As soon as I heard about this game I was sold on the idea. I absolutely loved the WWF back in the early-mid 90s.

No game I can remember in recent times has made me literally gasp “hehe, fucking awesome”. I think I spent the first 5 hours of the game with a permanent grin on my face as I witnessed all the exaggerated, completely over the top, signature moves.

So many memorable moments in this game — the first time Hulk “hulked up” in response to being attacked, Ultimate Warrior’s insane gorilla press slam finishing move, the first time I saw Andre the Giant smack me across the ring, bounce off the ropes, catch me on the rebound and slam me into the canvas. This. is. awesome! Paul fuckin’ Bearer and the old school Undertaker.

Playing through the Fantasy Warfare mode I really enjoyed watching the video retrospectives, seeing so many of the wrestlers that didn’t even make it into this game making cameo’s the memories really came fast and hard:
– Earthquake v Jake Roberts, squashing Damien after defeating the Snake.
– Earthquake’s tag partner in the Natural Disaster’s; Typhoon and their battles with Money Inc (Debiasie and Schyster) .. Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart.
– Brutus the Barber Beefcake’s interviews
– The fucking Honky Tonk Man, Ravishing Rick Rude, the list goes on.
– Ms Elizabeth, mmmm

If you enjoyed WWF back in the 90s you owe it to yourself to buy this game, as fun as the game is the best part is the flood of nostalgia it will trigger. As a game in it’s own right I hope it’s the beginning of a series that will grow and improve rather than a 1 off. There are plenty of areas where it needs work, and so much potential. Drop the modern day wrestlers entirely for a start, they already have a game afterall. Give me a career mode where I get to re-enact the great story arcs from the late 80’s and early 90’s.

Another major gripe I have with the game is the fact that so many wrestlers have been held back as DLC 🙁

Feel’s like a promising, if limited, first entry in what could be a great series. I just hope they put a little more effort into putting the melodrama that made the WWF what is was into the game for the WWE All Stars 2. Just drooling at the though of combining archive footage of the back story behind the fights with the ability to re-enact those big events that kept me glued to the TV screen way past bedtime — before the main events went PPV anyway, couldn’t persuade the parental unit to cough up even more money to Sky 🙂

I think I need to hunt down a video compilation retelling all the stories from that era of the WWF, it must exist somewhere.