WWE 2k22 Reveal: Shooting From The Hip – VGU Reacts

*Vince McMahon has given up on WWE 2k22*

I’m just going to start this off with a link to my review of WWE 2k20, which I gave an F as it went in a complete one-eighty compared to the previous iteration which I really enjoyed. It was buggy but it was still fun to play and I really enjoyed the story. With the resurgence of wrestling video games such as Retromania, Action Arcade Wrestling, and the upcoming AEW video game as well as the equally as impressive “The Wrestling Code“; the disastrous WWE 2k20 launch that carried over into 2020 looks even more problematic. The game had a Y2K-esque problem where the game had difficulties with the platform’s internal clock once January of 2020 started and would cause the game to crash. There was also the somewhat troubling issue involving the collector’s edition plaque of WWE legend Edge which was advertised to have been signed by the Rated R superstar arriving without the signature.

Last year it was announced that WWE 2k21 would be skipped in favor of “WWE 2k Battlegrounds” which would be developed by Saber Interactive and would be in the same look as their NBA 2K Playgrounds games. I was optimistic for the game to be something good but the micro-transactions left me with a bad/irritated feeling. That is the reason I chose not to review it and instead I aired my frustration with the game during the Game of the Year podcasts.

Before WrestleMania Night one, the WWE 2K Twitter account made a post telling people to keep an eye out (no pun intended to the Seth Rollins/Rey Mysterio storyline involving tearing an eye out). In between matches there sure was a trailer alright. It was about 30 seconds long and maybe showed half of that in-game. It featured Rey Mysterio making an entrance mixed with live-action footage of the former member of the Filthy Animals and then cut to him getting ready to hit the 619 on Cesaro.

My initial thoughts when I saw the above picture of Rey Mysterio were very much that of “Let’s Go!!!” But ever since then I have been waiting for the other shoe to drop with this game because there hasn’t been a really good wrestling game since 2013 in the form of WWE 2k14. The irony is that WWE pushed for 2K to put the game out as quickly as it did as the mega-corporation didn’t want to lose the sweet video game money that the games brought in. At the end of the day, it’s not Take-Two, Visual Concepts, but WWE who has the final say in what happens with the final version and no matter what that final product looks like whether it’s good or bad.