If you’re a fan of classic arcade games from Midway, the name Sal Davita might ring a bell in your head. Sal has worked on a number of arcade games over the years, including Mortal Kombat 3 and NBA Jam (he was also featured as a playable character in that game). His latest venture, alongside his team at THQ San Diego, is WWE All Stars, an over-the-top arcade brawl featuring several classic and current World Wrestling Entertainment superstars, with everyone from The Rock to Hulk Hogan to John Cena. Check out our preview for more details, but for now, read on as we get inside Sal’s head to see what makes the game tick; we also managed to get a few Q’s in with WWE wrestling superstar Rey Mysterio, who appeared at the event. He took some time out of his Wrestlemania prep to chat with us (that discussion begins below the Sal Davita interview).
PXB360: How did you guys come up with the concept for WWE All Stars? Did you approach the company and say, “Hey, we’ve got this great concept for an arcade wrestling game” or did they come to you? How’d that work?
Sal Davita: THQ came to us…we’re actually a part of them now (here at THQ San Diego). THQ wanted a game involving the WWE license that was a different experience than Smackdown vs. Raw, so since the team’s history has been doing arcade games of the past, we wanted to take the license and make an arcade style of game, and wanted to incorporate some depth into the gameplay as well. It’s fast action, fast-paced, low down time, hard hitting, really responsive, easy to pick up and play but with enough depth that it takes time to master.
PXB360: We noticed that the wrestlers in this game have a cartoony style, all bulked up and everything. Was this your guys’ decision, to give it kind of a fantasy element that set it apart from other wrestling games?
Sal Davita: Because of the level that we were taking some of the moves to, like guys jumping a lot higher, throwing farther and hitting people a lot harder, we thought that realistic characters would be kind of confusing. It doesn’t fit the same world. So we beefed them up a little bit, kind of in the same style as NFL Blitz. So we started beefing them up, and as we did, they became easier to see and just read better on the screen. They look nice and have a realistic appearance, and not entirely cartoony. They’re bulked up versions of the real wrestlers. Andre the Giant, for example, is not muscular, he’s just huge. So we took the real body styles and exaggerated that.
PXB360: How did you guys go about making decisions about the game’s roster? Like who would be wrestling in the game and whatnot?
Sal Davita: It was a collaboration between THQ and the WWE. THQ basically wanted some people in the roster, WWE said “OK, we’ll go to town for you on some, and you know what we think you should include some of these guys, these are some of our growing stars as well.” It went back and forth, but the collaborative effort went really well.
PXB360: Now, a lot of people are wondering how Hulk Hogan got into the game. Since he’s not currently with the company (and with competitor TNA), how did you manage to secure him in the roster?
Sal Davita: We sold our soul. (laughs) It’s amazing. We worked with the WWE, they were very professional and business-oriented, and they said, “Okay, let’s see what we can do as far as Hulk goes.” And they helped get him into the game.
PXB360: About Fantasy Warfare…how did the WWE react when you approached them and said, “Hey, let’s put together these fantasy rivalries for the game?”
Sal Davita: We worked together with the WWE on that. We proposed the storylines, we had it massaged back and forth until it got approved. Very good to work with, though. They had great ideas. They helped us put the stories together, and we were happy with the collaborative effort.
PXB360: How did you go about setting up the awesome finishing move system?
Sal Davita: Actually, the idea for the finishers and the high-flying moves came from looking at their signature and finishing moves, and we were like, “How can we beef this up?” Through very specialized talent skills from our animators and designers alike, we took ordinary moves and combined them with other moves to give them extra twists and spins, a combination of things you see together. There’s a reason this isn’t done that often, it takes a very special group of guys to do this stuff. Our team just happens to have the right amount of talent.
PXB360: Lastly, it seems developers are going back to the old arcade style of games. NBA Jam just came back, Mortal Kombat’s coming soon…and now WWE All Stars. How do you feel about the arcade style of play coming back into the mainstream for a new generation of players to check out?
Sal Davita: I think it’s refreshing. I think it’s about time you can just step up to a game, start playing and have fun without having to invest so much time and effort into it. There’s so much of our audience that doesn’t have hours at a time to play a game. It’s just great to sit and have someone next to you, mother and daughter, father and son, and just have a game you can have a good time with. And the more you play it, the more you learn about it, and the better you’ll get at it.
This feature interview concludes on the next page, please click Page 2 below to see our discussion with WWE superstar Rey Mysterio.
