Don’t get me wrong there are substantial improvements, both graphical and game play-wise. You may find that the game is one of the better in the wrestling genre, but if you were to compare it to any other genre of video game you would come up short.

The graphics in this installment have been greatly improved. For most, the characters look very much like their real-life counter parts. The have added a significant amount of detail to the geometry defining the wrestlers muscles and have greatly improved their animations. Don’t expect to see ugly deformations or texture stretching in the shoulder or armpit area when a character raises his arms above his head. That particular problem is apparently a thing of the Raw past. Though the game has been improved in some areas of animation, there are still some areas that contain oddities.

The most obvious is how the characters interact with each other. This is totally the fault of the sorry collision implementation, but it has a negative impact on the visual realism of the game as well. It does not happen every time, but there are often instances when performing a grapple move that the characters aren’t touching or are inside each other. Many fighting games have tackled this concept and have achieved desirable results. Why the same concept cannot apply to wrestling games is beyond me. The fact that it has been a problem in so many wrestling games makes reviews like this one sound like broken records. While this is not a regular occurrence in Wrestlemania XXI, there are times when it is so bad that we can only roll our eyes in resignation and remind ourselves we are playing a wrestling game.

The other area related to animation that has been improved, but is still quite a few strokes above par is anything related to cloth or hair. Now I appreciate the difficulty in animating flowing objects like the aforementioned, but it has been done. It is not by any means a new science. It is just another example of how this game does not implement realistic physics. Is it that they don’t know how to, or just decided not to? I’m not sure which is worse. One look at the female characters’ hair and it’s a dead giveaway. At least in this version the three hair polygons move a little. In previous games, they didn’t move at all.

But let’s face it graphics are not everything. In many cases graphics can be sub-standard if the game play rocks. In looking at Wrestlemania XXI’s game play, we are faced with dual sets of criteria. One set of criteria is based on what’s currently available in the wrestling genre. The other is what we expect of good games across the board.

Very few wrestling games ever get more complicated or deep than a button and one of four directions. Not that it ever really matters which direction on the D-pad you choose anyway. Each direction will result in a different move with an applicable animation, but there is no real strategic advantage one way or the other. All but a few moves are knockdowns, and the damage they do varies, but it doesn’t have a profound affect on the game play. There are no low hits or high hits. There is no notion of move difficulty being relative to damage done. They are generally sluggish and unresponsive, two things that will kill any video game. Nothing is worse than having your ass handed to you and not being able to do anything about it. Luckily Wrestlemania XXI does not suffer as badly as certain games in the past in this area, but the game doesn’t make it easy to figure out how to eliminate the suffering.

My initial reaction to Wrestlemania XXI was that it was broken. The game reacts so slowly, normally, that unless you know how and when to employ counter moves, you are done. You might as well not even play. Case and point: if you get one grapple that ends in a knock down, you can walk over and repeatedly step on your opponents head until he is out of energy. That is unless he knows how to counter. Once he’s figured that out, he can counter out of your foot stomping rage, and the game becomes a much more playable version of rock, paper, scissors.

There is a degree of twitch timing involved that is the key to most fighting games, so I found myself enjoying the game to a certain degree, however after several matches it became apparent that there was really nothing more than executing one of four grapples per button and trying not to get countered. You can mix it up with strike moves, but there is really nothing to it once you understand how the engine works.

In describing the graphics and animation, I hinted towards issues with collision detection and how they marred the visual experience. While it is ugly and unfortunately detracts from the look of the game, the effect that it has on the game play can be horrendous. The reach of certain moves like clotheslines can extend the entire length of the ring. Certain moves have a high chance of missing even though it should be impossible. In one case, you can stand right next to your opponent, execute a leg or elbow drop and completely miss resulting in a broken tailbone and the loss of precious seconds of advantage. This is completely unrealistic and can frustrate anyone. Other times, players will collide while there is still obvious space in between them. In yet other situations, you will perform a drop kick that passes through the target’s geometry yet has no effect. Well, no positive effect. Again, you find yourself rubbing your backside and lamenting the poor collision implementation.

Another issue with some games that I find inexcusable is poor camera execution. If everything about your game is playable and fun, how dare you screw it all up by not letting me see what is going on. In Wrestlemania XXI, the camera scales in and out to make sure everyone can be on the screen at the same time. While it may seem like a reasonable thing to do, the end result is a camera that is zoomed out so far that you can’t make out the action in the ring. I understand, you want the players to be able to leave the ring, but there have to be limits. When the gamer can no longer see what is happening to his avatar, you have officially zoomed out too far.

Thankfully this only really happens during tag matches, which are avoided because the tag team AI is retarded. Multiplayer matches have the potential to create this scenario, but then again you can punch your roommate in the arm if he screws up the camera.

There are lots of little annoying problems with this game. It’s not even really worth it to get into all of them. One that was particularly infuriating was the ability to play the single player campaign without creating a profile. Nothing in the game said I needed a profile, so I didn’t think I needed one. Why go through extra hassle if it’s unnecessary? Suffice to say, I got half way through the game completely confused as to why I wasn’t earning any cash or new ability points. Come to find out, you don’t earn any money unless you have a profile saved beforehand. This is just one more issue that you’d expect to find in a wrestling game.

Any of these issues could potentially keep you from buying a normal game. Wrestling games though are measured by a different set of criteria for some reason. Frustrating, as it may seem, Wrestlemania XXI ranks high according to this alternate scale. The game has more than a few bugs to be sure, and its implementation falls far short of what could be called a great game when compared to other games in other genres. But it has great graphics, generally consistent animation, and an updated cast of wrestlers. The game play is dumbed down in classic wrestling game form, but it still manages to be fun when played against the computer or a human opponent.

So, if you are a wrestling fan, and have played previous games, you will no doubt appreciate the improvements to this latest incarnation of wrestling game. Those not specifically into wrestling should find some other game because this one is a “game only a fan could love.”