WWE Wrestlemania X8 - Gamecube

Wrestlemania X8 by THQ If you've ever wanted to step between the ropes of a WWE wrestling ring and take on the likes of The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker and any other wrestler on the WWE roster, then look no further. The game is simplicity itself. Climb into the ring, wrestle, and hopefully beat your opponent. Then take all the adulation from your adoring public. You get to choose what belt you go after from the European Championship righ through to the Undisputed WWE Championship and others in between. There are, inevitably, multi-player modes and this part of the game is what will give its longevity. When we played, it's good to play against another player, but our favourite part was as a tage team Hell In A Cell match with two players on the same side. There are a lot of various matches that you will see at a WWE event - Hell In A Cell, Cage Match, Ladder Match, TLC (Table, Ladders and Chairs) etc. The control system is easy to learn with one button for each action - punch, kick, grapple etc. The only gripe is the finishing moves where you need to press the A + B buttons at the same time. All the wrestlers entrances have been lovingly recreated. The problem with this part of the game is that some wrestlers entrance music has been changed, most notably for me was Booker T's music. The Hurricane's entrance is great, but my gripe on this is his cape - it looks like it has had too much starch put into it. It's as stiff as a Big Show match! The game plays extremely well as long as you are in a one-on-one match or a tag team match. Where this game falls flat is when you are in a Triple Threat or Fatal Four Way match as all the opponents just seem to pick on your character rather than take more notice of their own surrouindings. The graphics in Wrestlemania X8 are very solid and each character looks like the wrestler you have chosen. The only problem with the graphics I found were on the entrances. The pyrotechnics for the wrestlers entrances could have looked more impressive - they just don't look like fireworks being shot towards the roof. The other fault - and this is only a minor one - is if you choose to play as The Hurricane or Mighty Molly. When they walk down to the ring both their capes look like they have been washed with too much starch. These characters capes are so stiff and immobile - I could not imagine Superman or Batman with a cape so rigid. These capes could look a lot more natural, but as I said these are minor faults and they do not detract from the game. The sound in Wrestlemania X8 is very good - as punches, kicks, and slams are well represented. If a wrestler hits an opponent below the belt, you hear a bell sound which, for the first few times is quite funny, but after a few times you don't take much notice of it. Most of the wrestlers ring music has been recreated which is a bonus, but not all of the wrestlers have their official music. The wrestlers whose music has not been used are all of the nWo (Hogan, Hall, and Nash) and Booker T. When I first chose these wrestlers I was very disappointed that their music was not in the game. There is no commentary during the matches, which I believe that if you are trying to represent a sports event then you should have some form of commentary. I just could not imagine a football or basketball game without any. My other gripe in the sound is the in-game music which is just too cheesy for my liking, bot do not feel put off by this - just turn the in-game sound off. I do not know if you need to be a WWE fan to enjoy this game, as I have been watching wrestling since I was a kid (about 4-5 years old) and I have been watching WWE in all it's guises since 1986, but I would say it definitely helps to be familiar with the different Superstars moves and entrances. As a game overall, I would definitely recommend Wrestlemania X8 if you're a wrestling fan or if you're after a different kind of beat-em-up. The advantage over other beat-em-ups is that you only need to remember the one set of moves to play all the characters so there are no endless button combinations to remember if you fancy a change from playing your favourite character... so that's a good thing! When you have read about the negative points I highlighted, please don't let that put you off playing this game, especially if you own a Gamecube and enjoy all the weekly shenanigans that happen every week on Raw and Smackdown. Now, can you dig that, sucka?! Overall - 86% - Reviewer - Matt Jackson