Modern wrestling game recommendations?

[Az]

A while back I picked up the two Aki WWF games for N64, neither of which I had ever played before since I never owned a N64 back when it was current. Both of 'em are great (of course) and led me to get back into the two previous WCW games, then I got the wrestling bug and dug into a few PS1 and arcade wrestling games I hadn't played in years.

Even though I played and enjoyed quite a few games in this genre I haven't played or owned any of them that are even remotely new. With the exception of Fire Pro Returns on PS2 the last wrestling games I bought were NJPW Toukon Retsuden 4 and WWF Royal Rumble on Dreamcast, both of which are damn near 16 years old. Is there anything on a post-Dreamcast console worth playing?

I played a demo of WWE All-Stars which seemed to be alright for an arcade-style game, afterwards I found a used 360 copy of it for $15 and I am currently waiting on it to arrive. I picked up AAA Lucha Libre for $9 digitally on XBL (which as a side note is virtually the *only* digital game I've seen that has the price marked down properly to reflect it's brick and mortar price. There are still 360 launch titles with $30+ digital price tags.) I really, really wanted to like this game but have absolutely zero desire to play it anymore now that I've managed to unlock the entire roster which stupidly had half the characters hidden at the start. Even though I could rant for hours about the flaws in this game I can look over most of them because I really enjoy certain aspects, but the AI is a complete bastard and the counter/reversal system is broken beyond belief due to it.

I've been thinking of picking up Legends of Wrestlemania, which goes extremely cheap, but if my impressions of regular grapples and other stuff being a constant QTE-fest is correct I know I'd hate it. I much prefer an arcade-style game over a pure wrestling sim but QTEs sure ain't my cup of tea.

Anyone have any ideas, either domestic or import? What about even Galactic Wrestling featuring Ultimate MUSCLE on PS2?

[celerystalker]

I had some fun with Wrestle Kingdom on 360 if you're into the puro scene. It has most of the mid-2000s AJPW, NJPW, and NOAH rosters and plays a bit like the Aki games. I wrote some more thoughts on it in another thread here:

http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?172286-Opinions-on-poorly-documented-imports/page5

I've tinkered a bit with some of the newer WWE games, but for whatever reason they didn't resonate with me as much, so a little over a year ago I bought a WWF Wrestlefest pcb. Those Muscle/Kinnikuman games are kinda fun for the Gamecube and such. The old ones, though... Dirty Challenger on SNES might be one of the worst wrestling games I've ever played.

[BlastProcessing402]

The Ultimate MUSCLE game was developed by AKI, who also developed the good N64 games, but it doesn't really play like them. It can still be fun but I'd look elsewhere. They also developed a couple of Def Jam games, but again, not bad, but not really "wrestling".

Legends of WM does play completely differently. Not really QTE, but I can see how screenshots would give that impression. It's probably not what you're looking for still. If you do get it, you can "import" most of the SDvsR2009 into the game if you have a save file for that game on your system, but I think most of us would have rather had it the other way around.

The TNA Impact game is pretty much the exact same game as that Lucha one, cannot recommend it unless you really liked that one, which it seems you didn't, (and I don't blame you).

Supposedly WWE 2K17 actually plays better than most of the recent WWE games, but I haven't played it yet, just heard that the timing is better now, so guys aren't just popping up after big moves and stuff. But if you prefer "arcadey" style that might be a bad thing, but then really any of the WWE yearly games for the last decade or so should be okay, bugs aside. A few got pretty buggy in the transition from the Smackdown vs Raw to 'year to 2Kyear.

[theclaw]

WWE 2K17, hmm... I should look into that. For the most part I liked 2K16 aside from QTEs. (never got around to trying to disable them)
Much larger roster over 2K15, and less glitchy than 2K14.

I'll admit I have nostalgia for Wrestlemania XIX, not that I'd want to play it now having been spoiled by newer games.
The fun yet awkward beat em up mode is unlike any other 3D wrestling game I can name.

[The S]

I've tinkered a bit with some of the newer WWE games, but for whatever reason they didn't resonate with me as much, so a little over a year ago I bought a WWF Wrestlefest pcb. Those Muscle/Kinnikuman games are kinda fun for the Gamecube and such. The old ones, though... Dirty Challenger on SNES might be one of the worst wrestling games I've ever played.

I miss the hell out of those Kinnikuman games like the Gamecube and PS2 versions. It sucks that we missed out on those for a whole generation now.

[BlastProcessing402]

I bought the PS4 2k17 after previously being on 360 for my 'rassling verisions. Wish I hadn't. So many modes and setting that have been standardized for about half a decade on the last gen versions just aren't there on today's.

Want an elimination style triple thread or fatal four way? Can't. Want a 3 on one handicap no tag? Can't. Want to turn off count outs on any match type that has it by default. Can't.

Fuck off, Yuke's if you'd had next gen 2k15 in this state it would be incompetent. On your third revision 2 years later, it's inexcusable.

[Kat]

M.U.S.C.L.E. for Nintendo Entertainment Syste- oh wait, wrong console.

[nildem]

If you own a Windows PC, Pro Wrestling X is supposedly an attempt to emulate the feel of the Aki developed N64 wrestling games. It's currently in Early Access, but the price ($9.99) and system requirements both seem very reasonable.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/297310/