WWE '12 Reviews

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I think THQ has done a great job with the latest WWE game. If there is one thing I totally dislike about this game its the fact that the controls are different from the previous game. In SVR 2011, the right analog stick was used to perform the grapple moves. In this game, they've changed that. There have also been other changes made. To make matters worse, you can't adjust it in the options. I don't like the changes they've made to getting out of an opponent's pin attempt. Used to you caould mash buttons to break a pin, but now its more like a mini-game. There is a bar that appears. You have to hold the A button & release it in a small shaded area. This takes some getting used to. Those are about the only negative things about this game.

I like the limb target system in this game. I just wish that you could target the individual legs like you can with the arms. The struggle submission system has been replaced by the Breaking Point submission, which consists of mashing buttons to get your opponent to submit. You also have the ability to perform a wake up taunt. This will cause your opponent to get up in a daze allowing to do your finisher more effectively.

As for the newest customization feature, you can now customize an arena. This feature allows you to customize the apron, the inner part of the ring, the ropes, turnbuckle pads, the mat outside the ring, the announce table, the ring posts, the barricades, & the electronic bill boards. Plus you can also decide what name plate you want to use during the character's entrance (that displays their name). I would have added the ability to customize the stage area such as the Titantron & stage decorations.

When you create a wrestler, you can choose up to four different words that the ring announcer addresses you by. This is very similar to THQ's WWE Raw 2 for Xbox. I wish they would have also used this for the play-by-play commentary name as well. I have a character that I normally create called Jack Hammer. Its cool that the ring annoucer will call him Jack Hammer as he's going out to the ring, but Michale Cole & Jerry Lawler will only address him by one of the limited names listed.

WWE Universe Mode has also been given some better features too. While I haven't played too much into this mode yet, there are some matches that are called "Today's Remarkable Match". When you play that, something will happen. This could be anything from you getting attacked by somebody after a match to an alliance being formed. You can also customize the shows that are being used by changing their logo & the name of the show. While I haven't seen it yet, I've also heard that you can customize which titles are used in Raw & Smackdown.

Road to Wrestlemania Mode is different than last year's installment. Rather than choosing one of six characters to play as, you play in three different storylines. First you play as a villan, then you play as an outsider, then as a hero. The presentation is almost like watching it on TV. The pay-per-view events now actually have a narrator that says, "WWE proudly presents (PPV name)". This is where you will also unlock various items.

This game is a must have for any wrestling fan. While it isn't controller friendly, its still worth buying because of the newer features that it has.

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I enjoy the graphics, smoothness, and the excitement of the matches, but you can read about all of that in the other reviews, and there's no sense in me repeating it. The controls are a bit of challenge for a newbie like me, but that doesn't really bother me.

What I like in particular is that there's a real sense of drama to the matches that doesn't really exist in the previous games, where there's a lot more of one wrestler (or "superstar" as the WWE calls them) dominating the other. But with WWE 12, the method of kicking out from a pin, and the way a match can seesaw back and forth, etc., creates a really compelling tension and excitement each time. I would compare it to a basketball game in which the scoring goes back and forth and one side or the other can still win all the way until the very end, as compared to football games in which the outcome is usually a foregone conclusion way before the end.

I'm also amazed at how they got the facial expressions on the wrestlers so accurately. Part of the emotion of the TV shows (the soap opera aspect, if you will) comes from the expression on the faces of the characters, which of course helps to develop those characters and make the viewer feel more involved.

All in all this game is a must-have for all fans of Raw and Smackdown.

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For this year's edition game publisher THQ drops the Smackdown Vs Raw moniker in favor of the new and simpler "WWE 12" but it's still clearly a continuation of the franchise, and I can't say that there any drastic change except perhaps the controls. Each year there are things to like and things to hate about every WWE/Smackdown Vs Raw titles, rarely do we get perfect or near perfect games (Smackdown Here Comes The Pain and Smackdown Vs Raw 2006 both come to mind as excellent wrestling games) and WWE 12 is no different. It hits and misses in some departments but it's playable and offers some WWE fun.

I like the new controls, when I first heard of them I was skeptical and thought I would hate them. They're a little hard to figure out initially but as with any games it gets easier and now they've grown on me. They pretty much ditched the previous controls and now you use A for grapples, B for strikes etc. and for the most part the controls are just fine. I can appreciate that they were trying to mix up the gameplay a little, the old controls were working fine as they were I think there should have been the option of keeping the old controls at least. The only real problem in the gameplay is probably the AI level. On Road To Wrestlemania the AI can be pretty harsh on you at times and often it's very difficult to execute a reversal. Something about the reversals is just not right with WWE 12.To make things worse, sometimes the game will indicate the need to repeatedly press the A button to regain balance but 95% of the time it never works, no matter how many times you press A. The AI beat me plenty of times and I've had to replay some matches more than I would like to admit. It's "challenging" alright but also frustrating. Graphics are excellent this year and look better than ever. The superstars, their facial expressions, the arenas and the crowds...everything looks gorgeous.

I find most of the problems with the game to be in the Road To Wrestlemania mode. First off, everything is scripted, every match has been pre-determined. You can't lose technically, because the game won't let you continue past a match until you win it OR have the outcome pre-determined that you lost. It's all about wrestling until you either win or beat your opponent enough to press Y and then a cut scene sequence is launched and all you do is watch. While you're backstage you can't run or turn the camera which makes backstage play fairly mediocre. All you do is walk slowly until you get from point A to B (and most of the time it doesn't lead to anything interesting) and sometimes you have to guess where you need to go. The backstage fights however, are fun. You unlock a lot of the roster, different suits, titles etc through the completition of the mode. Add to this the mode isn't all that long; you go on for basically a few weeks per wrestler. I remember when story mode used to be about a year long, leading up to Wrestlemania and all the Pay-Per-View events.

You get The Rock as a free downloadable character with the game already, but I feel roster isn't exactly WWE 12's strong point. There aren't as much wrestlers as I would've expected and not enough Legends and Divas unfortunately. THQ has announced some download packs for Wrestlers like Batista, Trish Stratus, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and Jerry Lawler but I feel that this is a cheap move from THQ's part and that they should have been included at least as unlockables. Why pay $59.99 and then have to pay extra for superstars that should have been included in the first place? Sad move by THQ. I've noticed that occasionally bugs will happen, but not the kind that freezes the game. It happened twice so far that an opponent performed an Irish Whip in the ring and sent me in a frozen motion in the crowd. One of these happened in an Elimination Chamber match.

I was certainly glad to see the WWE Universe mode again. In the past I would spend hours making my own scenarios in my head and executing them in WWE games. Maybe I'm one of the few who likes this mode but this helps justify my purchase of WWE 12. Create matches is still here and this year they've added create an Arena which is a very cool addition, you can build your own Arena to your liking. Create A Wrestler is for many one of the best aspects of the WWE series and it continues to be excellent here. For me, a lot of the fun is found in exhibition play with some friends defending titles and playing our favorite match types over and over. It never gets old.

The game is very fluid which is what THQ goes for, looks and feels fantastic, and it plays very much like a real wrestling match by which I mean you can interrupt finishers and grapples from another wrestler, you won't just stand there waiting like previous titles. For all its flaws, WWE 12 remains a fun and entertaining wrestling game. The in-ring action is spectacular at times and always appealing. It offers the most realistic possible WWE experience a video game can offer. It even has all the "WWE Presents..." before the PPVs adding to the realism factor. I also like the commentaries in this title. In retrospect if THQ offered a larger roster and didn't try to rip us off into buying wrestler "packs", had a better and longer Road To Wrestlemania it would've made WWE 12 a better game. For all its worth I'll give WWE 12 3-3.5/5 stars, I like the gameplay and I'll be playing and enjoying the game for some time but I think the average gamer and WWE fan should rent before buying this title at full price.

Honest reviews on WWE '12

Excellent game . My kid love it. They stay busy for hours.I would definitly recommend this game to my friends and family.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for WWE '12

The new Predator graphics engine brings the WWE franchise to a whole new level. The Road to Wrestlemania is a little weak, but the game is just pure non-stop fun. Brock Lesnar vs. The Rock. Enough said.