WWE has had a bit of trouble with the gaming side of things lately: after falling to an annual release model a while back, the WWE 2k series has been struggling. It's difficult to make any real changes when the team only has nine months to create the product, and the fact that there's only one WWE game a year means that the company only gets one shot at a decent performance...the odds aren't exactly in the company's favor.
Maybe that's why WWE Immortals is so interesting. Instead of trying to recreate the action inside the squared circle with an extremely limited time frame, the team has completely ditched realism in favor of something so much more interesting.
What is WWE Immortals?
Remember Mortal Kombat and Injustice: Gods Among Us? The team behind those games - NetherRealm Studios - made WWE Immortals, and it's using its previous work as a template. Immortals is a 2D fighter, much like Mortal Kombat before it: while you won't see anyone getting torn apart, the game is far from realistic. This isn't John Cena desperately trying to hold a submission move; this is John Cena punching someone twenty feet into the air before slamming them back into the ground like Superman.
It's all about hitting those super moves, and it's nice to see that NetherRealm wasn't afraid to turn things up a notch or two.
Where can I play the game?
For now, WWE Immortals is a mobile game only. It's out today on both iOS and Android devices, meaning that just about anyone can play it. There's no word on any sort of upscale or re-release on other gaming platforms - but don't expect one anytime soon. These types of games typically don't hold up when making the jump to consoles, and NetherRealm would probably be better off making an entirely new port of the game than trying to make a mobile game work on consoles.
How much will WWE Immortals cost?
This is the best part: the entire game is Free-to-Play; all you'll need to do is download it from a Google Play or iTunes account. There's no word quite yet on what any microtransactions will entail, but there's a good chance that costumes, or even extra characters, may be lurking behind a pay wall.
As of now, however, the game is completely Free-to-Play: hooray!
WWE Immortals is a completely different kind of WWE game, but it's also the kind of change that the fans of these games have wanted...and who knows - maybe if the game does well enough, the game will get a full, console-based iteration?
One can only dream.
WWE Immortals is out now!
