 |
|
|
All Star Pro wrestling
SORRY THERE ARE NO CHEATS BUT WE HAVE A FAB STRAGEY GUIDE
Introduction
All Star Pro-Wrestling II should be given the award of single most
improved sequel ever. Not that I'm saying that the previous game is
crap - it's still very much an open topic, since there's a handful
to rate it as their best wrestling game, and others rate it as a
big steaming pile of... you get the idea. For me, I really loved it
(enough to write a movelist for it, and spend ridiculous amounts
of money ordering it's sequel). But I have to admit that the previous
game has his fair share of problems, especially control wise. However,
just about everything the was complained on in the game is fixed in
the sequel by the good folks at Squaresoft, and you end up with a
top-notch wrestling game. The graphics are just as incredible (many
onlookers swore this was a real show) and the controls are now easy,
quick and user-friendly. This makes it a definite must have if you
are a puroruresu fan (that's Japanese Pro Wrestling for the uninformed).
Of course, it's still not the best wrestling game out there. In this
age of wrestling games, it's almost criminal not to have an edit mode
and a season mode of sorts. This is especially true when you realize
that this game has an insanely huge list of moves, and making a new
wrestler would have been incredible. Squaresoft does make up for the
reduced game life with the learning moves bit, which let's you gain
new and nastier moves as you use your wrestler. There are a few modes
in the game that are fairly questionable - stuff like Rising Mode,
which is nothing more than a glorified training mode, and the two
wrestlers you unlock after clearing it are kinda sad. And since it is
rather easy (too easy, actually), it becomes more of a chore than
anything else. At least you get entertained by a rather cute pop chick
while you're at it. And then there's the trading mode, where you moves
wrestlers around different groups. Kinda pointless since the only
things you change are the belts you can challenge for - and that itself
is also somewhat pointless since there's no real season mode of sorts.
I guess it's a multiplayer thing, since I play this game alone. Some
others criticize the game for removing the entrances of wrestlers. I'm
not all that peeved about it though - I mean, who really looks at all
those entrances every match they play? It's nice the first few times,
but after that I switch 'em off and they stay off.
Anyways, now that my pathetic excuse for a review is done, off to the
good stuff. Oh wait, just a little disclaimer before I start. First
of all, I don't know all that much about Japanese Wrestling. The place
I live in just can't get easy access to these sorta things. So don't
ask me why Mutoh is bald or why Kojima Satoshi just doubled in size -
actually, I'm kinda curious myself ^_^. Also, aside from moves that I
can accurately translate (DDT and TTD comes to mind) I really have no
idea what are the some of the actual move names are - all the move names
here are either gleamed from previous wrestling games or just sensibly
made up by myself. If you do spot any mistakes or just curious about some
stuff about the game, feel free to e-mail me - my e-mail is just above.
Okay, now we're through all that, let's begin.
___________________________________________________________________________
/_________________________Game_Mode_Explanation____________________________/
Hang on, don't you have the manual? Oh, can't read Japanese? Well, this
section is for you. I'll explain each of the sections of the game here.
Single Match
============
Your basic one-on-one battle. You can choose from "Special Single
Match" (think exhibition), "Technical Match" (the match requires
you to finish in a certain way - submission, KOs, etc.. - haven't
played it much so I don't know too much about that), "ALLSTAR
Tournament" (16 round robin elimination match) and "ALLSTAR League"
(a league match split into brackets of two 6-man groups - you earn
points beating a member of your bracket, and finally if you are
the victor you fight the other bracket's winner). Oh, in this mode
you can also choose a "side" - think of him as your manager. He
will sometimes attack your opponent if you throw your opponent out
of the ring. You can also challenge for various title belts - all
the belts from NOAH and NJPW are here, as well as some fictional
ones.
Tag Match
=========
Two-on-two match. Fairly basic stuff, right? Comes in "Special
Tag Match", "ALLSTAR Tag Tournament" (like above, but with 16 teams)
and ALLSTAR Tag League" (Like above, except with tag teams). Oh, and
Tag Team titles from both NOAH and NJPW as well as fictional ones
are here too.
Battle Royal
============
A four-man elimination match. Comes in Special and Technical flavors
too. And the winner gets 5 million yen. Whoopee!
Rising
======
Here you pick one of the two newbies and put them through awfully
easy wrestling lessons. Finish 'em and you unlock two original
wrestlers. Nothing more that a glorified training mode, if you ask
me. At least there's a cute assistant trainer. And in case some of
you have trouble finishing training mode, here are the lessons :-
1) Give your standing partner three strikes
2) Give your kneeling partner three strikes
3) Give your grounded partner three ground strikes
4) Give your standing partner three strikes of varying power
5) Give your partner three running strikes
6) Give your partner three running counters
7) Give your standing partner three aerial attacks
8) Give your grounded partner three aerial attacks
9) Pin your partner for the three count three times
10) Kick out of a pin three times (tap any attack button)
Sparring 1) Just beat each other around for 5 game minutes
11) Capture your partner and release three times
12) Capture your kneeling partner, raise him up and release three times
13) Pick up your fallen partner from six different positions
14) Capture your cornered partner and release three times
15) Knockdown your partner three times
16) Do front, back, front kneeling, back kneeling grapples
17) Perform three linking grapples
18) Perform three whip attacks to the ropes
19) Perform three whipping attacks from one turnbuckle to the other
20) Perform three turnbuckle grapples
21) Perform three inside to outside attacks
22) Leave the ring and re-enter three times
23) Throw your partner out of the ring and threw him back in
Sparring 2) Beat your partner silly for 10 minutes
24) Capture his strike (R1 or R2) six times
25) Break your partner's capture three times
26) Break out of your partner's submission three times
27) Reverse a grapple three times
28) Grapple your partner while he's entering the ring
29) Club your partner with a foreign object (get a weapon from the outside)
Sparring 3) Try not to get beat up by Minoru Tanaka for 15 minutes, or beat him
30) Tag out and get out to the corner three times ([])
31) Beat your partner and Minoru Tanaka three times each
32) Double team on Minoru Tanaka three times (just stand near your partner)
33) Beat up Tanaka who is being held by your partner three times
34) Taunt at the same time as your partner three times
Sparing 4) Try to beat up Shinya and Ohtani - or at least last 20 minutes
Final Sparing) It comes down to a final one-on-one with your partner. No problem.
Once you clear all that, you will be given a choice of which federation your
boy will go to - NOAH or NJPW. Your partner will go to the other federation you
did not pick. Taa-daa! Two new wrestlers!
Unit Assembly
=============
Here you can create a new wrestling federation of your own. You can
name your federation, and give it a winning music (all wrestlers in
your federation will get that as their winning music). You can also
create stables within your federation as well as edit other federations
and their stables.
Wrestler Trade
==============
You can move wrestlers around different federations and different
stables, including the ones you made in Unit Assembly.
___________________________________________________________________________
/_____________________________General_Info_________________________________/
All Star Pro-Wrestling II has a brand new control system than seriously
fixes up many of the previous game's problem. The previous game was
critically panned for it's lousy controls, and I'm happy to say this one
has perhaps one of the best control setups in any wrestling game. It's
easy to use, and once you get down to it, any move can be pulled off
with ease.
Controls
========
Direction Pad - Give directions to your partner during tag team matches
Analog Left - Moves your wrestler about
Analog Right - Nothing
[] (Square) - For pinning and entering/exiting the ring
X - Light Attacks Button
() (Circle) - Medium Attacks Button
[] (Triangle) - Strong Attacks Button
R1 - One-handed capture or strike counters
R2 - Two-handed capture or strike counters
L1 - Taunt 1
L2 - Taunt 2
Striking - Easy enough. Just press X, () or /\ when not grappling to
perform light, medium or strong striking attacks respectively. Your
distance and direction to your opponent will vary the type of attacks
used. Stronger strikes do more damage, but is easier to counter.
Grappling - Fairly easy. Just "capture" your opponent (with R1 or R2)
then press the attacks button to perform attacks of the corresponding
power. Again, depending on your position, your opponent's position,
and whether he's groggy or not will cause different grapples to appear.
Like striking, stronger grapples do more damage, but are easier to
counter. Also, pressing the direction towards your opponent while
pressing the attack button will also result in another set of moves
sometimes. Incidentally, the previous game allows you to drag your
opponents around, and move to rear locks - this game doesn't, which is
a bit of a bummer especially when you're trying to position your
opponent just right...
Knockdown - A new feature of ASPW II is that when you're just a little
away from your opponent, press in his direction and R1 or R2 to knock
your opponent flat on his back. Great for those with powerful ground
attacks like Chono.
Two Captures? - A new feature added to ASPW2 is the ability to capture
your opponents with either one hand or two. There's no real difference
when it comes to what moves you will perform after the capture. So what
is it for? Well, the two different captures have different "looseness"
as I like to call it. R1 capturing is quick, so you can slap on your
grapples faster, whereas R2 is slower, but is harder to counter out of.
When you pick an opponent up, if you use R1 you will let go of him, and
if you use R2 you won't. Good if you are moving to a back grapple. Also,
when you counter strike using R1 or R2, the results of the counter will
differ. Finally, if both the wrestlers grapple at the same time,
depending on what captures used, the simultaneous grapple motion is
different. Check the section below for more explanation.
Simultaneous Grapples - When you and your opponent grapple simultaneously,
you will get into simultaneous grapple position. If both of you used R1,
you will go for a "Test of Strength" type lock where you hold on to each
other's palms and try to push 'em around. Tap the attack buttons real
fast to win the test and perform some nasty attacks. There's a fair bit of
different attacks you can do here. If both of you used R2, then it goes
into the "Headlock" thing where you basically grapple around and move until
one side gives - this bit was around in the previous game. If you had read
my FAQ for the previous game you will know that there is a limited number
of actions that occur - but in this game there's a fair bit more. Experiment!
If the two of you use different capture buttons, it appears random which one
of the two simultaneous grapple types you two will perform.
Whipping - Pressing Away and an attack button while you are in a front
grapple results in a whip attack. If your direction is to the ropes, your
opponent will be whipped there, rebound and you will attack. If your
direction is to a corner, you'll whip him there and perform a running attack
at him.
Running Counters - When an opponent is running at you, press towards him
and an attack button to perform a running counter. You can knock the guy
down flat on his back if you use R1 or R2 instead as a counter button.
Ground Techniques - These are done exactly the same way as strikes, except
the opponent is down on the ground. Like before, the amount of variations
in which moves can be locked on is staggering. While most wrestlers have
similar attacks for the same body part, others don't. Attacks at the head,
left arm, right arm, left thigh, right thigh, left foot, right foot, both
feet, may all differ, and add in the different attack levels (usually just
() and /\ since X always produces a stomp) and you've got a lotta ground
attacks. Add that's just for the face up position. When your opponent is
face down there's some more (though not quite a varied). Dang, that's a
whole lotta things you can do to him when he's on the ground, that's for
sure. If you are a little away from the prone body, you will perform a
running attack to the body instead.
Turnbuckle Techniques - These are done when your opponent is in the corner,
of course. Pressing strike buttons at different distances to your opponent
will have you perform different striking attacks. To perform corner grapples
like the Superplex, get near and press towards your opponent and an attack
button.
Aerial Techniques - To perform one of these, press towards a corner when your
opponent is not in that general direction, and press an attack button. The
attacks will differ depending on whether your opponent is standing or down.
Certain aerial attacks to a grounded person requires him to be in the right
position to perform. You know you've got the right position when you see your
prone opponent roll over if he's face down, and sorta adjusts himself to better
take your move (wow, now even the kids will know that wrestling is worked!).
This is what I called the "splash position" in the previous game, and they
are notoriously hard to pull off back then - thankfully, in this game you are
given quite a bit more leeway (just look at those guys turn a full 180 degrees
from the ground might be a bit much though). So it's much more easier to be
Frogsplashing with the best of them in this game.
Outside - To get outside, walk to the ropes and press [] and the direction
towards the rope. To hurl an opponent outside, make sure your back is to
the rop
Send E-Mail to: zoe.v@ntlworld.com
Copyright © 2003 . All Rights Reserved