a bit tad slower
User Rating: 8.1 | WWE WrestleMania XIX GC
Right from the get-go you’ll notice a much slower pace of gameplay. The second biggest change noticeable was the addition of weak and strong grapples determined by the amount of pressure applied to the A button. With those two big changes alone you can tell the developers were going for more of an AKI-oriented gameplay system. Other changes made were wrestlers getting worn down after taking a lot of damage. The wrestlers will be rather sluggish to maneuver around the ring, and slower to get up from falls or even moves they perform like suplexes and piledrivers. After a while this aspect gets annoying, because with all the time spent getting the recuperating wrestler back on their feet, don’t be surprised to see their opponent get back up and do a move before your character is back to his senses. Yes, the old AKI engine had this too, but their way of countering the opposing wrestler doing a move too soon to you is by holding the R button as you get up so you can do a quick evasive roll or counterstrike! That one vital control is absent in XIX, and the consequences got on my nerves way too fast. Hell, Legends of Wrestling 2 had that feature in it, and I have no idea why Yukes omitted it here.
