#vktorykid

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Some wrestlers and entrances I put together in WWE'13, based on myself and some friends. I've had a LOT of fun with the game.

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In Praise Of...WWE'13

Johnny Organ explains his passion and love for the malleable and excitement filled Smackdown games and WWE’13 

The Creation Of Vktory Kid

Let me take you back. The year is 1999. The two major pro-wrestling companies – WWE and WCW – are at the peak of their rivalry. The Monday Night Wars are in full effect and a clique of my friends and myself have fallen in love with pro wrestling all over again.

Like most fans, we lost a lot of faith in wrestling in the mid-nineties. We’d grown up and moved on when wrestling clearly hadn’t done the same. We still respected it though. The dedication it can take to become a top star, the amount of physical abuse the performers can endure for our entertainment and all that jazz.

We still caught the main Pay Per View events now and then but until ’98/’99, wrestling seemed to be out of touch with the audience. With us, to be more precise. The Monday Night Wars and Attitude Era forced the company to get edgier, raunchier and more dangerous. And it worked. We lapped it up. Every Monday night was event T.V.

At the same time, Sony had done similar things with video gaming and the Playstation console. Now, I’ve ALWAYS owned consoles and played games, but by 1999 it seemed everyone had a Playstation. All my mates did. That was a complete first for me. Video gaming was cool.

Playstation had a few wrestling games, my favourite up until that point was WWF Attitude: Get It by Acclaim. It was very decent but…well, a little empty feeling. Despite solid game play mechanics, it was leaden paced and almost silent. It lacked the buzz of an audience and the thrills of an exciting match. In 2000, the official WWE (Then WWF) games changed developer to Yuke’s and publisher THQ. And WWF Smackdown was their first crack at the whip.

It was okay. It was faster paced than the older games. You could create your own character, but it was very basic. It was a lot of fun and a group of us spent many hours hitting each other with virtual chairs over our polygon heads. Most importantly, it was the game that spawned The Vktory Kid v.1. A lightweight, lightning speed dude in black tracksuit and Jason Voorhees/hockey mask.

  The Rise Of Vktory Kid

Less than 7 months later it’s sequel, WWF Smackdown: Know Your Role was released (Yes, SEVEN MONTHS. Not even EA would have the audacity to do that). And it was…a revelation. In truth it was the same game with bells and whistles on top. But what beautiful bells and delightful whistles they were. It’s only real flaw was the dreadful loading times. But it made the now almost decrepit Playstation console sing like a psiren. By the time you achieved ALL the extra modes and unlockables via the Season Mode, this game was filled to the brim with pro wrestling fan’s wet dream wishes.

Ladder matches? Check. Tables, Ladder and Chairs matches? Check. Backstage Brawls? Check. Casket Matches? Check. Totally customisable created characters including facial features, hair and clothes? Check. Create your own entrances? Check. A huge roster of playable characters distinctive from each other? Check. It was MASSIVE.

The Vktory Kid had found a wonderful place to dwell, and dwell he did. I distinctly remember one whole, long weekend where myself and two friends spent it’s entirety eating processed foods, drinking alcohol, growing beards, getting smelly and playing Smackdown 2 religiously. We only stopped for bathroom breaks, food and watering (well, beer-ing and Jack D-ing). After this weekend, I WAS the Vktory Kid. My vest top of red and black stripes with accompanying neon green elbow pads were established for the first time. I knew the character, my traits, my finishing moves, the type of wrestling stables I would be part of…I loved this character so much that shortly after, when I moved into my new flat, the (neon green) nameplate on my front door didn’t say my real name. It read “The Vktory Kid”. That confused the hell out of the local children.

Despite not adorning their front doors with their character names, my two friends had established equally enduring wrestling names and traits that we still call each other today. “The Hustler” and “Superstar T” would become my arch nemeses/stable members in equal parts over the years. A few other friends came and went. “The Freakshow”, “Pope Dope”, “Wild Thing” and “Neat Meat” to name a few. But none were as creative or as ingrained as those three that spent that fateful weekend together.

The Vktory Kid v.13 – Bono on acid

The emancipation and fall of Vktory Kid

The Smackdown games moved onto the more powerful Playstation 2 consoles and so did we. Between Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain and Smackdown vs Raw 2008 our characters developed and matured like we did. By 2008, Vktory Kid had seen many incarnations and developments and merchandising slogans.

My finishing moves were now established as the The Vktory Vice (a spinning Rock Bottom/Samba Suplex manoeuvre now a Pedigree variation) and the Vktorecktaknee (The Shining Wizard). My main stable was always called The Vice Squad. Many members would come and go, be replaced or retired over the years. I was the Ric Flair and The Vice Squad were my Four Horsemen.

Virtual T-shirts, banners and merch included the nicknames and slogans “Hail To The Kid”, “Notorious Victorious”, “The Fantastic Bedroom Gymnastic”, “The FBG”, “The Red Road Rocket”, “VK1”, “VKPD Vice Squad” and “The Inadequate Radical”. I had more potential t-shirts than Chris Jericho. I even had my own rap song to wind up my opponents…

Kick, Punch, he got the funky flow

Notorious Vk1 is the main show

Vktorectaknee, 1,2,3

Laying down the laws for all the wannabes

Wickety wickety WHACK

Vktory Vice your ass

He controls the rhythm, he controls the tempo

The Fabulous B and G from the movie scenes and all your dreams will soon be going mental...etc etc.

We’d created our own Pay Per View events within the game. We battled for ratings in the General Manager Modes. We poured a lot creativity and humour into the games. Hundreds of hours between us creating and developing ideas and characters.

As the years progressed however, the games began to wane. The truth was the Smackdown games had been running on the same game engine for years. As talented as the programmers were, the annual updates gave them little time to improve on it’s ageing engine. And when they did try to overhaul the engine’s limitations, the more buggy the games were or features from previous games were left out purely through time constraints. The Season Modes would change every year, but never really improved upon. They just removed features and/or added new ones. Or messed around with the control system. Adding features such as having to unlock the moves my character had established in previous games via the new Season Modes infuriated me. Why couldn’t I carry my saves from the previous games? Why was there no Samba Suplex now (meaning I’d have to change my finisher)?

In real life a lot of our favourite superstars got old, moved on or retired from wrestling and it affected the game’s roster too. There were far less superstars. The occasional Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold in the Legends section but the mid carders pushed to the top of the WWE deck really sucked. Almost ten years of playing the same game began to take it’s toll. I lost faith in the product. I never bought a single WWE game for my Xbox 360.  I borrowed Smackdown vs Raw 2011 for a day and it still had the same flaws. I created the usual suspects but I wasn’t interested in it. I didn’t waste any time with it. I had fallen out of love with the Vktory.

All that changed a few months ago.

I buy WWE’13.

I know exactly why I did it. It had been five years since I bought a WWE game. My games collection was lacking something and a WWE was a niche not covered (despite owning a PS2 and all the WWE games I mentioned for it). The Attitude Era Mode was heavily advertised. The game would feature all those wrestlers that made me fall in love with pro wrestling all over again. The game mode allows you to re-live certain moments that were already burnt into my memory. Moments that changed the course of Sports Entertainment. The Hell In A Cell Match with Undertaker and Mankind. The Inferno Match. Rock vs Austin at Wrestlemania XVII. I salivated at the prospect. I bought into it all hook, line and sinker.

The game does exactly as it promised. No longer was there only a Season Mode were your only objective was to win, win, win. There’s the WWE Universe Mode to do that in (more on that later). But the Attitude Era mode is different. During the matches, you have to obtain certain “OMG Moments” such as throwing Mrs Foley’s baby boy from the top of the Cell with Undertaker or setting fire to Kane after jumping over the flames during the Inferno Match. The truth is, these are relatively simple to do or just downright confusing. I remember one match I had to put someone through a table as part of the three objectives, yet I simply couldn’t manage it no matter how hard I tried. I could do it during normal quick matches but not in A.E. Mode. I eventually gave up and Googled the answer and to say you’d have to be incredibly lucky to work it out for yourself is a massive understatement.

Achieving these objectives not only lets you see the digital recreation of these moments and give you short blasts of wonderful nostalgia but they are also the foundation of unlocking all the extras in the game including characters, arenas, move sets and additional matches and match types. It’s pretty brilliant actually. That’s all I can say. Apart from the odd “WTF do I do here?!” quibble, it’s pretty fucking brilliant. An absolute joy to play through.

In WWE’13 you can even play as ear eating rapist Mike Tyson. Hurray!

But it’s the create modes that has truly and utterly, without question of a doubt, blew my fucking mind. The Create A Superstar mode was always the highlight of the games for me. Creating Vktory and Hustler and the Superstar. It’s always been very flexible and fun to use but I always had one major gripe – the load times. It took ages in the older games. WWE’13‘s hasn’t changed that much but the load times are delightfully zippier.

Each character now has two finishing moves and a signature move. All of these can be created with the Create A Finisher mode. I can make my Vktory Vice exactly how I want it. I can speed it up, slow it down, add a wave to the crowd, a boot to the stomach, make the characters rotate or flip or roll…It’s all very impressive and reasonably easy to do if you want to dedicate your time doing it, along with creating the entrances and finally the factions (stables). It’s wonderfully in depth and easy to master.

But that is only scratching the surface of WWE’13 malleability. The Create-A-Story mode is exhaustive and quite simply awe-inspiring. Allowing you to be as creative as you want. And then you can upload these characters, story lines and arenas (yes, you can create your own arenas too) on line for your fellow WWE’13 fanatics to play as, play through, play in.

You can literally set up where scenes are set, which characters are involved, input the dialogue, input the commentary and make up the matches in the build up to Wrestlemania, 4 weeks before Royal Rumble. That’s an 8 week story progression to your main event at Wrestlemania.

I found putting the dialogue in to be a complete chore via the joy-pad however. It made the process slow. Then, on a loading screen, the game informs me that if I have a generic usb keyboard, I can use that to input the text. Are you fucking SHITTING ME? No way, dude. No frigging way.

Way.

The ring announcer even announces my name now.

The Paragon of Vktory

WWE Champion CM Punk stands in the ring at the beginning of Monday Night Raw. The “Best In The World” is bragging about being exactly that, having held the main belt in the company for over a year. He claims he may as well retire since he has defeated every single challenger the WWE has had to offer. The Vktory Kid’s music interrupts him. Nine Inch Nails track “Pilgrimage”.

Walking down the ramp, with The Hustler by his side, VK1 reminds Punk he has not defeated him EVER. Punk looks a little worried, in fear that he may be about to get attacked by both these handsome men. Kid tells Punk that he and The Hustler have formed an alliance, they will be known from now on as “The Odds On Favourites” and they intend to dominate the WWE even more-so than he ever even managed. And come this Royal Rumble, the WWE title will belong to him. Then they leave. Punk looks concerned.

Smackdown, “The Odds On Favourites” attack World Heavyweight Champion The Undertaker, attacking his famously injured knee and hip before The Hustler holds his belt aloft in defiance of the Dead Man. Both main events of The Royal Rumble have been set.

The “Odds On Favourites” both go on to win the belts at Royal Rumble. As both men stand side-by-side in the ring, holding their new championships above their heads, The Hustler attacks The Kid from behind. The stage is set for a title unification match at Wrestlemania, with the victor becoming the Undisputed Champion…

It’s simplified here. There’s a lot more twists and turns in the full version but that’s what I created. My own scripts, my own way, with the cast of my choosing. IT. IS. BEAUTIFUL. As a wrestling fan, there’s not much more you could ask for really.

But there’s more. The online community is fantastic. You want Jake The Snake on your roster? How about Sabu? Or Austin Aries? No problem. Someone out there has made him for you. All you have to do is download him from the forum and start fighting as him. Gone are the days of painstakingly recreating all your favourite wrestlers. Unless you like doing that kind thing, of course. I used to love it but these days I have to love my girlfriend and daughter more or I’m in trouble.

VK1 official merch – Available from one decent online store.

Flawless Vktory?

The WWE Universe Mode replaces the Story Mode of old and to be completely honest, it’s a bit of a shambles. Or to be more crystal, it doesn’t really explain itself too well. Apparently if you use certain characters and leave the game to it’s own devices, it should unlock certain cut scenes and rivalries. But there’s no guide or help in these matters and it’s far too tempting to fiddle with match types and personnel because fighting singles matches over and over with wrestlers you don’t like becomes a bit of a grind. Vktory Kid still hasn’t officially won a World title because of this. That’s infuriating.

The game uses the Havok physics engine, the same engine used in Grand Theft Auto 4 and many others, which is mostly fantastic but can also go completely bonkers. It’s really hard to define or explain these incidents without sounding like a mad monarch. The results of it’s miscalculations are just downright bizarre and sometimes terrifying. The simple things can be explained. Characters can, sometimes, float into the mat or the ring or the furniture and get stuck. Sometimes they just don’t “sell” moves, getting straight back up on their feet after finishers or major falls or concussion-inducing head shots. When using weapons such as ladders or chairs, sometimes they don’t impact the way they should. Wrestlers can accidentally stretch across entire arenas; bodies can partially implode, crumple and rotate expeditiously; limbs can twist and rotate horribly…it can be amazingly stupid at times. In truth though, these things mostly cause hilarity rather than indignation especially in a multiplayer match. I’ve cried tears of laughter as opposed to throwing my joy pad through the T.V. in despair.

In spite of its flaws, the game never the less is nothing but pure fun. Like Smackdown 2: Just Bring It you can’t help admire the tenacity and heart the game has. It’s so chock full of stuff, it’s really hard to knock it for being a little buggy at times. The controls aren’t always perfect, the physics don’t always work, the (official) music is atrocious and there’s a real lack of fun on the Diva’s side of things. There are still many things broken with this game. It is still far, far from perfect.

But what it lacks in grunt it makes up for with heart and heritage. What it lacks in polish, it makes up for with spunk. The WWE universe is yours to mould and manipulate the way you see fit. It’s there for the taking and the only thing stopping you creating a world class pro-wrestling promotion is yourself and your lack of creativity. Any wrestler, arena, costume or storyline from any era, from any wrestling company, is there for you to concoct and contrive into a wrestling product better than the real things. To even rival the Attitude Era. It’s in your hands.

It’s been an absolute joy to behold and I’ve barely even touched on line play. In all honesty there are only two other people in the world I feel will appreciate this game as much as I do and they are the only two other players in the whole wide world I want to play against. I have no doubts it’ll take us all back to those wonderful times. When we were young. When we had hair. When we could eat or drink whatever we wanted without gaining weight. When wrestling was cool again. When it was more adult than we were. When we and WWE were at the peak of our powers and we all just seemed to be messing around and having a little more fun than we do today.

WWE’13 makes it all come flooding back. It takes me back 13/14 years. It makes me feel young again. And that, dear readers, is priceless. That is the exact reason I videogame. To feel wonder and awe and be amazed, to escape this reality for a time. Become someone else, a better version of me, to feel like a kid again. THE Kid again. The Vktory Kid, in amongst the big boys and true legends of not only the WWE Universe of the present, but an ageless, timeless wrestling universe I can mould, invent, ransack and dominate in any way I choose and be immortalised forever in…

I am The Vktory Kid. I am the destroyer and creator of universes. And this is my world, bitch.