WWE SVR vs TNA Impact! vs Fire Pro Wrestling

[Kenny]

Out of the upcoming wrestling titles, which one are you most looking forward to? In your opinion, which one will be worth the money? Some are still in developement, but we have seen and heard enough about each game to take a good guess on which will be best.

Here's what I think....

1. (Best Choice) Fire Pro Wrestling Returns: Basically this game gives us the ability to create anything we want, with the exception of the 6 sided right. We can create old school WWF or WCW, old school ECW, TNA (4 sided ring), ROH, CZW, and virtually any other wrestling fed. With the patience to take the time and use our imagination, we can have basically any match that includes just about anyone. When it comes to content, this game had got it all.

2. TNA Impact!: I'm probably going to get some heat for this one, but I'm picking this over Smackdown because I'm tired of the same old thing. I'll talk about Smackdown in a minute though. Based on the gameplay footage I've seen, I'm looking forward to playing an actual match. "Wrestling" is the keyword here. "Wrestling" itself is why I would rather buy Impact than Smackdown.

3. (Worst Choice) WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 - I like high flyers. RVD is somebody I enjoy playing as. In the past 2 Smackdowns, I had a very hard time nailing a 5-Star Frog Splash. The only way I could nail it was to put somebody on a ladder or have a partner put somebody down and quickly nail one. Growing up, Bret Hart was by far my favorite wrestler. When I beat on somebodies back for 5 minutes and apply the Sharpshooter, I expect a tap out. Instead, I must do the whopping 3 or 4 moves that actually work on the legs over and over and over again. Not fun at all. I personally think Smackdown hasn't improved that much since "Shut Your Mouth." Since then we've gotten limb specific damage, an Elimination Chamber, a Buried Alive match, and a few other things. Not to mention, buy the time the actual game comes out the roster is entirely different. Atleast 1 or 2 people have jumped to TNA, 5 or 6 have been released, and there have been a few big additions to the roster. The roster is obsolete before the game even comes out. Then there are the constant music and appearance changes. I'm just done with Smackdown. I haven't even played 2007 but I've heard nothing but complaints about it anyway.

So bottom line...

FPR allows the fan to run the show and will keep me busy for quite some time. Midway is making some obvious big mistakes with Impact, but these mistakes can be forgotten quickly based on the gameplay. I have little hope for Impact, but little hope is better than no hope at all. Smackdown has let me down too many times for me to anticipate playing another. Every year fans complain about WWE video gaming going downhill since WWF No Mercy, and every year the fans are ignored and another Smackdown game comes out with almost the same issues as the last.

[U-Warrior]

Giant Douche vs Shit Sandwich vs Solid Gold Mansion filled with hot 19 year old nymphos.

[Kalyx triaD]

Don't wanna sound shallow but I can't wrap my head around Fire Pro's visuals enough to enjoy its deep gameplay. DoR2 was the perfect mix of visual/gameplay and in a post-No Mercy world I regard it as the best wrestling game of the last generation. I was crushed to learn SvR was being ported to Wii. I like the Smackdown series, but I don't think it should be the end-all wrestling game. I'm sure the AKI/Yukes DoR team could come back kick ass with a new title if THQ gave them the green light.

Nothing in TNA Impact's pics or vids gives me the impression that it will play well... did I miss something? I'd love to be as enthusiastic as you are about the game so please educate me. I'm not being sarcastic.

Perhaps if Fire Pro used prerendered high-res pieces to smoothly animate the characters I'd play it more. It doesn't have to look realistic and I'm all for expressive graphics, but I seen recent vids of it and my mind goes 'SNES'.

[Kane Knight]

I regularly finish matches in SVR with the 5-Star. Did I miss something, too?

[U-Warrior]

Don't wanna sound shallow but I can't wrap my head around Fire Pro's visuals enough to enjoy its deep gameplay. DoR2 was the perfect mix of visual/gameplay and in a post-No Mercy world I regard it as the best wrestling game of the last generation. I was crushed to learn SvR was being ported to Wii. I like the Smackdown series, but I don't think it should be the end-all wrestling game. I'm sure the AKI/Yukes DoR team could come back kick ass with a new title if THQ gave them the green light.

Nothing in TNA Impact's pics or vids gives me the impression that it will play well... did I miss something? I'd love to be as enthusiastic as you are about the game so please educate me. I'm not being sarcastic.

Perhaps if Fire Pro used prerendered high-res pieces to smoothly animate the characters I'd play it more. It doesn't have to look realistic and I'm all for expressive graphics, but I seen recent vids of it and my mind goes 'SNES'.

King of Colleseum then. But if any game in history can be used as an example of "gamplay > graphics" Firepro is at the top of the list.

[Kalyx triaD]

And Tetris for that matter, but even that game offers high-res animated backgrounds now.

[Kane Knight]

I do agree that FPW would be more enjoyable if it weren't like a two gen old sprite deal. I don't need top of the line graphics, but I would like a game where they were a bit more detailed.

Still, I dig the GBA games, and I'll surely pick this one up.

[KingofOldSchool]

I do agree that FPW would be more enjoyable if it weren't like a two gen old sprite deal. I don't need top of the line graphics, but I would like a game where they were a bit more detailed.

Still, I dig the GBA games, and I'll surely pick this one up.

Yeah and it's not like they are charging $50 for the game, heck a lot of places online are selling it for a few bucks cheaper than the $20 price point.

[U-Warrior]

And Tetris for that matter, but even that game offers high-res animated backgrounds now.

King of Colleseum. Again.

[Kane Knight]

Import only?

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>FPR is the way to go IMO. Honestly, for 2D, the graphics don't look bad at all. I can see myself spending hours creating anyone I possibly could want.

Impact just seems really bleh, but I'll give it a rent.

SVR08 looks horrible to me. Like a virtual carbon copy of SVR07. The new fighting styles are basically things we could do in the game anyway, the roster is a huge disappointment, we can't use over half the roster in season mode, and the list goes on. I'll rent it though, because I want to finally be able to use Tommy in a SD game plus I wanna check out custom themes.

The SD series has basically sucked since HCTP...the fact that I regularly played HCTP instead of the SVR versions of the game until I got a 360 speak volumes.</font>

[Kenny]

I do not think highly of the gameplay of Impact so far for several reasons. First off, the Sting vs Angle match seemed more like an X Division match than a heavyweight match. Again, I think this is only because it's an early version used simply to show off some of the moves. The health meters wore down very quickly and the wrestlers got up too fast as well. Again, I'm hoping this is all because it's an early version. With some simple tweeking I think Impact can be a great game. We also have not seen matches like King of the Mountain and Ultimate X, which may take the gaming experience up a couple of notches.

I chose Impact over Smackdown simply because I'm tired of Smackdown. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing Smackdown for the past 4 years or so. It's just that, after 4 years, I'm a little tired of the same old thing and would like to see a completely different game rather than an upgraded version of last years upgraded version.

[Destor]

SvR doesn't look to bad as far as the series goes and when the price drops out of it I'm sure I'll get it, but outside of the Day of Reckoning series I haven't been all too interested in a WWE game since no Mercy.

Imapct looks terrible.

FPR looks fantastic and I've made it well known that I'm super fucking hyped about this game.

So FPR for the win.

[DS]

Out of those games I would choose TNA. Not that I'm terribly excited about it after the 'previews' but I have no interest in Fire Pro and after playing the demo of Smackdown I think it's garbage. I wish they would do something more with the game at this point rather than just put out the same game with a new match type.

Plus, even with it's small roster size, there are more people on the TNA game I would rather play than SvR.

[Kane Knight]

I'm technically voting like Monty Brewster: None of the Above.

I like the diversity of FPW games, so I'll probably pick it up, but it's doubtful it's what I'm looking for. I hate button mashing, but I've never been excited about the "lockup" system from FPW. I like customising, but with an old, 2D, sprite system, my interest is going to be limited. And exploding (X) matches can only take me so far.

TNA looks like Piss. I don't mean bad graphics, I mean it looks like it plays bad. I might be wrong, and I try not to judge gameplay solely on videos, but I don't look forward to the game much, especially since it's from Midway.

SVR did a lot of dumb things. I don't like buying incomplete games, and that's what this looks like. When only half the characters can be used in story mode, it's incomplete. Another "major" overhaul of the system has me nonplussed. The different fighting styles are cool and all, but they do too little besides aretificially limit character abilities. Oh, yay. They do too little otherwise. I don't want to play a game where my CAWs look like piss, either. Especially when I have to create so many people to have a roster worth a fuck.

[DAMN iNATOR]

SvR doesn't look to bad as far as the series goes and when the price drops out of it I'm sure I'll get it, but outside of the Day of Reckoning series I haven't been all too interested in a WWE game since no Mercy.

Imapct looks terrible.

FPR looks fantastic and I've made it well known that I'm super fucking hyped about this game.

So FPR for the win.

A lot of people hold SvR ’06 in EXTREMELY HIGH regard, with regard to gameplay, graphics, and the season mode. Controls, not so much, but UCM in ’07 went a step towards improving that. And I see people bitch online everyday that they’re “taking out” UCM’s in ’08 in favor of better graphics, a more ambitious version of Season & GM modes (read: 24/7 Mode in ’08 if you didn’t already know that) but you know what, THQ clearly stated very early in development that the UCM’s would “evolve” for the 2008 version of the game, and that’s just what they’ve done, by incorporating fighting styles into UCM’s. And, I for one, actually like (not exactly :heart:, but like) the new control scheme because it kinda feels a bit more natural than ’07. I expect to see ’08 score at least a 8.75-9.25/10 (or whatever rating system you want to use...). I actually read the first review I’ve seen of it anywhere in the final edition of PSM, for the PS3 version...got a 9. But as of now, as far as best WWE game of the past console generation I’d have to give SvR 2006 the slightest little edge over DoR 2, not because DoR 2 sucked, very far from it. The loading times were a deal killer for me though, granted the GameCube did, obviously have very limited capabilities, technically speaking.

Also, the day that a Fire Pro or TNA Impact! wrestling video game dethrones “The Champ”, the SvR series will be the day Hell freezes over...and then some...

[Savio]

Yeah SD! has really been going down hill since SYM, I bought HCTP because that was still pretty good, and SVR06 because of the online play. but they really suck it up in the past years

[Destor]

No one is claiming FPR is going to break sales records dude. SvR will sell the most copies with out trying.

[Kane Knight]

Also, the day that a Fire Pro or TNA Impact! wrestling video game dethrones “The Champ”, the SvR series will be the day Hell freezes over...and then some...

This, if nothing else, is completely true.

Not particularly because it's good, but because people will buy it.

Next year's Madden would be a steaming pile of literal dogshit in a box, and it would outsell the competition. Same with Smackdown. Smackdown sells because it's WWE, it's the Smackdown franchise, etc.

CAW aside, Smackdown was shite early on. HCTP was the first game I liked enough to bother with, and I've only own that and 06 since the original. The gameplay improved, then tanked post-HCTP, and it looks like it's going downhill, but it'll sell nonetheless.

[Xero]

SvR - Will probably get it, but am not too excited. All the games are starting to feel the same. There's some changes here or there, but overall I still see it as a slowed down version of the original SmackDown!... In fact, I have to ask, does anyone know if they're still using the same base engine tweaked or if they made a new one with HCTP (or whichever the second SD game on PS2 was)?

TNA - Nah.

FPR - The king as far as I'm concerned. The GBA game, in my opinion, blows SvR out of the water as far as gameplay goes. For not only a sprite game, but also a 6 year old handheld game that says a lot. Graphics don't concern me hardly at all. There are very few things that bug me when it comes to them. Aside from PS1 half-sprite-looking half-3D muddy shitfests, I can enjoy almost anything as long as Gameplay is good.

Though I do believe that the 2D brings a lot to the table, since they are usually more precise than 3D graphics, especially when dealing with a wrestling game where clipping can become ridiculously noticeable. Plus the 2D helps the customization aspect instead of hurts it, especially with layering. If they released a FPW game with a system like the customizable ring but for attires, accessories and whatnot would make the game even more ultimate.

I don't think any casual fan in their right mind would get it, and frankly I wouldn't recommend it. Only if you're willing to learn an entirely new system from what you're used to and are REALLY into wrestling will you get a lot out of it. Or if you like fairly realistic gameplay.

That said, I don't think it will completely bomb and I really hope it sells enough to encourage Spike to start releasing more titles over here in the states.