Carrying on with the podcasts celebration of wrestling videogames, Greg takes a look at some odd choices for unlockable characters.
Unlockable characters used to be like the bread and butter of videogames. What better incentive can a game offer than to grind all those hours for you to get a treat as someone new to play as? Sadly, this staple has become a bit of a lost objective as the rise of DLC has pretty much removed the idea of needing to unlock anything. Why would developers hide treats in a game when you can pay an extra few bucks to immediately get them? The WWE 2K series is the biggest culprit in this trend as the you could grind for hours saving up the in-game currency to buy the legends or you could pay the few quid to unlock everything at once. But the big debate on ridiculous grinding and pay to win needs to be saved for another day.
Recent trends aside, wrestling games used to be the undisputed champion of offering the player rewards for investing their time into a game. When Smackdown: Here Come The Pain became the first in the series to offer a variety of legends to unlock by working your way through the career mode it was genuine joy and sense of achievement. Over the decades there have been wrestling games that have seen some rather bizarre choices as unlockable characters that in some cases are pretty cool and in others are rather questionable. In no particular order here are ten:
No 1. Fred Durst - WWF Smackdown! Just Bring It
Remember that time at Wrestlemania XIX when Limp Bizkit played a live performance and were announced as the “WWE’s favourite band in the whole world”? As cringy as that is now (and even was at the time) there was actually some truth to it. Chances are if you watch a PPV from the early 2000’s one of their songs would be the official soundtrack and of course The Undertaker used their hit track “Rollin” for his entrance theme. Both the band and WWE were at a peak of popularity in 2001 which is why it probably seemed a good idea to include Mr Red Cap himself, Fred Durst, in that year's Smackdown offering. To unlock him you had to beat 15 wrestlers in the Slobberknocker mode with the Undertaker. What was unique about his inclusion is it wasn’t a rushed job either. Durst comes with own entrance (actually one of the more cooler ones in the game) and unique character animations making him feel like a legit choice. No cheeky re-skin here! We look back on it now and see his inclusion as bizarre but actually it is more like a time capsule for a very different time.
No 2. Golden AJ Styles - WWE 2K19
Since 2K took over the series, they haven’t exactly been adventurous in the unlockables you can get your hands on. They usually play it pretty straight by giving you a host of legends or alternative versions of superstars with the latter boardering on the excessive. I understand Stone Cold was the main focus of 2K16 but did we really need five different versions of him when at least two of those could have been simply been unlockable attires? The 2K19 entry of the game came with a gruelling Towers Mode, with one of those called the “Million Dollar Tower”. As the name suggests, you could have been in with a chance of winning quite the pile of pretty pennies but everyone who did beat it unlocked a gold version of cover star AJ Styles to play as in the game. Not going to lie, once the million dollars had been claimed it is not exactly the most worthy prize for sinking all those hours into it. Especially as it looks a little creepy.
No 3. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - WWF War Zone
Although it hasn’t aged well, War Zone will forever be a key moment in WWE videogames as it was the first to bring it to the 3D space. If you look past the games incredibly clunky controls it was a massive stepping stone for future releases as it had entrances, a good selection of match types and game modes. Clearly keen to show off what they could do, developer Iguana West packed a few decent unlockables in the game. A lot of these mostly involved matching up the correct items in the character creator, a ploy many games utilised at the time. However, to unlock Iguana’s hit protagonist, Turok, you would need the use of a GameShark to enter a code. Once you had done that the 90's dinosaur hunter was avaliable to play as in game.
No 4. Pretty Much the Entire Roster - WCW/NWO Thunder
These days we somewhat take it for granted about the amount of choice we get in a roster. A main selling point of the 2K series every year is that they brag about having more choice than ever before with some of their games reaching close to a 140 playable characters. As previously mentioned, they do somewhat cheat by having a few different versions of the same wrestler (again - why so many Steves?) but at least they do include a strong list of legends as well. At least the characters make sense with their inclusion whereas the 1998 game Thunder goes very over the top with it’s unlockables. The game boasts over a 100 playable charcters which was a rarity at the time. This included pretty much the full WCW/NWO roster. So far so good. Pretty much all of the on-air personalities such as Mean Gene Oakerland and Bobby Heenan. A little strange but at least it makes sense. Then they just seem to loose their minds as they included; a cowboy, an astronaut, a robot, a starfish, a horse called Hoof Hearted and that’s just to name a few. I’ve got to admire the developers for really pushing the boat out but this boarders more on the excessive rather than being unique. Especially as the game is one of the weakest offering from a period full of classic titles.
No 5. Red & Green - WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010
Smackdown vs Raw 2010 is hands down one of the weakest in terms of unlockable characters. Previous entries in the series had been using a decent selection of legends as unlockables but for some reason they got rid of all that for this game. Dusty Rhodes, Bob Orton and Ted Dibiase are featured as unlockables but only as their then current versions because they are featured in the Road to Wrestlemania mode. The Rock is also available but I feel it is just an obligation to include him especially as the series was named after the show which was named after the catchphrase he created. The developers clearly realised they needed to place some more rewards in the game but landed on two bizarre choices. Long time players of the series will know that when you edit a move-set two generic colour models will appear on screen to display what the move is to help with seeing your options. I can just imagine the developers thought – “Hey! We’ve programmed these two models, lets just have them as playable characters.” Many games have done this before but it is just such a lazy cop out and no one is fighting with their best mate to select them as a choice.
No 6. Head - WWF Attitude
It cannot be understated how over Al Snow was for a time. After getting nowhere in WWE with a variety of gimmicks during the early 90’s he was sent on an excursion to ECW. During his time in the land of the extreme he completely reinvented himself as an un-hinged character who carried around and spoke to a polystyrene mannequin head. Crowds went nuts for it with a sea of similar heads jumping into the air when he hit the ring. On his return to WWE he upgraded the head to a plastic one with more features and the success continued. Keen to cash in on the success of this, the developers of Attitude decided to include Head as a character in the game. The model is incredibly eerie as it is just a head with hands and feet but no arms, legs or torso.
No 7. The Druid - WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011
After their bland error with Smackdown vs Raw 2010, the developers brought a decent selection of legends back in the sequel. However, that still didn’t stop them from including one odd character. The Road to Wrestlemania was an underrated gem of a mode, offering a few different story scenarios to play through. One of the scenarios in 2011, saw you going against the Undertaker and the developers leant heavily into his spooky schtick. At one point, the arena lights go into his gothic purple and the crowd is all replaced with his druids while you fight the druids as well. It is pretty damn creepy (in the right way) and upon completion of the scenario you can get that arena and the Druid as a playable character.
No 8. Yourself - WWF Wrestlemania Challenge
Just like charcter selection, it can be easy to take customization in videogames for granted. Wrestling games in particular have always been the benchmark for other games to follow in terms of custom options. These days you can make a character that looks almost exactly like you or you can create some total abomination that would make people think there is no god. Even back in the limited tech days of the 90’s it seemed like developers were keen to add that immersion of having players feel like they could become a champion. Unfortunately, they had some pretty lame work arounds for that. In Challenge, you can unlock a very generic looking character called “Yourself”. On the one hand I have to give them props for trying but really they should of just used the slot for another actually wrestler.
No 9. Ho - WWF No Mercy
I think one of the reasons the Attitude Era is so fondly remembered is because it had a truly stacked roster and it felt like everyone was over. Not a single piece of talent was wasted as they all had characters and storylines fans were invested in. One of the most over wrestlers was the Godfarther and his “associates” that escorted him to the ring. It was certainly an aspect to the gimmick that could only exist in the 90’s and wouldn’t fly today. Keen to boost up the roster and cash in on this aspect you can unlock these “associates” in the absolute classic No Mercy.
No 10. Lost in the Unknown - WWF Smackdown! Know Your Role
A very strange one this but it’s technically a 2 for 1 type scenario. Smackdown 2 is the best wrestling game on the Playstation 1 and part of the reason for that is it has a pretty strong season mode. During the mode you will occasionally encounter opponents called Unknown and after beating them you will unlock new parts and moves for create a wrestler. This is a sneaky work around to allow you to play as characters like Jerry Lawler and Andre the Giant (some assembly required of course). However, the curious case of the Unknown doesn’t end there and a bit of history is needed for this second part. Round about the time the game came out, Big Show was still signed to the company but had been sent to developmental so he could lose some weight. As such all mention of his name was removed and that included him featuring in games. That didn’t totally stop him being included in this game. On rare occasions while playing the Royal Rumble, his character model will come out and features his moves but he will be called Unknown. You can get a chance to play and win as him but it seems to be total luck as to when that can happen.
Tune in to Wednesday Night Paw this week to here all the chatter about wrestling videogames.
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