feel like its own thing, something that will only become more obvious as it evolves into the Day of Reckoning double bill.
As for the roster? Well, it has Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Goldberg (in his first WWE game appearance), Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, The Big Show, Kane, Booker T., Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Scott Steiner (also making his WWE game debut), Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Batista, John Cena, Randy Orton, Rob Van Dam, Edge, Christian, Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, William Regal, Goldust, Matt Hardy, Rikishi, Lance Storm, Test, The Hurricane, Chavo Guerrero, Tajiri, Trish Stratus, Victoria, Lita, Stacy Kiebler, Torrie Wilson, and Dawn Marie.
It also features the game debut of a little known star called John Cena, as well as Chris Nowinski, making his only appearance in this rundown (and first of only two game appearances anyway, I just didn’t have an original XBOX so can’t cover the RAW games…) Oh and it has a bunch of made up NPCs to unlock, but they obviously don’t count, though one of them is a new version of WCW/n.W.o Revenge classic Han Zo Mon, so hooray for that!
Gameplay:
So Lesnar threw Kane into Kurt Angle and the Ref, that’s what happened here… I was trying to get a good example of the collision detection, but… hey ho. Close enough!
Gameplay is, thankfully, an evolution from the bare-bones one featured in X8. It has a similar set up to the N64 AKI games, with a strong strike and strong grapple being based on how long you press the corresponding button, plus some basic blocking and countering with the shoulder buttons and a “Spirit meter” style health bar system, but still nothing to the level of the AKI games, which is why it feels so.. off. Not to mention the move animations lack the impact of the N64 classics, so it’s just another thing where they should’ve tried to do their own thing, really. They do add in the limb damage system, complete with wrestlers holding the injured area if its been worked on enough, so that’s good fun. It also retains the weird collision detection that was in X8, so if you suplex someone and someone else is in the way (including the ref) they’ll get hit and go flying as well, which is funny more often than not, but can be annoying sometimes. Otherwise, you have all the top rope, slingshot to the outside, ground moves, submission moves etc in there. It also has people bleeding, complete with little cutscene when it happens, and this time it wasn’t censored here in the UK! Hooray! That’s one thing it has over the latter AKI games, at least…
Triple H kills another security officer in order to “get revenge” on Vince McMahon. Seems like they’ll be a lot of family members who’ll want revenge on him more justifiably after all this…
In terms of matches, you have singles, tag, triple threat and four way, with regular, hardcore, cage, table, ladder, TLC, Hell in a Cell and Roya Rumble modes, with the King of the Ring tournament available as well. In terms of the main mode? Yeah, that would be the aforementioned “Revenge Mode”, which sees you pick a wrestler and go through a series of “missions” where you take on random thugs, security guards and construction workers in order to get “revenge” on Vince McMahon for apparently firing you. It’s so weird! Now, obviously if you’ve followed this site you’ll know another gaming marathon I did was on scrolling beat ‘em ups, so it is a fun mish-mash I’ll admit, but the WMXIX wrestling engine doesn’t really work in this kind of set up. Having to throw a certain amount of people off of a high-rise construction site is a good laugh but can be awkward to aim the Irish whip, especially with the camera, and three-on-one can get annoying even if the three are generic enemies (who all do wrestling moves as well, oddly…) and you can often knock the other two down by throwing the other one in their general direction thanks to the funny collision detection. All that being said, I can’t dislike the mode, it blends two of the my favourite game categories into one, and even if it doesn’t really do either well, it’s a good time nonetheless.
Beyond that though, that’s about it. Well, the create-a-wrestler mode is obviously back, this time complete with a rudimentary Paint tool to create you own logos and such, which is a neat idea that oddly never made it to the more popular games. There’s also a “Shopzone” to buy in-game stuff like CAW parts and such, just like No Mercy’s “Smackdown! Mall”.
Graphics and Sound:
Another great Eddie Guerrero / RVD Match… ruined by Kane.
The character models are fine, less cartoony and more detailed than X8 but also weirdly proportioned (especially Brock Lesnar!) and the arenas and lighting are all good.
Sound is fine too, no commentary and the background music during matches will eventually drive you round the bend if you don’t turn them off, but the sound effects are nice and impactful, even if the moves often don’t look like it. The striking effects are particularly funny to hear!
Thoughts Then:
What’s that? You don’t remember the Lance Storm / Hulk Hogan feud? Shame on you, it’s a classic!
As per usual with these side games I enjoyed it for a while, including playing it extensively for a couple of weeks, then when I got the next Smackdown! game for Christmas a few months later I never really touched it again. I will say I have gone back to “Revenge Mode” a few times over the years to remind myself that it was indeed a thing somehow, but either way the game didn’t really resonate with me like the N64 games that inspired it or the Smackdown! games that were their own thing being released at the time.
Thoughts Now:
Brock Lesnar takes on all comers on a car roof, which is one the less weirder set ups in the Revenge Mode, honestly…
It’s funny really because WrestleMania XIX feels very unique, not just because of the weird Revenge Mode (which yes, was still a good laugh to play) but the actual combat feels like a cross between the arcadey X8 and the slower-paced Day of Reckoning and therefore it’s quite a fresh experience. I wouldn’t say I’d play it much now, beyond the core single player mode, but I’m certainly not going to be as harsh on it as its predecessor either. It’s perfectly fine, just not much worth talking about (again, for the umpteenth time, apart from the odd single player mode!)
Hogan Reviews 