WWE Battlegrounds – Review

There used to be a time when Wrestling games were good. I like to call these the THQ days – although even then, there were some misses. Since the series was moved over to 2K Games, the WWE games had a major dip in quality with 2K20 being a laughable mess if you want to be positive about it.

When it was announced last year that 2K would take a break from the yearly iterations of the game and instead deliver an over the top, cartoon-style wrestling game, there was hope that this arcade-style would bring back calls to the Wrestlemania Arcade or WWE All-Stars which brought a fun and unique take on the dramatic sport. Or at least be just good enough that it would satisfy fans for at least another year.

WWE Battlegrounds’ campaign mode sets up a story where Paul Hayman is looking to create a new WWE brand, which would focus on “amateur wrestlers” fighting in small towns to bring wrestling back to fans. After McMahon gives him the go-ahead, Hayman recruits Stone Cold Steve Austin to recruit new wrestlers and prepare them for the ring.

The story is told in a comic book fashion and serves to be comedic at times, while I don’t necessarily have a problem with the presentation, it could have been better. Presenting the story as a full comic with no voice-over just feels lazy in 2020.

Campaign mode will pit you against as a new character attempting to rise in the WWE and pits you against other superstars. The campaign does do a good job at showing off the various modes including one-on-on, tag teams, Fatal 4 way, Royal Rumble, and more, all while teaching you the basics of playing the game.

Not that Battlegrounds is overly difficult to play, the game has your basic punch, kick, grapple, block, and action button that you’d expect from Wrestling games, only with over the top results, like tossing characters like The Rock or The Big Show 20 feet in the air for a pile driver, or doing a flying uppercut into a powerbomb. It’s satisfying the first few rounds which deliver the over the top performance we were promised.

Then it gets boring – real quick.

The sole reason for this happens to be because there is only a few moves between the 87 fighters in the game. Characters are split between All-rounders, technical (grapplers), Brawlers, Powerhouses, and high-fliers, each with the same set of moves and actions, with only some variations to the character’s stats and the use of their finishing moves. With a lack of variety outside some stats for the fighters, there isn’t a reason to explore the roster outside your favorite wrestler.

Sorry did we say 87 fighters? Of those 87, you only get a handful of characters while having to spend the in-game money called bucks to unlock the others, and money like that does not come easy with matches earning anywhere around 150 to 200 bucks. Characters can be purchased for 3000 (Alicia Fox, Luke Gallows), 6000 (Sasha Banks, Mankind), 9000 (Batista, Andre the Giant) and 12000 (Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock).

Of course, this means that there is a lot of grinding that you need to do in order to unlock all the characters, or shell out for Golden Bucks to unlock characters faster for real money. It’s a greedy system that even with the game being priced at $40 at launch feels incredibly insulting to your time and wallet.

Battlegrounds had the opportunity to try something different, blending the NBA playground style with wrestling could have made for some ridiculous ideas to be thrown into the ring, and for the most part, this is realized with the levels and giant moves that are visually appealing, but the end result feels rushed, with the fun leaving shortly after a couple of rounds and nothing to drive you to spend your time on it.