Am I alone in this frustration?

Back in prehistoric times—well, the ‘90s—I was introduced to wrestling through the game WWF WrestleMania Arcade. What stood out about this game, and what it had in common with some of the greatest wrestling games ever made, was its fast, arcade-style gameplay combined with striking visuals. The focus wasn’t necessarily on realism but on creating something visually engaging.

Take the SmackDown! series, for example. At the time, games like Shut Your Mouth, Here Comes the Pain, and the early SmackDown vs. Raw titles were among the best-looking games on the market. If you compared their graphics to other industry-leading titles, wrestling games often held their own or even looked better.

But somewhere along the way, that visual evolution stagnated. Instead of pushing graphical boundaries, wrestling games started to feel like they were falling behind. While it’s hard to call 2K’s games outright ugly, it’s clear they don’t carry the same ambition. The leaps in graphics have become smaller, sometimes barely noticeable, and in some cases, even regressive.

So, what happened? Beyond the obvious answer—that the main goal seems to be doing the bare minimum while relying on loyal fans to keep buying the same game every year—why has the visual aspect of wrestling games been neglected?

Do wrestling fans really need a roster of 300+ wrestlers when 70% of them rarely, if ever, get played? Wouldn’t that development time be better spent improving the game engine, refining animations, or, at the very least, making sure wrestlers’ hair doesn’t look like it’s molded out of plastic bricks?

Am I alone in this frustration, or do other wrestling fans feel the same way? Is it time to demand a game that actually looks like it belongs in the current generation?