Smother me in oil and wrap me in spandex
Other modes within the game are most quickly found within the exhibition match section, where all your favourite WWE hunks and chicks can be found. If you want, you can put your newly created character up against them and watch them smash the hell out of him as to start with, you’re weak as a newborn baby, comparatively. Of course, the more you rumble, the better you get, gradually unlocking special moves and the like which you can then buy in the WWE shop to use in your next match.
The different wrestling matches here range from straight one on one Raw and Team tag matches through to Caged and (my personal favourite) Bra and Panty matches. The range of stars to choose from is huge with Raw and Smackdown hulks to the svelt and toned Divas and the superstar Legends. So if you fancy picking Andre the Giant and smacking The Rock around the ring, you can. Or, if the pubescent teen in you so fancies, you can throw Miss Jackie in against Stacy Keibler and see which one can whip the other’s kit off first.
But it’s once you actually get into the wrestling part of the game that things start to fall apart. Certainly, Studio Gigante have taken advantage of the X-Box’s capabilities as all the characters look the part. The animations are smooth and realistic, using motion capture for pretty much everything and the arenas themselves are well rendered and as detailed as a sheet of canvas can be. A nice touch is the faithful reproduction of each characters entrance sequence, replete with music and a video wall showing them in action as they parade down to the ring. All of this build up, whilst looking good and getting you into the over the top American style showmanship, only serves to let you down badly when you start playing the game. The problem, and it’s a big problem, is that Wrestlemania 21 just doesn’t play a good game.
