All Star Pro-Wrestling 2 Review

[Guest Grenouille]

After having my Japanese PS2 a week I got the terrific news that King of Colosseum had been delayed till December. To pass the time I decided to pick up a Puroresu game that's already out ASPW 2. After a quick order process and rip from the hands of the UPS guy, I was off to play.

 

The Good

 

-The roster is a good size of about 40 something guys to start with and more to unlock. All of the usual suspects from NJPW, NOAH and a few from Zero-One are present.

 

-The graphics are really well done. Everything looks crisp and clean without any clipping or other problems found in most wrestling games.

 

-Gameplay is pretty easy to pick, but isn't quite as easy as a No Mercy type game. I'd give at least a 1/2 hour learning curve. There is a training mode to get yourself acquainted with the controls. I'm used to moving around with the d-pad, but this uses the analog, which took me a little getting used to. Now every game I play, I reach to the analog to move people.

 

-The game has certain intangibles that I love. First of all people sell moves, unlike the Smackdown series. There's a gauge to follow to see where you're inflicting you're damage if you want to concentrate on a certain body part. There's blood in the game, which is only on the wrestler's face, but drips all over the ring and will stay there leaving the stain. The referee in the match can also be knocked around and will stay down for longer times, unlike Earl Hebner in SD who can take 5 Stunners and pop right back up.

 

The Bad

 

-There aren't that many match variances. Basically you have singles and tag. To spice it up you could make it 1st blood, 2/3, or KO only.

 

-Extremely cheap AI in most cases. I swear in some matches Mitsuharu Misawa is just unbeatable. I've had matches where I killed Misawa for 20 game minutes then he'll just burst out and reverse everything and hit a few big moves, Tiger Driver '91 and I'm done. Another instance of cheapness was a match where I beat the shit out of Takeo Omori for 15 minutes with Great Muta. I hit the mist, he falls over, and I pick him up for a powerbomb, and he reverses it into a small package for the win.

 

-People bitched that SD had a shitty career mode, well this one doesn't have one at all, but you can defend titles in exhibition which is fun when playing with friends.

 

Overall I'd give it an 8.5/10 It's a good game which still has some minor flaws. It'll keep me entertained until KOC finally comes out in December.

[Guest mesepher]

cool review man. The blood on the mat thing sounds neat. Lots of killer moves in this game??

[Guest Grenouille]

Thanks man. There are plenty of killer moves. I'd rank Kobashi's Burning Hammer as #1. seeing people getting dropped on their neck/shoulder blade looks brutal, even though it's just an animation. Tiger Driver '91 looks great too, dropping people on the back of their neck.

[Guest mesepher]

so how did you aquire this Japanese PS2, and what extra accessories do you need?

[Guest Grenouille]

I won it on e-bay. Nothing extra is needed.

 

Another observation, after beating on Mutoh for a little while, if you kick him while he's down he'll start grunting fuck every couple kicks.