Video Game / WWE All Stars

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WWE All Stars is a 2011 wrestling game developed by THQ San Diego.

In a departure from THQ's annual Smackdown Vs Raw series, All Stars takes a more arcade heavy slant with a comparatively smaller roster of current WWE Superstars and Legends in a wrestling/Fighting Game hybrid with exaggerated physiques and moves.

This game contains the following tropes:

• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: The intro for the D-Generation X challenge has Shawn Michaels and Triple H respectively.
• Button Mashing: When going for a cover, the person being pinned has to hit buttons rapidly to kick out, while the person making the cover can hit buttons to increase the size of the kick-out meter.
• Combos
• Dolled-Up Installment: In the sense that THQ used elements from the TNA Impact game as a basis and heavily refined/reworked it into an arcade-y wrestling/fighting WWE game.
• Dream Match Game: While the roster is a fair bit smaller than most WWE games before and after it, the roster still comprises a "who's who" of both the contemporary roster and legends of the past, as they were in their prime (give or take some added muscle). The Fantasy Warfare mode embodies this, being comprised of matchups between a Superstar and a Legend with something in common (or in Stone Cold and CM Punk's case, them being the polar opposite of one another).
• Exaggerated Trope: EVERYTHING.
• Final Boss: One for each Path of Champions: Randy Orton for the Superstars, Undertaker for the Legends and D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) for the Tag Team path. Due to a lack of a Mirror Match feature, these characters cannot be used in their respective paths.^note Undertaker is classified as a Superstar due to being active as of the game's release, despite being the final boss for the Legends path.
• Heroic Build: Every wrestler is impossibly muscular in the game but Triple H in particular is downright hilariously so.
• Instant-Win Condition: Hitting a finisher on an opponent whose life has been reduced to 0 results in a K.O. and a special pin animation. This makes for an effective way to win 3 or 4 man matches.
• Jump Physics: A lot of the finishers involve some very high jumps.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: In particular, John Cena's already prodigious jaw is expanded to incredible proportions.◊
• Medium Awareness: D-Generation X in their Path of Champions cutscene.
• Musical Spoiler: The main menu plays the theme of individual wrestlers at random. Even ones you've haven't unlocked yet.
• Neck Snap: Roddy Piper has him snapping his opponents' neck during his Sleeper Hold finisher.
• No Fair Cheating: Downplayed. Inputting a cheat code on the main menu screen unlocks all wrestlers and attires, but if you want to keep those unlockables, you'll have to unlock them by playing the game.
  • Averted with the 3DS port, as the cheat code is also the only way to unlock the bonus characters.
• The Rival: Invoked with the Fantasy Warfare mode, which pits a Legend against a Superstar with a certain theme in the match-up. The ones included in the game are:
  • Ultimate Warrior vs. Sheamus (Battle of two brawler-archetypes)
  • Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio (Mexican high-flyers, also rivals in their respective careers)
  • Ricky Steamboat vs. Kofi Kingston (Babyfaces with creative, energetic offense)
  • Curt Hennig vs. The Miz (Boastful heels)
  • André the Giant vs. Big Show (Battle between giants)
  • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs. CM Punk (Polar opposites; Austin's brawling style and love for beer vs. Punk's technicality and Straight Edge lifestyle - both are noted to be charismatic "role models" who influence the crowds in following their paths)
  • Bret Hart vs. Edge (Master technicians, both hailing from Canada)
  • Jake Roberts vs. Randy Orton (Sadistic and unhinged wrestlers with snake motifs)
  • Sgt. Slaughter vs. Jack Swagger (Patriots)
  • Hulk Hogan vs. John Cena (Two of the most popular Superstars of all time)
  • Randy Savage vs. John Morrison (Charismatic, attention-grabbing wrestlers)
  • Jimmy Snuka vs. Kane (Ruthless and aggressive competitors)
  • The Rock vs. Triple H (Former holders of the Undisputed Championship, had a decorated rivalry in the Attitude Era)
  • Roddy Piper vs. Drew McIntyre (Scottish Superstars)
  • Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (Continuation of their rivalry from Wrestlemanias 25 and 26)
    • Notably, the matchups for Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio, The Rock and Triple H, and Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker make mention of their own real-life rivalries over the years.
• Rule of Cool: The game is fueled by it.
• Recycled Soundtrack: For some reason, From First To Last's remix of "Hell March" is menu music.
• Shown Their Work: The developers looked through tons of matches from various points of each wrestler's careers to create their movesets, no matter how obscure said move could be. Any discrepancies can be chalked up to Rule of Cool).
  • There's also the impressive broadcast-style video packages for Fantasy Warfare mode, simulating how a video setting up the particular fantasy match would look like on WWE programming. For example, the Stone Cold and CM Punk package features spliced footage of both sides cutting promos on each other, contrasting Austin's recklessness to Punk's preaching.
• Spectacular Spinning: Several of the moves are given extra spins and twists if at all possible such as any of John Morrison's big moveset. This even happens to Eddie Guerrero's Frog Splash even though the move doesn't have any spinning in real life, turning it more into a 450.
• Tag Team: There are tag team matches in the game, but all Tag Team contests are under Tornado Tag Rules, meaning all four competitors are in the ring and there is no tagging.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Imagine Randy Savage perfoming an elbow drop at the same height as the Titantron, only for Randy Orton to counter it with an RKO. Mind you, this is an RKO which is as big as the aforementioned elbow drop.
  • Or simply seeing golden age WWE legends like Randy Savage, Bret Hart and Ultimate Warrior in their prime take on the contemporary superstars like Kofi Kingston, CM Punk and Sheamus. Sure, plenty of other WWE games let you play such matchups, but here it's front and center.
• Updated Re-release: The 3DS port of the game includes two new modes: Score Scramble^note in which the player competes to win 50,000 points or have the most points in a timed battle and Gauntlet^note In which you are tasked with wrestling the entire roster. Additionally, all DLC characters from the console versions are included and unlocked with a cheat code.