Favourite Games of 2013: Number 10 - WWE 2k14

(PS3, Xbox 360)

I do not really watch wrestling anymore and WWE 13 was the first wrestling game I owned since Smackdown vs. Raw 2006.  The reason for wanting WWE 13 was to play the games main mode: The Attitude Era, a playable homage to a time when I watched wrestling with a religious passion.   Every Friday night (as it was for us here in the UK) I would frantically change the channel between Sky Sports and TNT to watch Monday Raw and Monday Nitro respectively.

In WWE 2K14, Yukes used the same formula in this year’s version to celebrate the upcoming 30 years of the greatest sports entertainment spectacle of them all WRESTLEMANIA!!!  As WWE’s marketing team would have you believe is the wrestling, or sports entertainment, version of the Superbowl (for American viewers) or the World Cup (for the rest of the world).

I really enjoyed the Attitude Era mode in WWE 13 and many happy memories of gleeful nostalgia were relived through the Attitude Era mode – reliving some great times such as The Rock pinning Mankind with the aid of a forklift to win the WWE/F title in a no holds barred match in an empty arena.

Yukes WWE 2K14 version of the Attitude Era mode is called ‘30 Years of Wrestlemania’ – which is, you guessed it, a host of playable matches from Wrestlemania I through XXIX.  Now, I only watched wrestling during the attitude era and a little beyond, so unlike last year’s Attitude mode a lot of it I was never a fan of during the time before and after a certain period.

It was fun to playthrough famous moments I was never witness to when they originally aired like Hulk Hogan body slamming Andrea the Giant or learning of the feud between Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior, the Hulkamania vs. the power of the Warrior, at Wrestlemania VI.

The mode also allowed me to relive the first Wrestlemania I ever watched (Wrestlemania XIV) and playthrough one of my most favourite matches of all time, Kane vs. the Undertaker, although I was a little disappointed more historical objectives were not included when compared to other matches available in the mode.

30 Years of Wrestlemania mode also gave me the opportunity to playthrough some big Wrestlemania moments after I stopped watching the show.   I was able to live through moments like a grief stricken Shawn Michaels mouthing the words ‘I’m sorry’ to Ric Flair just before superkicking him into retirement; or the same thing happening to Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XVI as he puts his career on the line in an effort to defeat The Undertakers Wrestemania winning streak and of course, that grueling Hell in a Cell match with the Triple H vs. The Undertaker alongside Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee.

All in all, I had a blast with WWE 2K14 and I hope they continue this trend with future releases, but PLEASE Yukes, a new engine is needed for the next generation of consoles with better collision detection for weapons, the amount of times I would attempt to hit someone with a weapon and it would not register could verge on the infinite, which made that classic Wrestlemania X ladder match just an agonising disappointment to play.

Here’s to high hopes and future ideas, I cannot wait to see what is in store for the new generation of consoles and the vault of historical wrestling content that could be released in future titles.