This article was originally written for TheNintendoVillage.com, a website I founded and ran from 2018 to 2021.

2K’s NBA Playgrounds series has done a solid job of stripping back the excesses of its mainline NBA 2K sim games in favour of more accessible arcade basketball action. WWE Battlegrounds aims to do the same for the publisher’s wrestling franchise and from the demo build we played, it looks like Saber Interactive have successfully pulled off a similar trick.

Stylistically, Battlegrounds follows in the footsteps of its basketball-based cousin, with comically stylised versions of the WWE superstars you know and love. The final roster promises to be an impressive one, with each wrestler divided up into one of five categories; Powerhouse, Brawler, All Rounder, Technician, and High-Flyer.

The different classes do affect the way you approach matches. A powerhouse like The Undertaker will has more throws available to him, whereas an all-rounder like the The Rock can mix things up with a wider array of combos. Taking different strategies with different wrestlers according to their class definitely paid off.

Raw Talent

Not that Battlegrounds is overly complex. There’s enough depth there to reward clever play, but it’s super-easy to pick up and layeth the smacketh down. The over-the-top arcade nature complements that pick-up-and-play approach wonderfully too.

***The arcade gameplay complements the over-the-top nature of WWE wonderfully.***

Seeing Jeff Hardy toss Andre the Giant 12 feet into the air before landing a slam is ridiculous fun, and the environments lean into that sense of the preposterous too. I was happily kicking the stuffing out of Asuka as Ronda Rousey in the Everglades arena when a giant Alligator leaned over the barrier and slapped me to the floor.

Fists become wrapped in flames at the climax of combos, grapples can result in tossing your opponent across the arena like they’re made of paper, and the high-flyers can easily reach one end of the ring from another with a carefully timed leap off the ropes. It’s all insane, and makes for some hilarious OTT moments.

As mentioned though, there is some depth to proceedings. Taunting or dealing damage helps build your Heat meter, which in turn allows you to execute certain counters or pull off special moves. A well-timed block can turn the tide of a match, so there’s rewards for paying attention and reacting accordingly (as opposed to just mashing attack buttons).

Each wrestler also has three powerups - accompanied by plenty of razzle-dazzle special effects - which can be used once they’re charged up. These range from delivering unblockable attacks to shaking the very arena with an earthquake. It seems you’ll be able to choose from a range of these in the final game, but we had to make do with the default ones in our demo.

Electrifying

There were only two match-types on offer this time around too: Fatal 4-way and a 2 vs 2 Steel Cage bout. The former was fairly straightforward, though it was a ton of fun to launch exploding barrels at John Cena before dropping a car on him. That pales in comparison to the lunacy of the steel cage match mind.

Here, you’re tasked with filling your money meter by climbing part way up the cage to grab bags of cash. Once that meter’s full, you’re able to climb over the top. Your opponents can of course attempt to pull you down, but I found that was less of an issue than getting electrocuted.

***Matches feature some (literally) shocking moments at times, making for hilarious outcomes.***

Yup, Saber Interactive have electrified the steel cage and poor ol’ Dwayne Johnson got fried a few times before being launched backwards into the ring like Timmy off the perimeter fence in Jurassic Park. First time that happened I howled laughing, and it was even funnier when it happened to my opponents.

All in all, WWE Battlegrounds is shaping up to be a fun arcade brawler. It should be noted that our preview was on a PC build of the game, so we can’t speak to how it looks or runs on Switch as yet. Nor do we know how pervasive any microtransactions will be (though it’s worth noting that they weren’t quite as bad in NBA Playgrounds 2 as they were in its predecessor).

It remains to be seen if there’s enough modes in the final game to keep fans interested for any length of time too, and we also don’t know how deep the create-a-superstar mode will be. But the core carnage is wonderfully fun, and bodes well for the rest of the package.