WWE ’13 – VIDEO GAME REVIEW – Brock Lesnar, CM Punk,Triple H, Shawn Michaels & More

By Geno McGahee

I have been a huge fan of professional wrestling video games since I was a kid. I played “PRO WRESTLING” for the original Nintendo 8 bit system, played ROYAL RUMLE for the SNES and found pure gold with the N64 THQ entries, with nothing being able to top WRESTLEMANIA 2000.

The games of this genre that have made their way to the more advanced systems have failed to compare to WM 2000, but there is certainly a game that can argue a good case. WWE ’13 is a new entry by THQ, available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, and it has many bells and whistles sure to satisfy every wrestling and video game fan.

Immediately, although many you have to unlock, you will see a huge roster of wrestlers, which includes CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, The Rock, The Miz & many more. Grapplers from the 1990s or “Attitude Era” are also featured, which includes “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Mankind, The Rock and every other big name of that time. You can’t help but to be impressed by the amount of wrestlers featured in this game.

THE ATTITUDE ERA – I began by playing this portion of the game, which features a campaign for you to complete in the 1990s, reliving that era. There are things you need to accomplish, all of which are based on storylines and occurrences from that time. I liked the gameplay. As Shawn Michaels, you will see how they captured his speed and agility. If you play as Kane, you will see how they captured his power style. They were very meticulous in the creation.

The controls are rather easy to get used to. After a match or two, I began winning with regularity. The graphics and animations are amazing and there isn’t that big pause for loading times that used to drive me crazy with other wrestling entries. This game moves along really well.

There is a career mode called “WWE UNIVERSE 3.0,” that is a lot of fun and is very reminiscent to the ones that came before it. It has been enhanced and is much smarter, moving along based on not only victories or defeats, but even small decisions.

The options here are too many to mention and the presentation is amazing. The minute I began playing, I was hooked. This game mixes some of the old with the new. There is a WRESTLEMANIA 2000 sort of feel to it, but it offers many more options that you will have fun exploring. There is a great deal to this game.

WWE ’13 is a really fun game and a vast improvement on the recent wrestling games that have been released. There is so much to this game that you will find yourself extremely busy, playing and unlocking things. It’s user friendly, fun, and deep. I highly recommend this game. It’s a blast!