THQ is becoming a powerhouse of the fighting genre with two WWE games and its first UFC game—all developed by Yuke’s Osaka. The publisher introduced its latest wrestling title, Legends of Wrestlemania, at the E3 Media Summit. The new game ships in conjunction with Wrestlemania 25 in Houston next March for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

“This game is a throwback to the old school wrestling games and is aimed at gamers who may find other WWE games too complex,” said Paul Edwards, lead designer, THQ. “All controls are handled with four buttons and the control stick, which makes it easy to jump into the ring and fight.”

With a roster of 40 professional wrestlers, including Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, this game will focus on Wrestlemanias from the past 25 years. The game has an arcade feel and the wrestlers have a slightly exaggerated look to commemorate how fans remember them from the old days—before pyrotechnics and theme songs turned pro wrestling into a spectacle.

THQ also has a new WWE game shipping this fall—WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2009, which will be released across all platforms. This game adds a new host of online features, including downloadable characters, to the mix. The game also takes customization to another level, offering fans the ability to create a wrestler, an intro (complete with song), his moves, and now design original finisher moves.

“Fans are going to go crazy with this,” said Cory Ledesma, lead designer of the game. “They’re going to have full control over 500 different animations. They’ll be able to link 10 different moves together for a finisher and even control how fast each move unfolds. Finishers can be assigned to any wrestler in the game. Once created, a finisher can be used anywhere in the game, including online action.”

Given how rabid WWE fans are, they’ve shown they’ll support multiple WWE titles before. After all, THQ used to release three different WWE franchises (one on Xbox, PS2 and GameCube) not too long ago.

While there’s no acting in Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC has a growing fan base that’s also eager for anything associated with the mixed martial arts sport. THQ is delivering the first in what should be an annual offering of UFC games next summer with UFC 2009: Undisputed. The game’s unique blend of fighting styles was demonstrated at the show.

“One of the major goals of the team is constant control,” said Nevin Dravinski, THQ’s product manager for UFC. “No matter what angle you’re at or what position you’re in, you’ll always have full control of your fighter. The move sets will be contextually based, so that when you’re on the ground your options are completely different from when you’re standing away from your opponent or going toe-to-toe with him.”

THQ also had plenty of action that didn’t involve sweaty men grappling each other. Red Faction: Guerilla from Volition picks up the Mars warfare 50 years after the events of the first game. This marks the next generation debut of this game, which has come up to the surface and shed its first-person perspective. Guerilla still retains the destroy-everything gameplay that made the original game stand out. The heroes of the first game, the Earth Defense Force, are now the villains that the miners are fighting.

“The game is now a third-person perspective open world game set above ground,” said Ishmael Vicens, associate producer of the game. “We’ve focused on physics-based and stress-based destruction. Everything in the game can be destroyed. And the way in which buildings crumble is based on the materials with which they were built. This adds a strategy element to destroying structures, since you can target a particular floor of a building and take that out. It’s all based on where the impact originates and how that structure was erected.”

This really opens up the multiplayer, since maps start one way and end in a state of rubble. The freedom to creatively take out enemies using the environment makes this game stand out from the crowd of shooters.

When THQ and Volition released Saints Row, there was no GTA competition in that release window. This year, the sequel will bow against the downloadable content from Rockstar for Xbox 360. And there are likely plenty of more mainstream gamers who will be getting GTA IV as a Christmas present this fall. But Saints Row 2 offers a much more polished and larger sandbox gameplay experience than the original. It also manages to differentiate itself from GTA enough that the large fan base that bought the original won’t be disappointed the second time around—at least from the early E3 build.

“We have planes, motorcycles and assorted boats, including jet skis, speedboats and yachts,” said Scott Phillips, lead designer of the game. “Players get to experience Stillwater from all angles this time around. The game now features verticality. Flying around in the air adds a whole new dimension to gameplay. We’ve incorporated vehicles like the chopper and motorcycle into the mission structure of the game.”

Cooperative gameplay allows gamers to work together in said vehicles to take down rival gangs while wreaking plenty of havoc along the way. Phillips added that the storyline progresses both characters as they progress through the action.

Rounding out the THQ offerings are a pair of very different, original Wii titles. Deadly Creatures is a Teen-rated game that puts players in control of a tarantula and a scorpion in a film noire-style storyline that focuses on a murder mystery. But the action takes place on and under the ground with an assortment of bugs, snakes and dangerous, deadly creatures.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Everyone-rated de Blob, a game that debuted at last year’s show. It focused on an unlikely blob of primary colors who’s literally out to paint the black-and-white town and free its citizens from the control of an evil ruler. The game’s simple to control with the Wii Remote and it’s a title that certainly stands out from any other game on any console.

by John Gaudiosi