Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes del Ring First Look

If you're an American wrestling fan, you've probably been brought up in the worlds of WWE and (to a lesser degree) TNA. If you're a bit older, you probably remember the bygone eras of ECW and WCW with some fondness. And, if you're even older, you might go back to the NWA days or elsewhere. One of the beauties of wrestling, however, is its international appeal: It's entertainment that has huge followings in countries like Japan and Mexico. While Japanese wrestling fans have long enjoyed games based on their favorite promotions, Mexican lucha libre fans haven't been as lucky. The upcoming Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes del Ring looks to change that, with a new wrestling game devoted entirely to Mexico's beloved AAA (Asistencia Asesoria y Administracion) promotion.

Lucha Libre's roster is full of AAA promotion talent; a handful will even be familiar to fans of American wrestling, including well-known talents like La Parka, Konnan, and Psicosis. That said, there are some essential aspects that separate Lucha Libre--both the style of wrestling and the video game--apart from its competitors. In the game, you'll play as either a face or a heel (a good guy or a bad guy, essentially), and these roles will be a big factor in how you are perceived by the crowd, as well as what you need to do to succeed in the ring.

While the good guy/bad guy dichotomy has blurred a bit in American wrestling, there are still clearly delineated roles in Mexican wrestling. If you're a tecnico (or a face), your goal will be to get the crowd behind you by performing high-flying moves in the ring and adhering to the rules. On the other hand, a rudo (heel) doesn't play by the rules, is prone to taunt his opponent (and the crowd), and will frequently use foreign objects like chairs or other weapons in the ring.

In game terms, all of this translates to each wrestler's popularity meter. During a match, you fill up the meter by performing moves according to your role. A heel will be looking to taunt the crowd and get his opponent outside the ring to administer a good beating. A face character, however, will be trying to perform skillful moves and get the pin in the middle of the ring. What's interesting about the system is that as your popularity meter increases, your move set will increase accordingly. With your meter nearly full, you'll have access to new holds and throws that you wouldn't have had at the beginning of the match. Once you've filled out your meter completely, you'll be able to perform your special finishing move.

We had a chance to play the game at Konami's Thursday press event and found the controls easy to get used to. The X and Y buttons (on the Xbox 360 controller) are for punches and kicks, respectively. The B button is for strong attacks, and you can use the A button to climb the turnbuckle or leave the ring. Grappling uses a combination of the left or right trigger (for strong or weak grapples, respectively) and various face buttons. Finally, you can perform various taunts by pressing in any direction on the D pad. As a heel, you'll gain more popularity for doing taunts outside the ring, while a face wrestler will earn popularity for performing taunts inside the ring. There's also a damage indicator which will show you where you and your opponent are hurt, and you'll need to work on certain areas in order to prepare an opponent for a submission move.

Like any wrestling game worth its salt, Lucha Libre will have a full Create-a-Wrestler mode that will let you create your luchador from scratch so that you can customize his outfit, mask, tattoos, body style, and even available move set as you see fit. You can use that wrestler in the game's Career mode, which features separate face and heel storylines. The developers were keeping multiplayer details close to the vest now, but we do know the game will support online multiplayer and that there won't be tag team wrestling in the game in any form. Specialized types of matches--including mask-versus-hair stipulations--were hinted at, and we're looking forward to seeing the variety of match types that make their way into the final version of the game.

While Lucha Libre has a lot going for it in terms of concept, we're hoping the game tightens up in the months ahead of its release. There's not a lot of variety to the wrestler animations and things like contact detection and AI are still rough around the edges. Still, with a few months left to go before the game's August release, we're keeping our fingers crossed that Lucha Libre lives up to the high-flying style of entertainment that it's named after. Look for more on the game in the coming months.