SLAMMED!
Slammed! is an interactive story based in the world of professional wrestling. You don’t need to know or understand professional wrestling, although some terms are crucial to understand (ie, the concept of kayfabe) and a quick google search every now and then will help as you go along. At its core though, this is a story about your journey and the personalities that you interactive with - the wrestling is the backdrop for the most part.
The story’s pacing is excellent, and the blurring of the line between real and kayfabe (which is broadly the same concept as the “fourth wall” in acting) is really well done. The quality of the writing, purely from the point of view of the storytelling, is also excellent. For me, the best example of this is the section that features the “promotional video” for the grand finale, where the writing got me genuinely pumped up for the big climax.
– Real player with 30.7 hrs in game
This was pretty cool.
I know nothing about wrestling, yet this was entertaining and I wanted to see what would happen. I got so angry a couple times, not having a clue about how much of a show everything is so people screwed my char over - though things resolved well so I didn’t feel bad for too long.
I did spend half the time googling wrestling moves and frankly I had no clue even after seeing the moves on what stat they were focusing on. I focused on strength because it seemed the easier one to spot but I screwed up big time on a couple fights. So if you’re clueless about wrestling, it’s still an entertaining game, exciting even, but be prepared to feel like you’re tossing a coin for some of the choices.
– Real player with 25.2 hrs in game
Double Turn
You can be knocked out of your own combo, characters lack much difference between each other, and AI is easily exploited. It’s not a very fun game. The potential is there and its core loop is interesting but there is too little here for it to be recommended as is.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Wrestling Local Multiplayer Games.
Nice idea and design, poor realization
The game can’t be considered as a finished project even if one overlooks the lack of content, because some fundamental features don’t work:
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- AI in Practice mode doesn’t work: an NPC just stands still and meekly gets player’s hits. If it’s supposed to be so, then the developer should have added several options to adjust the NPC behavior like make it always blocking or jumping or performing a sequence of movements.* A player’s profile disappears after closing the game, that leads to disappearing of a gamepad custom configuration also. Moreover, the game doesn’t allow me to create a profile with the same name again although I don’t see it and can’t choose it.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Treachery in Beatdown City
Beatdown City’s gonna whoop yo ass. If there’s a downside, it’s that I played through the game in a day, but I really do like the combat system. It makes button mashing useless, turning what could have been a twitchy mess into a beautiful strategic masterpiece. Okay, not really a strategic masterpiece, but it’s pretty sweet.
I do kind of wish that the advantages/disadvantages were slightly more influential. I love the way weapons are handled. Costing more FP to use them and limiting defensive actions focuses the combat towards disarm. And it feels really awesome to throw a Mexican Suplex on some dumbass fool stupid enough to get in your way.
– Real player with 62.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Wrestling Action Games.
Twenty-second read. Combines the forces of the masked Ryu (Ninja Gaiden (NES)) and Final Fantasy VII with a side-scroller brawler (Streets of Rage, Double Dragon) in an 80s setting similar to Final Fight (Arcade). The world map borrowed from Super Mario 3 (SNES) and the political themes alas Orama etc. stretch the games' twenty-dollar price tag over a twenty year conversion period; does anybody really think noone had thought of making a turn-based, side-scrolling beat-em up game 🎮? Is just a game that has been politicized openly yet in enigmatic ways with a cast of characters that appear to be part of a Blackmirror (Netflix) sequel. Just my two cents.
– Real player with 33.2 hrs in game