Step Inside The Ring In This New, Downgraded WWE2K Game

BY: CORY R.

Copyright: 2K

2K released WWE2K20 at midnight on October 22nd, 2019. It was not received well. Needless to say, #FixWWE2K20 was trending on Twitter the morning of its release. I pre-ordered the game so I was able to play it right at midnight, and right off the bat there were problems. The ideas they had seemed really good but they lacked so much in execution. The execution was done but it wasn’t done well, here’s probably why.

WWE games have been made with Yuke’s since 1999. This year was the first year 2K did not want Yuke’s, a previous game developer on the WWE games, to help, and it showed. In August of 2019 2K announced they had moved away from Yuke’s, Yuke’s later said that they were frustrated over the recent WWE2K games. 2K for some reason likes to keep to their own stuff, fans have wanted General Manager Mode, a mode where you’re the manager of WWE, to return to the game for years but it hasn’t. It’s always teased but nothing comes of it. Yuke’s were frustrated at not having enough creativity in the games, being too realistic, too much realism no longer is fun or enjoyable to play. The way 2K tried to fix this was with the announcement of WWE2K Originals.

WWE2K Originals is a ‘fictional realm’ in the game in which you can go to the future, or go to the ’80s or you can play a match in a graveyard, which is great, fantastic, but it’s $15 a pack. There are four packs being released, so in the end, you’ll be paying $120 to play this game and the DLC, which is a big problem. WWE2K is starting to seem more like a cash grab. There are no big changes to Universe mode, it almost seems like a copy and pastes from the last game when fans don’t want Universe mode in the first place and they want General Manager mode. 2K just doesn’t seem to listen which is making fans no longer want to play, which is why Yuke’s announced a rival Pro-Wrestling game.

After 2K and Yuke’s split, there were a lot of talks about whether or not Yuke’s was shutting its doors. Yuke’s announced they were working on a rival Pro-Wrestling game but were going to continue working on the WWE2K series. After this, the split was announced which means one of two things happened, 2K was not happy with this statement and severed their ties or Yuke’s changed their mind and wanted to quit working on the WWE2K series to focus on the new game. Neither has been confirmed nor denied.

2K has also promoted the game to new players by “making the controls more learnable” which was a real problem. The once Finisher and Signature button, triangle on PlayStation or Y on Xbox, has been changed to having to press both square & X on PlayStation or X & A on Xbox. The reversal that was once a trigger is now in the spot Finishers and Signatures were. 2K seems to be trying to get new players to get more revenue. Along with this, the freaking target system is all whack. You’ll be trying to hit your opponent and accidentally hit the referee or you’ll just completely miss, which makes multi person matches almost unplayable. Don’t even try to play as a woman in this game, the hair physics are a whole problem by themselves. Lookin’ like 1999’s Smackdown type graphics.

In the end, I do not think WWE2K20 is a good game. It feels more like a cash grab than something to enjoy which takes the fun out of it. For WWE ‘12, I waited until school was over so I could run home and play as CM Punk. Now, I dread having to play WWE2K20 to write this. But when you know there’s a real problem in the series that needs to be fixed.