Summary
For years, wrestling games such asWWE 2K23andAEW Fight Foreverhave attempted to recreate the hard-hitting action of the squared circle as accurately as possible. Wrestling games have come a long way since the early 90s, but despite obvious evolutions to gameplay, graphics, and match types over the years, one thing has remained pretty consistent: finishing moves. It’s time for wrestling games like theWWE 2Kseries to further build their immersion by overhauling the way finishing moves look.
A wrestler’s signature finishing move is designed to bring an end to the match, but in real life, they rarely land the move in the same way twice. Wrestling audiences have become far more difficult to surprise over the years, resulting in finishers being used more liberally, and no longer being the match-ending guarantee that they once were. Wrestlers are constantly coming up with new ways to hit their finishers, but this innovation isn’t really reflected in the video games, withfinishing animations inWWE 2K23andAEW Fight Foreverbeing typically smooth, and nearly identical every time.
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WWE Games Need to Completely Overhaul Finishers
To its credit, theWWE 2Kseries has attempted to remedy this immersion-breaking issue with the introduction of ‘tired’ finishers in one ofWWE 2K23’s updates. This features new animations for finishers that trigger once a wrestler is fatigued during the match, resulting in the obviously weary wrestler collapsing to the floor after applying the move. Despite these new animations mixing things up though, the wrestler will still inexplicably get straight to their feet having executed the move, which once again, to the frustration of the player, breaks the immersion.
Tired finishers are a welcome addition, but clearly, developers still have a lot of work to do when it comes to accurately recreating finishers. Even popular wrestling titles from previous console generations, such as theN64’sWWF No Mercy, and the infamousSmackdownseries, suffered from immersion-breaking finisher animations. It certainly isn’t a new issue, but as technology has advanced significantly over the past decade, developers should now have the necessary tools to address it.
Famous Finishing Moves:
Future WWE and AEW Games Could Revitalize Finishers
WWE 2K24has not been confirmed at the time of writing, but given the momentum the series has built up over the past few years, it seems a safe bet that it will be in development. On the other hand, it is unclear if AEW will build onFight Forever, or if it will be a standalone game, supported by consistent updates. It would come as no surprise ifWWE 2K24was released during the early months of 2024, based on the pattern set by previous titles in the series. Each new iteration of theWWE 2Kseries tries to distinguish itself with new features, and given that the same clean animations in recent wrestling games have seen finishers lose some of their excitement, a revamp of finishing moves would be a great way for the next game to do this. Assuming it happens, AEW could take notes and follow suit with its own wrestling games.
WWE 2K23
WHERE TO PLAY
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