First Impressions: It really is a great idea, I just hate Insane Clown Posse. *Hides from horde of bull rushing fans*
So, we have WWE. And, uh, well, that pretty well sums up any official wrestling licenses there are these days. With Vince McHanon going out and buying up everything from ECW to WCW, there are very few places to go for video game wrestling action if you don’t want to play WWE games. At least, that was the case. Now you have EA lashing out with rappers in Def Jam Vendetta, Aki developing a cel-shaded adventure for the GameCube, and Edios hitting the Xbox and PS2 with Backyard Wrestling. Clearly, things aren’t the same way they used to be.
Edios’ title has possibly the least chance of making a successful appearance on the market, as its hard to beat Aki at their own game (the developer of both Vendetta and Ultimate Muscle for GC). They aren’t scared, however, and are coming out with a large array of deadly features that could make even the most revered wrestling developer cry and tap out of the match.
Oh oh oh the gory possibilities this game has to offer. Its enough to make me shiver thinking about how painful it could be to actually partake in these activities outside of my safe little basement. This game is for those of you who thought ECW was for the “boys” who couldn’t handle the big time. This game is for those of you who thought those in Ultimate Fighting Championship weren’t tough enough to take on the mass destruction that backyard, rule less fighting can provide.
Aside from the standard set of wrestling mainstay features, Backyard will place a few new and long overdue ones on center stage as they attempt to set things the way they should be. First would be the use of multiple tiers to a fight scene. Let’s say you hit the button combo for a leg drop from the drop. Take yourself up a story and hit it again, you’re going to execute a completely different move with more pain for the foe. Take it up another flight of stairs and you can land the killer, but beware that doing so will hurt you as well
That’s right, you can actually hurt yourself in this game if you bring the pain a little too hard for your own good. That third story DDT you just pulled off, might have knocked you out just as much as it did your opponent. So you really have to think we when you want to inflict some bodily harm, and ask yourself if your own wrestler can handle the wear and tear it leaves on the body. But really, who truly cares about damage? We all want over the top weapons for a backyard wrestling game right? We want those out of the park oddball ideas that we see in those bootlegs videos.
Fear not, when your name is Insane Clown Posse and you’re endorsing a wrestling game, you’re making sure it gets done right. Everything you could possibly have seen in any of the videos will be here, including barbed-wire bats and tack-laden tables. You can even, get ready for this, set the other guy on fire! How long have we been waiting for that? A long time, that’s how long.
There have been some sacrifices in the name of offensive gameplay, however. Namely, developer Paradox Entertainment elected to throw out defensive moves to keep players on the offensive. It has recently been stated that Paradox is now reconsidering the defensive moves and may place them back into the formula.
Graphically, in comparison to genre heavyweight Smackdown, Backyard is looking as crude as the video line it bases itself on. The character animations aren’t nearly as detailed and the frame rate looks to be a little less than what is now the standard. There’s still time for that to be fixed however, and let’s hope it is.
