Since 1987, War Games has been a staple of professional wrestling, whether it’s been in Jim Crockett Promotions, WCW, MLW, WWE NXT or the main roster of WWE. TNA/Impact did its own version called Lethal Lockdown and AEW has its own variant called Blood and Guts that uses the original JCP rule set and double-roofed cage. WWE’s version uses shark cages to hold people in, while the original version had folks on the outside planning strategy on-camera. Despite it being an active stipulation for 35 years, no video game has yet had a branded War Games match in it.
Some games have come close with creative stipulation altering, however, such as WWE’s own games up until WWE 2K14. The best option has been the Elimination Chamber match offering six-person tag team options, which meant that you could choose not only the participants for the tag match, but the timed intervals were very similar to War Games. The key to that match from day one has been about getting sympathy on the babyfaces and having a 2-on-1 advantage for the heels – usually.
One of the most fun matches to run in this setup was Daniel Bryan and a combination of partners against The Shield in 2K14. There, it made for a fantastic David vs. Goliath story of Bryan trying to overcome the odds, and it could be told several ways. I could have Bryan take a beating from Reigns to start and then have the heels dominate him before his partners come in or tackle Rollins in a more even exchange size-wise and the odds are still stacked, but not as much.
The ability to pick the order of entry made it possible to set a rough framework in mind for how you want the match to go and then see if it works out exactly as you want, or maybe even better. I loved the thrill of seeing just how much of a dent I could put into everyone flying solo until allies came in, or even better, having the partners get eliminated early on and then have a tougher challenge of beating everyone as one person.
The debut of War Games allows that same kind of drama, but with more room to tell the tale. It’s a two-ring setup with a grate in the center of the rings. The WWE version of War Games takes the roof off of the structure and it doing so, makes it more game-friendly for things like diving off the cage. Time will tell exactly what’s possible off of a cage. Most games use a default move like an elbow drop off the cage, although it would be nice to have a wrestler’s full flying arsenal available.
It would be nice down the line to have an option to do a roofed version of the cage or not just for variety, similar to how prior 2K games had both the new and original Elimination Chamber structure in them. Being able to fight on top of the Hell in a Cell is a lot of fun and that’s something that was cool to see in the few War Games-style matches that featured in. WCW usually used it for babyfaces going after heel managers, while TNA gave current WWE star AJ Styles cart blanch to do whatever he wanted on the top of their Lethal Lockdown cage – including using a ladder. WWE War Games matches usually feature weapon usage, which is another thing that TNA set up with their variant by having the roof lower with weapons on it. That will be retained in the WWE 2K23 version with new entrants bringing weapons into the ring.
The War Games match itself predates most wrestling games on the market period, so to finally have it featured in a game is a bit of a dream come true. The match concept is perfect for video games and the War Games-style chamber with trios matches showed that in execution for many years. The match formally being included is something I never figured we would see given that it’s been around a while in NXT and it wasn’t in the games yet, but it will featured with both 6-person and 8-person options for some flexibility. It isn’t yet known if there will be any limits placed on the last-gen versions of the match, but one would imagine that with more characters on-screen at one time, the mode would be best-experienced on current-gen hardware.
The PS4 version of 2K22 performed nicely with large-scale multi-person matches, so hopefully that trend continues here as well. The ability to have a War Games match straight away is something that newcomers to the series may one day take for granted, but is something that feels truly special as a long-time fan of not only this franchise, but most other wrestling games on the market. Visual Concepts needed something to put a stamp on this entry as a bold new mode and this is a perfect chance blend the best of the trios chamber tag matches with the War Games rule set and match structure.
