SvR Ultimate Control Moves

    In doing research to decide how I would like the player to control their wrestler, I have been looking back at previous pro wrestling games to see how they handled it. From the button mashing controls of WWF Royal Rumble on the SNES, to the input combination controls of WWF Warzone on the PS1, to the proto flow chart controls WCW/NWO Revenge on the N64 that we still see today; I think the best controls of any pro wrestling game belong to WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2007.

    The devs at Yuke's introduced several innovations in 2006's entry of yearly WWE games, but the most important of these was the Ultimate Control Moves system. This system is important because, like the name suggests, it gives the player much more control over how, where, and when moves are performed. Having been sadly missing from wrestling games for nearly 20 years, I'll explain how ultimate control works. Starting from a base grapple, the player chooses the ultimate control move assigned in the chosen wrestler's moveset. From there, the player can walk around the environment or pick from two to three moves to perform. These extra moves range from spinning, to flexing, to lifting the opponent higher, to finishing with a drop or slam. These moves are also sensitive to player position and the environment, allowing the player to chokeslam an opponent from the ring over the ropes to the floor. As an example, the powerbomb ultimate control move first prompts the player to click R3 or move the right stick up. Clicking R3 lifts the opponent into a powerbomb. From there, the player is prompted to spin the right stick or move the right stick down. Moving the right stick down slams the opponent to the mat and prompts the player to move the right stick up for a repeating powerbomb. The move ends after the player performs 3 slams or the opponent reverses when the player moves the right analog stick. With a choice of 4 different ultimate control moves out of an included 12, one can see how many additional moves could be included in a wrestler's moveset and how much more control the player had over their wrestler.

    Not only was the system used in wrestlers' movesets, the system was also used for another innovative feature: environmental moves. When a player had an opponent in a grapple, the player could drag their opponent around the ring and environment and into defined environmental grapple moves. If the player dragged their opponent into the corner, the player entered the classic corner 10-punch ultimate control move. If the player dragged their opponent to the ropes, the player entered the rope bounce ultimate control move by straddling their opponent over the top rope. Again, the ultimate control system greatly expanded a wrestler's moveset and gave the player even more control over their wrestler.

    Expanding the actions that a player can perform and giving the player more control over their wrestler. These are the two aspects that are so important in making a pro wrestling game. Positioning, techniques, move variations, pacing, all of these things that have to be taken into account by a wrestler during a match are all essentially solved with the ultimate control move system. So, in the next post, I'll go into detail about how I'm using the ultimate control system as inspiration for Ring General.