Im just gonna call this one early...EA will pick up the WWE license once these guys fold. They already went in on the UFC license and with the Fight Night editor I could see create a character being worth something in terms of making good looking characters. The problem is will they get that wrestling is about 3 stage movement which is
- the tie up position
- the lift or dropping movement
- the fall positions
THQ has been animating the whole damned move for everything and it ends up creating a lot of canned and redundant counters (if any). The truth is every tie up has a list of counters depending on your style For Example:
Hammerlock tie up would be countered by shooters with a squat and pull of the opponents leg to trip them while a technician would likely counter it into a top wrist lock
... and at any stage of the move there is a counter for each part you go through. Shooters counter more at the tie up, technicians more during the lift (along with power and brawler types), and luchas tend to counter a lot during the drop and sometimes during the lift. On top of that each type of wrestler counters differently in any of those than the others and if you made the game a long string of position based sequences each new positions has its own tree of possible counters on it for each wrestler style. Its all really organized and easy to manage this way.
If they do each move as a 3 stage set it means the move can be countered differently at any stage and honestly mash and hope for counters is BS. It should be a stamina burn or meter burn option to make it a risk reward sentiment. There are a lot of factors that need to be involved to create an accurate wrestling game experience thats fast, technical, and new every time you play it and NONE of them have been addressed due to THQ phoning it in on the license for over a decade. Plus if moves are designed in 3 stages we can FINALLY get a real create a move option as we could choose our setup position, the lift or drop style, and our landing style on any move. What we have now is create a spot because stringing together multiple moves is a highspot and NOT a finisher. Create a submission is a whole other beast to come up with later on.
Im done ranting on wrestling games I guess. Its just I am a major fan of wrestling games since the old No Mercy days were so good to me in High School and since I was a wrestler at one point. Heaven help me if I ever get the chance I want to work on a wrestling game in some point in my career.