Mord, you’re a pig. We all know what you did during E3, so here’s my little payback. Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes del Ring as written by a girl.

Honestly, I know nothing about Mexico’s own WWE type wrestling called Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA for short). Being a Cali-girl, I’ve seen a few matches here and there on Spanish TV once in a while. My dad and my brothers were totally into it more so than WWE (or WWF at the time).

For those not in the know, a quick run-down:

AAA is the wrestling promotion company in Mexico. The style of wrestling in the AAA is called Lucha Libre or “free-fighting” in translation. You have good guys and bad guys (in the game too!): Tecnico (good guys) and Rudo (heals of Lucha Libre).

What Lucha Libre really means is high flying, somersaulting, high risk taking, little boy’s testosterone pumping fun. For me, it means watching super fit, naked men, sweating and jumping all over each other.

And what girl doesn’t fancy that now and again?

Hellooo nurse!!!

The game itself from published by Slang and is developed by super fans of Lucha Libre over at Immersion Games/Sabarasa in Mexico. And you couldn’t get more authentic.

The dev has done a solid effort in capturing the Luchadores and the look and feel of the Lucha Libre AAA wrestling. I couldn’t help but get into the daily tournaments our E3 crew started having at the Slang booth. We just couldn’t help ourselves. No matter what anyone tells you, I won 2 out of 3 tournaments beating all 3 Editors at E3.

We went back even after our mini tourneys were over and snuck in a few rounds whenever we could. The game is that good.

Graphically speaking, going hands on with the PS3 version, the title is solid. The Luchadores each have their own unique entrances and clothing styles and you see every bit of the detail there on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions (Wii version, we’ll leave alone). Movements and corresponding spandex stretches are not just mapped wrinkles, but they happen in real time. Masks move and get wet with sweat over time. Wrestlers have a sheen about them and gets more fluid as the matches carry.

Control wise, it’s really excellent. I can’t describe it any other way. I rarely play wrestling games as I find the WWE efforts to be too complicated. To pull off a move, you need to do a variety of button combinations and grabs.

Even the guys find those too complex.

Luchadores have perhaps more high flying stunts than WWE wrestlers do, so I was expecting a very complicated button system. Instead, it’s an elegantly smooth control scheme that’s worth mentioning over and over again.

You can just pick up the game and play. Simple button presses for punches, kicks, grabs, and the moves you execute are determined by your crowd popularity. Do moves that the crowd on your side and you’ll build up to better move sets.

The “star” meter is nothing new in wrestling, but Lucha Libre’s execution is spotless and clean. It took us all about 10 minutes of practice time before we got our tourney going on day 1.

This a game filled with love for the Luchadores. Everything in Lucha Libre shows it. From the detailed entrances to the well acted and voiced storylines, it’s all here. But Sabarasa wasn’t finished there. You’ll find unlockable Luchadore backgrounds telling you stories of how real Luchadores got into wrestling from their previous lives as male strippers (I LOVE THIS GAME!!!) and even build your own wrestlers complete with customizable everything (entrances, body shape, mask details, tatoos, special moves-including the low-blow guys-, etc).

On-line gaming is even better with full 1-8 players supported and there are persistent-MMOG aspects as well. You see, Luchadores have hair and mask matches, where the loser loses his hair or mask. These are persistent changes with the ability of the winner to keep a trophy room of masks and the loser losing his hair or worse…his mask. The hair grows back slowly, but have to do things like win 10 matches on-line before it’s all back to normal. Masks, you lose it, you’ve got to earn it back as you get the lowest of the low status.

My favorite part, besides having button mashed my way to kicking the crap out of the boys? There are changing storylines and the announcers are in the original Spanish!

Release is expected on or around August 10, so it’s right around the corner. We can’t wait to lace up our masks again.

(More info over at heroesdelring.com)

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