People often say that success breeds competition. For years, one publisher has dominated the wrestling genre with a strong lineup of titles for various systems. When you think about it, while there have been titles that were somewhat better than what THQ had to offer (Human/Spike's Fire Pro series), no one has been able to enjoy the financial success with wrestling games that THQ has. A couple of months ago, Electronic Arts entered THQ's territory with Def Jam Vendetta, and now THQ has replied in grand fashion with Wrestlemania XIX.

What sets WMXIX apart from other wrestlers on the market is how different it actually feels. Weak grapples are performed in a manner that's similar to the Smackdown! games, where you simply tap A and a direction to execute a move. You can also perform strong grapples that are reminiscent of the AKI wrestlers, where you'll enter a grapple and then have full access to your moves, not to mention the ability to position your opponent anywhere you want to by using the left analog stick. This system works extremely well, as moves that look out of place with AKI's grapple system (such as arm drags and snapmares) are used as weak grapples while everything else can be used as a strong grapple.

As in the Smackdown! series, you can also use strikes while in a grapple, a fact that makes reversals much harder to anticipate, since you need to press L for grapples and R for strikes in order to reverse them. Finishing moves are done by pressing A and B simultaneously to activate your special meter, and then pressing them again in certain situations for your finisher. For example, Rey Misterio has a facebuster finisher when in a front grapple, a 450 splash when on the top turnbuckle, and the 619 when he's running towards the ropes.

Aside from the changes to the grapple system, the pace of the game has also been significantly slowed down compared to X8. Fighting a match is now a methodical process, even with two high flyers like Rey Misterio and Rob Van Dam. That's not to say that the lightweights won't be able to take to the skies once in a while, but it's much harder to have "spotfest" matches with the slower speed of the game. For those who like actual wrestling matches, this is a welcome change, although some people may be turned off by the fact that you actually have to wear down your opponent before trying any high-risk moves.

While there are over forty characters slated to appear in the game, the playable demo at E3 featured only Brock Lesnar, Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, the Big Show, Rey Misterio, and Rob Van Dam with the RAW stage being the only arena you could fight in. Each wrestler looked far better than in previous games, rivaling the models that were created for RAW 2 on the Xbox. They even had their own little habits built into the game. When you activate Kurt Angle's special move bar, he actually takes off the straps of his wrestling tights like he does in real life, and Hogan actually "hulks up" when you activate his. Wrestlers will also hold certain body parts if they've been attacked often. If you apply a lot of submission holds onto someone's leg, they'll eventually start clutching it and limping around the ring for the rest of the match. This makes the experience of the game that much closer to the real thing than any other game before it. Oh yeah, did we mention that you could also bust open someone with a weapon or a hard strike to his head?

The revamped story mode is unlike anything that we've played before. Right from the start you are fired by Vince McMahon, only to be rehired by his daughter Stephanie (shades of Mr. America?). Your ultimate goal in this story mode is to actually sabotage Wrestlemania and prevent it from happening. This is accomplished by attacking construction workers and wrestlers that are involved in the event itself. It's a nice twist to the usual season mode, and THQ has stated that regular matches will also occur in story mode for those who don't like tossing random people into bottomless pits.

After many gamers complained that Wrestlemania X8 didn't live up to their expectations, THQ has a big job ahead of it in convincing fans that last year was simply a case of bad luck. Even though it's 50% complete, WMXIX looks like it'll make up for last year's mistake and then some. It has all the right ingredients for a great wrestling game, so here's hoping that they'll all come together nicely and give GameCube fans a reason to pick up the game when it comes out this summer.

· · · Reno