Like the Mexican wrestling tradition it's based on, Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes Del Ring can't compete with the more polished WWE titles out there.
The Pros
- A unique wrestling experience
- Fantastic character customization
- A unique focus on Mexican culture
The Cons
- Bare-bones campaign
- Sluggish gameplay and flawed controls
- Ring announcer banter repeats way too often and unpolished animations
I really wanted to like this game more than I did. It’s not because I love Lucha Libre wrestling (although I’ve always enjoyed it). It’s because I love the idea of major video game developed in Mexico focusing on something that’s a major part of Mexican culture. I’ve long felt that more diversity was needed amongst those who make our games, who games are made for and what subjects they’re based on. I had high hopes for Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes Del Ring. Unfortunately, my hope wasn’t quite justified.
Into the Ring
Lucha Libre wrestling has a lot of very different elements than what you see in WWE shows or games (although many Luchadores have made the crossover), and when you first fire up the game, everything seems promising. Like most wrestling games, your first stop should be the character creator, where you can tweak every aspect of your wrestler. Most important is, of course, the mask. Mask customization is insanely detailed – you can tweak every element individually, from the shape of the eyeholes to the color of the stitching. If you know anything at all about Lucha Libre, it’s hard not to get a kick out of the mask customization. Unfortunately, once you’re ready to wrestle, the problems begin.
High Risk Combat
My first match was plagued with the worst bugs I’ve seen this console generation. The entire HUD was replaced with blocky grey squares, and hitting the other wrestler made him temporarily turn into a giant white box. Fortunately, after resetting, the bugs went away, but the combat didn’t get much better.
Heroes Del Ring actually has a pretty well-designed combat mechanic. Each of the face buttons performs a different strike, and pulling one trigger or the other shifts each button into a different grapple. It’s simple and easy to remember. Sadly, it doesn’t work as well as it should. The first main offender is the countering mechanic – the window to tap the counter button is far too small, and you’re often asked to switch between rapidly slamming on a face button and the counter button. If you tap that face button after the counter icon comes up, you’ve missed your chance. Of course, higher-level AI enemies never have this problem.
The other major problem with the combat is the animation system, which is frankly just too slow and unpolished. There are no transitional animations for most counters, so one moment you’ll watch your character throw a punch, and in the next frame your opponent is slapping on a grapple. Coupled with the generally slow feel of the gameplay, these missing frames will make you feel like much of the combat against AI is predetermined, your enemies countering you the exact moment you attack.
Tapping Out
Complaints aside, Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes Del Ring isn’t a total loss. With a little more polish to the countering, animation and graphics and depth to the career mode, it would have been a pretty solid wrestling title. I love the fact that Spanish color commentary is an option, and it’s great to see some of the biggest names in Lucha Libre make an appearance.
If you’re a big Lucha Libre fan, I’d advise you not to write off Heroes Del Ring immediately. Go into it knowing that it’s a flawed game, and you should indeed have a good time. Even though I found it to be an ultimately flawed experience, I’d be happy to give this underdog another chance should it come back for a second round.
Comments
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LeviAJones
There is a game-breaking glitch that can make it so that your profile cannot play this game. I won a prize for best review, but they never sent it. They have no love for their fans.
ragde_solrac
Get in to the ring to fight in the first videogame that puts on the spot mexican wrestling on our videogame consoles.
Now you can be on the ring and transform yourself into a professional wrestler; you could choose your side, as rude or technical and develop your own fighting style.
I spent last friday, saturday and sunday playing this videogame in the videogames expo EGS 2010 here in Mexico city and it was awesome to kick some asses with my favorite wrestlers as La Parka and Octagon, very good xD.
I could make all my favorite moves but mainly I could become a mexican wrestler with all the equipment, masks, shoes and everything involved in the AAA without limits.
This videogame reflects faithfully the mexican wrestling style, thus during the match, you can make aerial movements and spectacular throws.
Besides, to cheer you up, you can interact with public and begin the party of the place.
At the end you can make your final trick to win the match and with an amount of luck you could win the championship and get the belt that recognize you as a AAA hero of the ring.
This is not wrestling: es lucha libre AAA sin limites.
LeviAJones
I'll agree on a couple points: the announcers repeat too often and the game plays slow compared to what you expect from the actual luchadores. However, I am disagreeing strongly with your impression of the counter mechanic. The counters might seem too hard to do at first and it would be nice to have an easier time against the CPU, but that is only at first. With enough practice, counters are simple to do and end up becoming the foundation of higher level gameplay. If the counter window was wide open, then multiplayer would amount to nothing but counters. Having that slim window allows you to play a metagame of trying to get your opponent to attack first or counter too early. I compare this to Street Fighter III's parry system.
The games meter management also reminds me of hardcore fighting games. If you aren't building meter, you're wasting time. In addition, most powerful moves require a certain amount of meter to perform.
The story mode serves mostly as a way to introduce the player to all of the characters and their unique personalities. There are enough varied matches to make it both interesting and challenging. But it also lets the player see what different strategies are required to win while working on perfecting their custom luchador.
And that of course is the finest point of the game: custom luchadores. As the reviewer said, just the mask creation alone is far more in-depth than you can expect from most create-a-character modes. Picking your moves and attributes is nearly as important as actually playing the matches. A lot of thought has to go into creating the ultimate luchador.
I also think one of the best features of this game are the online hair vs. mask matches. I can't think of another game that has made me want so strongly to win. If you lose, your created luchador will walk around with a shameful spotty shaved head until he wins 3 more ranked matches. This creates a very real anxiety and sense of urgency for online matches.
I don't know how much time the reviewer spent with this game, but it seems they only scratched the surface. If this game is viewed as a fighting game, it is very balanced and relies more on skill and mind games than just mashing. It's just a shame more people aren't willing to take the time to get to that level. Overall, I think you should try it before making your decision. Spend some time really trying to learn how to be better at the game and you won't be disappointed.
TigreMarino
Heroes del Ring is not the regular kind of wrestling videogame. Based around the popular franchise of AAA, the largest Lucha Libre enterprise in Mexico, HDR explores the world of masked heroes and spandex foes. With a huge tree of moves, most of them different of what the American wrestling shows have, each character has it�s own magic, moves and plays. Begin with the nicely detailed graphics of each and every character and background -most of them based on real locations-, then a solid gameplay, a bit different on the controls than you are used and then the fun of moving your favorite characters.
In the career mode, you start by building up your character, not only in it�s physical appearance and costume, but by giving it a complete set of moves. You might be confused on some moves like the Casita or the Rueca, which are finishing moves of Elegido and Apache, and not used very often in american-style wrestling, but mexican fans will cheer when you make Ozz roll all over the ring.
Maybe the largest contribution of HDR is that now Lucha Libre fans all over the world can experience the real deal on mexican lucha. It�s not only the mysticism behind the masks, or the dance when going up the ring, but also the mexican fans and their cheers, the commentators which on the Spanish version are Arturo "Rudo" Rivera and Alfonso Morales, with fun comments about the game.
I had to play a long time to adapt myself from SVR games, but once I got the grip on the controls and the style, I had a lot of fun with the game. I truly recommend the XBOX360 version, graphics, animation and overall feel are the best.
The bad things about the game? Well, nobody is perfect and in most couple lucha matches in Mexico, relevos australianos are the norm, only one t�cnico at a time, but rudos might go into couple mode against one t�cnico, but the game doesn�t have them. And the worst thing missing are the referees, of course they are NPCs, but there are some referees in the Mexican lucha circuit that are some of the time more fun to watch than the match itself -like El Shaggy from Mazatl�n-.
Lucha Libre, H�roes del Ring from AAA is a game for lucha libre fans. For those who enjoy the llaves, the castigos, los dieces, cheering the rudos or the t�cnicos, who understand what�s behind Lucha Libre -like Bart Simpson said, it�s a real sport in M�xico-.
pigtails33
wow spammers are getting worse and worse
Rosaboy94
why would you want to play this game any way?
G4gamefanUSA316
well, at least "users" can agree or disagree with reviews, but 'give me a break".
"I TRY THAT GAME FOR FREE! but G4 rules!, at least 1 user gave it a 5 of 5, i glad it wasn't on x-play, that will be a "you know" (hint: disgrace) .
HaroldPalahniuk
im sure this was one of the games that inspired adam's rant about game reviewing, when I didnt see this game up on the site, I decided to go with the fable III controller instead of paying for a game i would hate soon after playing it, I also reserved smackdown vs raw as well
I figured it wasnt good, i saw a match video and the collision looked horrible, the entrances look awesome though
Adampro123
Didn't expect this to e good, was hoping it would be though because im a big wrestling fan but it looked like the TNA game we had from midways that wasn't good.
ULTRA WARRIOR
Really wanted to like the game, since I'm a pro wrestling fan. While the CAW was decent ( but not on par with even SvR2010 ), the rest of the game was very poor. It reminded me of the TNA Wrestling game that came out a few years ago, only THIS was less fun. Sadly, this game will become trade-in bait towards getting SvR2011. Good idea for a game, just poor execution.
NeutraVega
"Like the Mexican wrestling tradition it's based on, Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes Del Ring can't compete with the more polished WWE titles out there."
Of course! I mean, we all know that the French never really came up with French fries! And football is the REAL football, and not that other stupid sport called "soccer."
...Get real, GFail.
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