Wrestling games and myself go hand in hand; my first review for AceGamez was a wrestling title and I've got a review under my belt for every major WWE game since. So, when it comes to determining if Day of Reckoning 2 is a title for you, who better than me to let you know? Not Kanyon, that's for sure.

Day of Reckoning 2 literally picks up right where last year's Reckoning left off, in more ways than one. This statement is especially true for the story mode, which starts immediately after last year's, with your character as a successful main event star. However, the gameplay is largely unchanged from the first game, which makes a full purchase hard to swallow for fans who bought Reckoning.

Since you can't transfer your created wrestler from Reckoning, you'll have to rebuild him or simply make a new one and pretend you used him in the previous title. All your rivalries from before are carried over and numerous times you'll see references to storylines from the last game. At the start of this game, strange things are afoot; the WWE title that you were preparing to face Triple H for at WrestleMania has turned up missing and now everyone in the locker room is under the spotlight, as the thief is searched for.

Since the Gamecube has limited storage there are no voiceovers in Reckoning 2, not that I'm complaining that much, seeing as SmackDown vs. RAW and WrestleMania 21 couldn't do anything noteworthy in this area. With that in mind you spend a lot of time reading, which isn't really a bad thing. The writing here is surprisingly well done - for wrestling standards at least! Fans of the on-air shows will actually read the stuff here and be able to realistically imagine these guys saying it. The story is quite engaging as well, since it is after all a classic whodunnit mystery, so you'll be unable to help yourself from playing on to see who, in fact, dunnit.

Unfortunately, the rest of Reckoning 2 falls onto its face like a wrestler misjudging a top rope body splash. The gameplay will feel very familiar to those who played the last game, as little has changed. You still only have a set of quick grapple attacks and strong grapple attacks from in a grapple hold, which is now ridiculously called catched [sic] state. Two other new additions include a Stamina meter that, when depleted, causes your wrestler to walk slower and need to stand still to take a breather. It sounds cool but it just isn't really done that well and becomes a nuisance more than anything (don't say I just dislike realism, because I love this feature in the Fire Pro series.)

The second feature is a bizarre submission system where you select between four hold types when applying a submission that determines how the hold affects your stamina and special meter, as well as your enemy's. THQ claims this new system is skill-based, however, when the victim gets this move applied he selects between the same four options and if it matches the attacker then the move is reversed. I tell you, I had to practice this for hours before I could master the amount of 'skill' this took. As my good friend Dexter Pearson would say... I nearly broke a sweat! Your sarcasm radar should be off the charts right now; needless to say the new system is not good and offers a total amount of zero fun to the overall package. The reversal animations aren't even that good for these moves and I when I selected the "Taunt" submission option I actually expected the animation to change. Nope, they're always the same. Awesome!

I'm sick of WWE games getting lazy and repackaging the same game with new 'features' in a way that would put Madden to shame. They even went as far as changing the names of a few of last year's new inclusions. Remember the Momentum Lift where, if you had enough momentum, you could lift up someone significantly heavier? That's now called the... dun dun dun, POINT OF LIFTUP! Right - and that classic show of strength between two wrestlers - always appropriately known as Test of Strength - well, that's now the Test of POWER! Oh, and I know many of you wanted this next feature and guess what! You finally get it... blood stains the mat! I've wanted this feature, hell I even mentioned it in my review of last year's Day of Reckoning. When I saw that it happened in this game I was thrilled! How great hardcore matches will be now that you can see the brutal nature of the match, as blood marks are left everywhere. You'll be able to recall that very first chair shot 20 minutes later when the blood is still on the mat. Well, you could, if the blood actually stayed there for more than 30 seconds.

I hate to sound like your grandma when she nags at you for having holes in your shirt, but you can't help but feel the team got lazy with this one. The Gamecube WWE series still seems to play second banana to PS2's SmackDown; guess what match type SmackDown has had three years running and Day of Reckoning doesn't get? That's right, the Elimination Chamber. I bet you players out there who only own a Gamecube are thrilled about that, especially since SmackDown vs. RAW 2006 is getting the Gamecube's only exclusive feature in the create-an-entrance.

Other small changes have been implemented as well that really didn't need to be. The cool feature from last year that allowed you take a photo of your created wrestler is rendered almost useless now, as it displays completely differently from the regular roster, making it feel very out of place and just plain silly. Special moves can now be stored up SmackDown style to use at any time, unlike before where you could only use them when you were performing well (it seems like SmackDown and Reckoning switched here, as the next SmackDown will reward you for using your special when the time is right - looks like Yukes and THQ thought the feature was 'too good' for Reckoning!)

Finally, the animations. The new ones are good - great even. I was really impressed with almost all the newly added moves. Unfortunately, most of the animations remain unchanged from the last game and some are even from back from when the series was known as WrestleMania. This is not a good thing. Very few moves actually connect and have an impact, as most just result in the enemy randomly falling over in a way that makes little sense. This game really could have used a total overhaul of every move, or they could have at least made them all look like they were properly hitting something. If they had done that I might have been able to forgive the fact that you don't get any new slots for extra grapple moves. I've had numerous matches where it would have felt exactly like I was playing the first Day of Reckoning had it not been for the fact that the gameplay is significantly slower, one of the few good changes in Reckoning 2.

The Create A Wrestler mode is still as good as it was before, but not much better overall. The characters you create do look just as good as the pre-built roster and have a lot more options than any other CAW out there, but I couldn't even bear the thought of recreating my Day of Reckoning roster just for them to play exactly like they did before.

One thing that may throw some players off is the limitations placed on your character. Depending on what stats you give him, the moves you can select are limited. If you don't put your striking abilities up then you won't be able to pull off martial arts moves; likewise, characters with limited aerial moves cannot use highflying moonsaults. It's an admirable decision but for people that just want to have their roster of guys who play as they want will probably be annoyed. This feature would be great for an online game or a title used heavily in the eFed scene like the mighty Fire Pro, to keep everything fair, but it just isn't necessary in Reckoning 2 in my honest opinion.

The sounds remain very similar as well, which is both bad and good. Some attacks have great impact while others have an effect that just doesn't seem to fit (and hasn't fit since Wrestlemania X8.) The music however has been vastly improved, mainly consisting of original rock tunes as well as a few licensed songs by A Dark Halo that really do fit the action well... but maybe that's just the metalhead in me coming out! Don't expect any really mainstream acts like Anthrax or Zebrahead this year, though, which is a good thing.

The graphics are fantastic. Better than last year's even, which is quite something. But that hardly amounts to anything for those of you that actually played last year's title. It just isn't enough to warrant a purchase of this one. The bottom line is that if you own Day of Reckoning there is little reason, if any, to own the sequel unless you're dying to play through the story mode... but that is unlikely.

WWE Day of Reckoning 2 is indeed the best grappler on the Gamecube, for what that's worth, but that won't help it break the traditional WWE Gamecube score of 8. In more ways than ever, Reckoning 2 feels like an afterthought for the Yukes team to get one last Gamecube wrestler out there before they go out with what appears to be a real winner with SmackDown vs. RAW 2006. I wish that wasn't the case and I'm not a PS2 fanboy, but DoR 2 just doesn't offer anything new to the genre like SmackDown has tried to do last year and looks like doing this year. Reckoning 2 is simply there for Gamecube owners to accept as theirs, whether they want to or not... and I, for one, no longer want to.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).