SLAMMED!

Text adventures seem a bit quaint nowadays in our age of big budget AAA studio titles, but they just may offer something that the expensive titles so en vogue cannot. I approached Slammed with a certain amount of trepidation, but its meager asking price and appealing concept made it a rare case of a new release that I just had to buy outright without waiting for a sale or bundle, and I'm glad that I did jump right into it.

I've long been a fan of professional wrestling. It's been an off-and-on affair since my childhood, and it's too storied an ordeal to go into full detail here, but suffice it to say that a wrestling game that really captures the whole grimy, carny experience has long been on my wishlist. For obvious reasons of damaging the image of their product, WWE is not interested in providing such an experience, but the intertwining wrestling storylines and backstage issues is part of what keeps many longtime fans such as myself engaged in the product. Most video games care for nothing but emulating the athleticism of the events. This is something that Slammed has no ambition of doing, and that may be its one shortcoming, but it wonderfully presents the other side of the coin.

Slammed has a minimalist presentation that will be familiar to anyone who read the "Choose Your Own Adventures" books that seem to have disappeared since the mid-90s or so. There are very few graphical representations of the action, but instead we are treated to rich, storytelling that details that ever-illusive behind-the-scenes picture of wrestling. What's more is that you have a lot of freedom over the personality of your character, and the game never judges you for the choices that you do make. You can be a clean-cut babyface in a major promotion or a renegade outlaw wrestler on the indies, and that's the beauty of the game. There are such major differences depending on what you choose, and no matter what direction you go, it feels plausible and authentic.

That's essentially all the game has to offer. It's a simple game, and there's only so much to say without spoiling the entire plot, but Slammed is immensely satisfying for providing what other games lack. If you are hoping to get control over the athletic aspects of pro-wrestling, this is not the game as there is no action, but it provides a great counterpoint to the action games of WWE, Spike/Human, and others, and I think there is plenty more that could be mined from such a genre of game as the wrestling adventure. Choice of Games may not have the budget to make the game that I ultimately want to see based around wrestling, but it's a great effort nonetheless, and it never overreaches. If you are not a fan of pro-wrestling, you might find other titles by this developer more to your liking, but anyone with an interest in that genre of entertainment cannot miss Slammed, and even non-wrestling fans would probably get a kick out of this, provided that they like interactive fiction. A beacon of hope within the sometimes frustrating wrestling genre of games.

Text adventures seem a bit quaint nowadays in our age of big budget AAA studio titles, but they just may offer something that the expensive titles so en vogue cannot. I approached Slammed with a certain amount of trepidation, but its meager asking price and appealing concept made it a rare case of a new release that I just had to buy outright without waiting for a sale or bundle, and I'm glad that I did jump right into it.

I've long been a fan of professional wrestling. It's been an off-and-on affair since my childhood, and the it's too storied affair to go into full detail here, but suffice it to say that a wrestling game that really captures the whole grimy, carny experience has long been on my wishlist. For obvious reasons of hurting their business, WWE is not interested in providing such an experience, but the intertwining wrestling storylines and backstage issues is what keeps longtime fans such as myself engaged in the product. Most video games care for nothing but emulating the athleticism of the events. This is something that Slammed has no ambition of doing, but it wonderfully presents the other side of the coin.

Slammed has a minimalist presentation that will be familiar to anyone who read the "Choose Your Own Adventures" books that seem to have disappeared since the mid-90s or so. There are very few graphical representations of the action, but instead we are treated to rich, storytelling that details that ever-illusive behind-the-scenes picture of wrestling. What's more is that you have a lot of freedom over the personality of your character, and the game never judges you for the choices that you do make. You can be a clean-cut babyface in a major promotion or a renegade outlaw wrestler on the indies, and that's the beauty of the game. There are such major differences depending on what you choose, and no matter what direction you go, it feels plausible.

That's essentially all the game has to offer, but Slammed is immensely satisfying for providing what other games lack. If you are hoping to get control over the athletic aspects of pro-wrestling, this is not the game as there is no action, but it provides a great counterpoint to the action games of WWE, Spike/Human, and others, and I think there is plenty more that could be mined from such a genre of game as the wrestling adventure. Choice of Games may not have the budget to make the game that I ultimately want to see based around wrestling, but it's a great effort nonetheless, and it never overreaches. If you are not a fan of pro-wrestling, you might find other titles more to your liking, but anyone with an interest in that genre of entertainment cannot miss Slammed, and even non-wrestling fans would probably get a kick out of this, provided that they like interactive fiction. A beacon of hope within the sometimes frustrating wrestling genre of games.