With it’s over-the-top characters and art style, WWE All Stars rekindles memories 
of previous exaggeratedly stylized wrestling games such as WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game and WWF In Your House. Unlike THQ‘s more realistic WWE SmackDown vs. Raw series, WWE All Stars never takes itself too seriously and maintains a more lighthearted fantasy tone much like Power Stone and NFL Blitz.
The moves themselves are extremely cartoonish, many of which will have you knocking your opponent to unrealistic heights or bludgeoning foes with rapid succession combos. It is mindless fun anyone can enjoy weather they are diehard WWE fans or just casual gamers. That being said, it should be noted that a match can be won without administering a single wrestling hold, which may turn off some hardcore fans of wrestling games such as Fire Pro Wrestling.
The roster consists of both legends from the past and current superstars, allowing for the likes of Hulk Hogan, the Macho Man, and the Ultimate Warrior to square off against John Cena, Randy Orton, and the Miz. For superstars like Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker, whose careers have flourished during both eras, current and past outfits can be unlocked as you progress through the game.
Additional characters such as the Honky Tonk Man, the Million Dollar Man and his son, current superstar Ted DiBiase, can also be downloaded. Others that will be available to download in the future include the Road Warriors, Chris Jericho and Big Bossman. And with WWE’s extensive roster through the years, there will hopefully be many more downloadable characters such as my personal favorites Razor Ramon and Diesel.
Though it doesn’t feature as many different game play modes at SmackDown vs. Raw, WWE All Stars still offers plenty of fun to satisfy gamers for hours, with seemingly limitless things to unlock the more you play. All Stars‘ create mode may not be as robust as that of the SmackDown vs. Raw games, but it still gives plenty of enjoyable options that allow you to create your own challengers. All Stars also offers online play and features modes such as, Fantasy Warfare, where current superstars can do battle with those from WWE’s past, preceded by vignette videos. A personal favorite is the Path of Champions mode, which includes a series challenges over the course of ten matches. The three story options include a quest to earn a title shot at WrestleMania against Randy Orton, an attempt to topple the Undertaker at SummerSlam and a tag team option culminating in a showdown against D-Generation X. All three are accompanied with cutscenes that are extremely well done, my favorite being one in which DX plugs the very game being played. Having played many wrestling games prior to this one, I feel that the cutscenes in the Path of Champions mode are some of the best ever, though I would prefer to see more of them here.
As fun as All Stars can be, it does seem to have a few glitches and minor drawbacks (at least the PlayStation 3 version I played did). For instance, despite the otherwise comic book-like nature of the game, the ring entrances tend to be rather brief, especially in the Path of Champions mode. And when playing as a tag team, if you skip through the entrances the wrestlers are sometimes out of sequence, with partners and opponents coming to the ring in random order. Load times tend to take too long and, for some reason, the run button often just didn’t work when I played the game. Attempting to counter moves is usually ineffective and figuring out how to administer finishing moves can be quite daunting as well. The game also tends to lock up fairly often, which can deter extended play in the future.
Despite these complaints, All Stars is a fun fighting game, especially if you’re a WWE fan. While there are better fighting games out there, this one has its own unique offerings that help redeem its flaws. All Stars definitely offers something to build another WWE video game franchise on and offers some of the most enjoyable wrestling action since the old World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling titles for Nintendo 64. Like those games from the late ’90s and early ’00s, the presentation and mannerisms of the All Stars characters are accurate caricatures. And it’s good that today’s younger WWE fans can be introduced to some of the industry’s legends in such an engaging manner.
Also, with All Stars THQ has the opportunity to please fans in two very different ways. If All Stars follows the path that the SmackDown vs. Raw series has taken, it can become the more fast-paced option, which gives SmackDown vs. Raw the chance to go back to the more methodical pace it once had, more along the lines of the Fire Pro series and the N64 favorites. But regardless of what happens with the SmackDown vs. Raw series, All Stars is definitely a unique alternative that explores the comic book aspects that have always been present in WWE programming.
WWE All Stars is available for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii and Xbox 360. Rated T. www.wweallstars.com.
Review by Jason Von Stein