Tom Jolliffe reviews 5 Star Wrestling…
Wrestling has been immensely popular over the last thirty years. Once a bastion of Saturday afternoon entertainment on TV during the 2-3 three channel days, it then became less sport and more entertainment focused. A living, athletic and slightly sweaty soap opera, full of drama, twists, turns and budgie smugglers. As for myself, being in my early 30’s, I’m of the generation raised on Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior and The Red Rooster (too obscure a reference?). As with any big entertainment commodity of the last 30 years, the video game tie-ins have also provided plenty of joy (at least when done right).
Once there was a time when consoles were chubbily stocked with Football games, Basketball games, Wrestling games and more. Many a company would throw their hat in the ring to try and grab a slice of the market. As things have transpired, FIFA and Pro Evo now monopolise the console football world, whilst the WWE franchise has almost had an unopposed control of the Wrestling genre in the past decade. Indie developers Serious Parody have thus, like many an indie developer, tried to sneak a few punters their way in the wrestling market.
5 Star Wrestling is billed as the Pro Evo of grappling games. A loving pastiche of the wrestling world, minus the license allowing for the real stars to appear and with a focus predominantly on gameplay and enjoyment. So have they delivered on the promise?
Well…no. 5 Star Wrestling is a game that doesn’t quite offer enough for fans. Most wrestling fans watch for the big characters. They want to see Randy Orton, The Rock, The Junkyard Dog (just me?) et al. The actual art of wrestling is a secondary thought. It’s largely about the star power rather than the suplexes. So when you load up this game and start a match, you’re left having to select “Raging” Andy Organ who passes a fleeting resemblance to Randy Orton, and has many of the same signature moves. Now of course, if the gameplay is good enough you can forgive that, just as those who once played International Superstar Soccer Deluxe were content to accept that Roberto Baggio should have actually been born Galfano.
Unfortunately here, the game isn’t good enough. It’s very easy to pick up and play thanks to a comfortable, simple and recognisable button layout. What becomes apparent though is that the game doesn’t feel ready. It’s clunky and unresponsive, and slightly buggy. Those who played Showdown: Legends Of Wrestling on the PS2 will get a familiar feeling playing 5 Star Wrestling. There’s nothing complex about the controls. In principle they have a layout and functionality that should make for a playable game, but the delivery is wide of the mark and unresponsive with poor response and collision detection.
Aside from the trouble in the gameplay department, the graphics are another point of contention. Now we’ve come to accept something of late in the last couple of console generations. Studio games offer the looks. Indie games can rarely match the eye candy factor, and thus must atone for that in the purity of their gameplay. See Minecraft is the perfect example. A game that initially looks ugly but the gameplay which eats away months, years of some of its fans through sheer addictiveness soon makes those clunky blocks look beautiful. Just ask my girlfriend who bought the game five months ago and can barely remember my name now. Often an indie game will substitute that uber-realism of the big budget studio game, with bright colours and retro looks. 5 Star is kind of an ugly game. It looks like an early PS2 game. Perhaps a more colourful, cartoony look would have benefited this. They could have pushed an arcade angle and dazzled the eye a bit more. Instead it all looks a bit lifeless. Perhaps more of the 80’s Wrestlers could have been spoofed as their garish, camp and bright costumes lend themselves to it.
The game, with its stripped down nature has limited game modes. You have a challenge mode where you can unlock arenas, costumes etc. Pretty standard but there’s not enough to maintain interest in the game should you firstly overcome the niggling gameplay.
Ultimately indie games offer you the choice to get games on a budget, as opposed to paying the forty plus quid that most studio games cost on release. 5 Star Wrestling doesn’t offer enough to make it a worthwhile purchase over the WWE games. Even if you want a simple, pick up and play retro inspired grappling game there have been a couple of reasonable offerings for the PS3 (Legends of Wrestlemania, and WWE Allstars) which you can pick up for a cheap price now. Or indeed older versions of the WWE games which remain perfectly playable and cheap.
Pros:
+ Simple control system.
Cons:
– Poor gameplay mechanics.
– Ugly graphics.
– Limited features and lifespan.
Rating: 3/10
Tom Jolliffe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5&v=ONsp_bmDYXc&feature=player_embedded
Originally published March 22, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
