Action Arcade Wrestling 2 Review (XBLA)

[RaychelSnr]

Like a wrestler trying to learn moonsaults before he can even sell a simple punch, Action Arcade Wrestling 2 makes the mistake of attempting a grandiose feature set before it has built up the core mechanics that make a wrestling video game fun to play.

The third title from Action937, which is now a three-person development team, could have benefited from taking a John Cena-like approach to game design, simply choosing four or five ideas to focus on, then doing those four or five ideas exceptionally well.

Instead, Action Arcade Wrestling 2 has spent tremendous developmental effort packing on an arsenal of modes and features that outweighs the majority of no-budget, my-first-video-games on the Xbox Live Indie channel by a good 200 pounds.

Based on its bulky feature list alone, Action Arcade Wrestling 2 looks to be an instant champion, but as soon as the bell sounds, it reveals itself to be the video game equivalent of Mass Transit –- an amateur wrestler barely able to take care of itself in the ring, ending up a bloody, injured mess.

Read More - Action Arcade Wrestling 2 Review (XBLA)

[willh313]

Wow man that's pretty harsh considering it's a two man team that made it. I mean I have the game, and it's crashed on me once. I've seen the bugs and glitches you are talking about, but at three bucks I don't know, 4.5 is kind of overkill. It's definitely a more competent grappling game then the XBLA Fire Pro game, sans online play. Hey it's your opinion, I would have given it a 7.5 or 8 at least, especially given that it was made by such a small indie team.

[DaveDQ]

Re: Action Arcade Wrestling 2 Review (XBLA)

The point about the game incorporating too much is a very good one. Sometimes You have to look at all the things that could be done and decide to focus on what should be done.

I like that the creators had good vision, but they took on a lot and the game ends up being less polished than it could have been.

[action937]

Re: Action Arcade Wrestling 2 Review (XBLA)

Well OK then...

[snc237]

You don't rate a game better because it was made by 3 people, rate it as a game like any other. The game looked promising but I suppose the just needs to focus on gameplay instead of 80 game modes and types.

[DaveDQ]

Re: Action Arcade Wrestling 2 Review (XBLA)

You don't rate a game better because it was made by 3 people, rate it as a game like any other.

I agree. I also think it's silly how many are comparing it to WWE13. That's outrageous. I understand many are let down by the WWE games but to look at AAw as some kind of alternative is silly.

[action937]

Just a couple of comments/clarifications.
AAW is more of an alternative to a wrestlefest type game, not a sim game
It is not an XBLA game. It's an XBLIG game
You can hit the tag team partner with a variety bonus (spelling corrected in the upcoming patch)
Climbing the top turnbuckle only is a nod to the 16-bit area - SNES and Genesis.
Pressing RT focuses you towards the closest wrestler. I originally had the collision/focus as you described, but changed it as it wasn't fun with so many people in the ring
Loading times are 30 seconds or less
The matches are meant to last 5 - 10 minutes. A 30 minute match is appropriate for a sim game, not an arcade game IMO
Your opponents got up quickly because they were using a variety bonus to do so.

Thanks for the review. I'll definitely take your suggestions into future versions of the game.

[jyoung]

Re: Action Arcade Wrestling 2 Review (XBLA)

Wow man that's pretty harsh considering it's a two man team that made it. I mean I have the game, and it's crashed on me once. I've seen the bugs and glitches you are talking about, but at three bucks I don't know, 4.5 is kind of overkill. It's definitely a more competent grappling game then the XBLA Fire Pro game, sans online play. Hey it's your opinion, I would have given it a 7.5 or 8 at least, especially given that it was made by such a small indie team.

I agree that Action Arcade Wrestling 2 is more fun than the Fire Pro Avatar game that's on XBLA. I believe Glenn did the review for that one and gave it a 4/10.

For all its gameplay faults, Fire Pro XBLA at least offers online play and is a stable, bug-free product, which is why these two games ended up scoring so similarly overall.

If everything in AAW2 worked bug-free, the score would probably get bumped up into the 5 or 6 range.

Keep in mind that we rate all reviews on the same scale, regardless of how many people contributed to the making of a game. So in the review system, WWE 13 is held to the same standards as AAW2.

That said, there still have been Xbox Indie Games over the years that have scored high, such as Avatar Football (7/10), Blockey (7/10) and Fitba (7/10).

The main differences between those games and AAW2 is that they all have awesome gameplay. They also benefited from releasing without any major bugs, and in two of the three games, offering online play.

[goh]

Re: Action Arcade Wrestling 2 Review (XBLA)

Wow man that's pretty harsh considering it's a two man team that made it. I mean I have the game, and it's crashed on me once. I've seen the bugs and glitches you are talking about, but at three bucks I don't know, 4.5 is kind of overkill. It's definitely a more competent grappling game then the XBLA Fire Pro game, sans online play. Hey it's your opinion, I would have given it a 7.5 or 8 at least, especially given that it was made by such a small indie team.

While I agree with the others you shouldn't judge based on number of people that made it...

Two people made The Swapper and it's one of the best games put out this year.
One guy made Gunpoint and it's also one the best games this year.
So 3 people should be able to do better yah?

You take the game as it is and then be impressed that only a few people worked on it...IF it's good.

30 seconds or less load times? Nope.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OJzgKhS1vIQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Initial boot 0:52 to 1:38.
Getting into the match is 29 or 30 seconds.
Exiting the match is 15:04 to 15:46.
Regardless these are terrible load times for a downloadable 2D game.

[willh313]

Ok that's fine but again I think a 4.5 is a bit harsh. Look i'm not saying the games perfect, it's actually far from it...but when you mention games like Fitba and what ever that other one was where, yes they were coded by small groups but things like hundreds of animations, modes and custimization were incorporated in one product and these other products while im sure they required hard work, dont have the same level of ambition, thats not a fair comparison at all. The fact this game has more features then that console tna game alone should be recognized.

[Mikeatris]

LOL the Mass Transit line was a good one. That incident was a hot bloody mess that is almost unbearable to watch if you know the circumstances. New Jack was dead wrong even if the match was not sanctioned.

[sactown_13]

Ok that's fine but again I think a 4.5 is a bit harsh. Look i'm not saying the games perfect, it's actually far from it...but when you mention games like Fitba and what ever that other one was where, yes they were coded by small groups but things like hundreds of animations, modes and custimization were incorporated in one product and these other products while im sure they required hard work, dont have the same level of ambition, thats not a fair comparison at all. The fact this game has more features then that console tna game alone should be recognized.

it is. he mentions the variety of modes in his review. however, this game is poor. the video in the earlier post is evidence enough.

[wickedmoose]

I would have to agree that this review is a bit harsh. Yes the game has bugs, it has since been patched and works pretty well. Like a car, you have to rate a game within its own class. You can't really rate 3 dollar indie games on the same scale as full releases or even Xbox live arcade games. It's. A bit like saying that the Toyota Corolla is a complete POS because it can't take a corner at 110 MPH as well as a Ferrari. Not to mention that this game is a throwback to the classics and not a sim as stated earlier. I would give this a 7 or 8 easily when measured up against other indie games.

[action937]

Actually here are the official patch notes. A lot of them were based of off things in this review. Again, I'm just one guy making a game - no QA staff or anything. Not an excuse, just a fact.

So mentioning helpful things (like hitting multiple people at once, only climbing the top turnbuckles, the table stays on screen during a championship animation) really helps me out. So thanks for pointing some of that stuff out.


BUT I think it should be fairly noted that I can put out updates and patches based on user feedback pretty quickly. Still work to be done, but Madden, Fifa, WWE2K are careers. This is just my hobby I do after work when the kids are in bed. I kinda wish that was mentioned.

Anyway here are the patch notes. Thanks!!

*Memory leak fixed
*You can now hit multiple people in a multi-wrestler match with a strong or running strike.
*The glitch where the table cuts into a championship animation is gone
*The wrestler now reverses running strikes with an irish whip move instead of the block strike combo
*Changed the logic of how long they stay down so wrestlers don't pop up.
*Can climb the bottom turnbuckles
*The rumble glitches have been addressed
*Fixed end match freeze - I think.
*Added fast scrolling.
*Fixed blacked-out rumble wrestlers bug.
*Fixed glitch where player lost control during apron in and out
*Increased frequency of 3rd level tag team moves
*Added main menu music on/off option
*Changed logic of assigning entrance music

[wickedmoose]

I agree with everything you just said, and I appreciate your dedication and vision for this game. People need to realize that indie games are just that... Indie games. Guys doing it in their spare time and enjoying it as a hobby. Keep up the good work man. I'm loving AAW2 so far and the creation and customizing tools are excellent.