WWE All Stars

Although WWE All Stars offers mild depth with its counter-system, it's mostly an easily accessible fighting-game meant for the nostalgic WWE-fan. One side-note: the WWE-series with oversimplified controls, faster gameplay and a catroony style turned the series around a different corner. The real WWE-fan – excluding the average gamer – might mourn over this. As a nice, quickly satisfying game, WWE All Stars is a fine and refreshing choice.

Comes into its own in multiplayer. [Issue#108, p.113]

Any wrestling fanatic worth his salt will be in as soon as he sees the roster. [May 2011, p.108]

The arcade style gameplay -as well as the few available modes- may alienate some of the franchise's old fans, but that doesn't mean WWE All Stars lacks the quality and enjoyment that define THQ's games.

This is not a game as direct and approachable as it tries to be, but it is still a very fun wrestling experience.

WWE All Stars fills a niche as a few evenings worth of entertainment. It is sort of like a Super Smash Bros. for those who know their Rick Martel's from their Mike 'The Miz' Mizanin's. It is a simple, fun brawler that is best enjoyed with a room full of lifelong wrestling fans. Whether it is worth forty pounds of your money, however, is completely down to how often you find yourself in that situation.

WWE All Stars pumps up the action and the stars of professional wrestling, delivering an entertaining experience in spite of its limitations.

The game's simplicity ends up working against it - both in the sense that it's somewhat lacking in content, and that there's really not that much to learn; after half a day's play you'll have more or less mastered everything the combat has to offer, with the exception of the elusive mechanics for reversing attacks. But despite these shortcomings, this is still the most fun WWE title that THQ has produced in quite some time.

Unquestionably, WWE All Stars features some of the most addicting arcade-style gameplay seen in any wrestling title to date. But the lack of content in some areas will leave you wanting more. And you will want more because of the fun-factor.

If you already have the 2011 edition of Smackdown vs. Raw, there is no logical reason to purchase this title, but if you are a WWE fan, you'll probably do it anyway.

A trip down wrestling's memory lane that ends up being a lot more fun than any of the more serious sims of recent years.

It's far from perfect – held back by how much is missing in far too many places – but WWE All Stars is a very welcome change and if nothing else a very encouraging base for the future, and definitely worth some of your time.

Wrestling fans will have fun when they pick this one up but I don't know how long it'll last as it's a bit shallow. On the flip side, the nuanced combat isn't going to suck in players looking for a simple, arcade experience.

WWE All Stars delivers a worthwhile mash-up of arcade styled fighting mixed with over-exaggerated versions of WWE Superstars from the past and present.

WWE All Stars has a great roster and a good arcade gameplay, the Path of Champion and fantasy battles are two poor modes. Less type of matches and limited creation mode make a good game, but incomplete.

After a few price drops and/or patches, it might be worth a look, even for people who haven't been fans of WWE since it was the World Wrestling Federation. We're hopeful that next year's attempt will be much closer in quality to Legends of Wrestlemania.

WWE All Stars is indeed much more of a caricature than Smackdown vs Raw is, but it's for the better: most of it is fun-oriented, the gameplay is dynamic and the return of old stars of the WWF is most definitely a plus. But if humor and grandeur were the orientation for the game, they could still have done more in that direction, like including crazy game modes, or an even simpler, immediately fun gameplay. It feels a little shy in that respect, compared to our imagination, but its a new franchise that we'll keep an eye on.

Sadly, for non-wrestling fans this game will be very short lived, but I'm sure dedicated fans will find hours of enjoyment if they can look past the horrific loading times. The arcade feel is a nice change from the usual simulation and aside from playing online, which suffers from some lag, local multiplayer would provide the most fun from this over the top edition to the world of wrestling games.