Welcome to Wrestling Gamers United Newsletter #364
1) Owned 2) Tax Credit Blues 3) Legends of Wrestlmania Demo Review 4) Uprising Questions
1) Owned *********** Well it took over a year but we finally got confirmation that all PWX related logos, shirt designs, slogans, etc. are now officially registered trademarks of our company. Good thing, too, because now we can finally put a stop to the multi-million dollar bootleg WGU shirt industry...
2) Tax Credit Blues ********************* You know what I hate? When you realize you dropped $20 somewhere and it's too late to go back for it. Now imagine what it feels like to realize you dropped $60,000 somewhere. That was almost the case with us. Last year I had a tax consultant look at our financial statements and he told me we were not eligible for a substantial tax credit that every other game company seems to get. Ok, I figured he was the expert. He should know, right? Well earlier this week I had another couple of tax consultants look at the issue again. Their conclusion? The first guy had his head up his ass. We WERE eligible after all. The bad news? We only have a few months before the 2007 deadline to file and we're already too late to get the credit for the 2005 or 2006 tax year. If this was America I'd sue the first guy. But this is Canada so I'm not gonna worry aboot it, eh.
3) Legends of Wrestling Demo Review *********************************** Almost all wrestling game reviews are useless. Forum reviews are generally even worse. A review should give you solid info on whether or not a game is fun and worth buying. Too often its just a stage for angry nerds or clueless "journalists". The Legends of Wrestlemania demo was released yesterday and while it's probably not too helpful to review a demo that anyone can get and play for themselves I'll give it a whirl anyway:
Angry nerds may HATE this game because: *Quicktime God of War events take your eyes off the action *Gnarly pixellated crowd at times *Too many actions depend on your position relative to groggy opponent, limiting freedom *JR and Lawler calling old Wrestlemania events? Just no. *Matches can end way too quickly and after relatively small moves. 3-4 minutes on average. *Chain sequences are often disjointed and defy common sense *It's not in Japanese
Happy Nerds may love it because: *Way easier to play than the last few Smackdown games *Roster rules all *The video hype packages before some matches look to be uber cool *Manager interference is hilariously fun to see *Classic venues and entrances look to be authentic enough *Movesets are way more authentic than the old Legends of Wrestling games
In short, it's like this: angry import nerds will hate it. Part of me certainly does. Happy nerds like those of us who still bust out Showdown and can have fun with it will probably have way more fun with this. Part of me certainly will.
Speaking of Showdown: Legends of Wrestling, this new game is so much like it in some ways its almost eerie. Circular button mashing HUD thingy when you get knocked down, timed meter presses at times, build to finisher, etc. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if you managed to find fun in Showdown and played it mainly for the roster then you'll have found your nirvana in Legends of Wrestlemania. I think it's fun enough to own based on this demo but unless the full game shows a lot more depth or features I'll probably wait until the price drops below $40 used. We're still going to be waiting for a No Mercy, Fire Pro, etc. killer though.
For me it looks fun enough and certainly meets what I was expecting. And props need to be given to Yukes for showing they can probably make any kind of wrestling game they want to.
4) Uprising Questions ********************* Continuing from last week:
Q: Where's Dre? A: Dre was the very first character ever designed for PWX but she just didn't make Uprising. We wanted to fill the small roster with fairly standard wrestler types and Dre, as currently designed, would probably feel more at home in a Def Jam game. That's not to say she won't show up shortly after the roster starts expanding, though.
Q: Where's the blood? A: No blood in Uprising, sorry.
In the meantime and in between time, that's it, another edition of Wrestling Gamers United.