Let's talk about 08's new addition to the series, Fighting Styles. Each Wrestler can have 2 styles, one primary and secondary. The styles add additional moves and abilities to a wrestler's default moveset. The primary style also offers an additional ability when the player charges up a momentum bar from doing damage. The Styles are (from SVR 08's Wikipedia Page):
"The game featured the Fighting Style System which would not appear in later games until the release of WWE 2K18, where the system has returned. With each style, the character would adopt a series of preset abilities. And, depending on primary ability, they would also be able to perform a unique move that can only be activated if the player has a stored finisher icon.
The fighting styles were Powerhouse, Showman, Hardcore, Dirty, Brawler, High-Flyer, Submission and Technical.
Wrestlers with the powerhouse fighting style can break out of a pin attempt with just one button press, unless they had sustained a large amount of arm damage. They could also do a powerful Irish Whip (later named a 'Hammer Throw'), which could cause damage if the opponent hit the corner turnbuckles. A player (regardless of weight) could be sent reeling over the top rope with the force of this move. Their special ability was called 'Rampage', a temporary adrenaline rush in which their grapple moves could not be reversed or blocked.
Technical wrestlers automatically reversed all quick grapple moves until they had taken a good deal of arm damage. They also had the ability to perform diving attacks onto opponents outside of the ring. Their special ability was an adrenaline rush that allowed them to counter every attack for a limited time.
Showman is one of the more common kinds. Performing taunts or dives from higher positions cause a faster rise in momentum. They also have 2 special abilities. One allows them to perform one of their opponent's taunts, and if uninterrupted, the opponent is be unable to gain any momentum for a limited time. They can alternatively copy their opponent's finishing move if in the correct position to do so. However, the copied move is weaker than the original.
The most common kind is the Brawler. Brawlers can sit on a downed opponent and punch their opponent's head repeatedly. They also have a special combination of 3 to 5 strikes. If the first strike connects, the defending wrestler is not able to block, avoid or counter the remainder of the strikes in the combination. Their special ability is called 'Wreck Shop', a limited adrenaline rush in which all opponent strikes are countered and all strikes become unblockable.
High-flyers can perform springboard diving attacks to opponents inside or outside of the ring. Instead of countering or side-stepping attacks, they perform an evasive roll. Their special ability is a possum pin. After recovering from being knocked down, a high-flyer can remain on the ground. If the attacker attempts a grapple move, the defending wrestler will go for a pin attempt which is difficult to break out of. However, if the opponent attempts a strike, then the pin attempt is lost.
Submission wrestlers can break out of Struggle Submissions with ease. They can also force an opponent to submit to any Struggle Submission, even if it is not a finisher or signature move.
Dirty wrestlers, like Chavo Guerrero, can perform dirty moves, which boost their momentum faster. They can also remove turnbuckle covers and use weapons to build momentum. They can also use the referee as a human shield, making themselves immune to all attacks. When they release the referee, they shove him into the opponent. This is difficult to avoid and momentarily stuns the opponent and the referee. Their special move involves an eye-poke and a low blow which causes a lot of damage to the head and torso.
Hardcore wrestlers get momentum bonuses for using weapons. They can also perform grapple moves while holding a weapon. If they try to use a steel chair with full momentum, they automatically perform the Steel Chair DDT. If they are caused to bleed, they instantly get full momentum. Their special move can only be performed with a steel chair in hand. They strike themselves in the face repeated until they bleed. While this causes full momentum, it also causes critical head damage."
Now that we have all the styles laid out, let's talk about them and how they act.
The main benefits of the system is how they give an understanding of the wrestlers even when you haven't played them. A Player who's never played Sabu will instantly have an idea of how to use him and what he can do because of his hardcore and high flying styles. In addition, they also specialize characters. In prior games, there would be no mechanical difference between Wrestlers like The Big Show (a 400 lbs monster) and Rey Mysterio (a 200 lbs acrobat) aside from Rey being unable to lift heavy characters and having a different stat distribution. In fact, in my youth, I used to make characters like Big Show with the moveset of Rey. Both can do flips and massive jumps. So you could in theory, play these wrestlers in similar ways. The abilities now mean the Big Show Player would need to rely more on Show's strength and the Rey Player on Rey's agility and speed to use each wrestler to their fullest. Another problem this solves is Dirty characters. In prior games, when selecting a wrestler, you could choose if they were clean (i.e Babyfaces who are cheered) or dirty (i.e heels who are booed). Dirty characters would do dirty moves and be villainous which was to be expected. But it put characters like Eddie Guererro and Ric Flair in a bind because these wrestlers were (at many times) faces. They were cheered at many points as the good guys despite using heel tactics. In fact that was a part of their charm. But in the prior games, if the player wanted them to fight dirty they'd have to be heels as well. Of course, 08's styles allow for characters to fight dirty regardless of alignment. So now a dirty wrestler can be cheered or booed regardless of being dirty fighters. This also solves the other problem of say, a Wreslter in the vein of Roman Reigns who's not a heel and tries to be a face but is booed anyway.
Let's talk about some negatives. Firstly, not all of the styles perfectly fit every wrestler. Like Matt Hardy may be a showman but I don't think he ever stole a finisher or a taunt. Jeff Hardy and Edge may be extreme with weapons but they don't have the bleeding powerups of Sandman. And Vince is surprisingly strong as a powerhouse. This is something future games would fix by separating abilities from the styles and giving them rather than whole styles to wrestlers. So a wrestler in SVR09 would have 3-6 abilities better reflecting them. So Matt Hardy would have all his showman stuff plus a few others and no possum pin or finisher stealing. And the 2k Games would add more to it.
Now we get into some other side effects of the systems. From a gameplay perspective, some styles are more useful than others. Showman, Powerhouse and Brawler can be used in pretty much all match types to a decent extent. High Flyer, Technical and Dirty are also useful but are somewhat limited without the ring. Submission Artists work best in 1-on-1 matches where Submission is a thing. Otherwise they offer no extra benefits. Hardcore can either be really useful or a deadweight depending on the match type. In any matches with weapons, they are on point. But In regular singles matches, the most you can get out of them is their bleeding abilities. Which is of limited help. It's worse for them in Royal Rumbles where they're likely to be eliminated long before those abilities can even help.
The Wikipedia Page also lists the following
"This system was highly criticized as these pre-setting gave some wrestlers abilities which they cannot actually use, or stopped them from using common moves. For example, Carlito and Chavo Guerrero did not have the ability to perform any of their springboard attacks, and Mr. McMahon was as strong as some of the larger characters in the game. Also, the choice of fighting styles limited the variety of moves available in create-a-moveset.
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