______________________________
\                            /
\                          /
|     ____      ____     |
|    |    |    |    |    |
___       __    | __ |    |____|_  _|____|       ___  ________
\  \     |  |   ||  ||    |\   __\ \___   |      \  \ \___    /
___\  \    |  |   ||  ||    | \  \    |  |  |    ___\  \    /  /
/  / \  \   |  |   ||  ||    |  \  \   |  |  |   /  / \  \  /  /
/  /___\  \  |  |___||  ||__  |___\  \  |  |  |  /  /___\  \ \  \
/______/ \__\ |_____/||_____/ /_______/  |  |__| /______/ \__\ \__\
__   __   __      |    | __ | __ | __ | ___|              __
|__| |__| |  | __ |    |||__|||__ ||__ |  | | |     | |\ | | _
|    | \  |__|    |_||_|||  \||__ | __||  | | |___  | | \| |__|
|    |    |    |    |    |
|    |____|    |____|    |
/                          \
/____________________________\
___________________________________________________________________________
/____________________________FAQ_&_MOVELIST________________________________/
By Jerrold Ng
jiyau@yahoo.com
Version 2.0
Disclaimer
==========
This FAQ is for private and personal use only. It can only be reproduced
or placed on a web site as long as it is completely unaltered, with this
disclaimer notice appearing in full, and with permission granted by the
author. The web site carrying this FAQ should make sure that it is the
latest version, which can be obtained through http://www.gamefaqs.com.
This FAQ is not to be used for profitable or promotional purposes;
this includes being used by publishers of magazines, guides, books, etc.
or being incorporated into magazines, etc. in any way. With all that in
mind, feel free to distribute this FAQ among the puro-gaming community :)
New in Version 1.0
==================
- First version!
New in Version 2.0
==================
- Fixed a fair bit of errors (spelling, grammar, translation errors etc...)
- Corrected some of the earning point techniques in Career Mode
- Corrected some of the movelist, added new stuff here and there
- Added stuff about Streamers, thanks to MrMDK
- Filled in some of the missing ???? menu translations
- Shortened the move assign menu for easier viewing
- A ton of other new stuff in the miscellaneous section
___________________________________________________________________________
/_________________________TABLE_OF_CONTENTS________________________________/
1.0 Introduction           [My rant/review, basically]
2.0 Game Modes             [Translation for most of the menus]
3.0 Play Guide             [Basic and advanced wrestling techniques]
4.0 Power Make             [Create your rookie wrestler here]
5.0 Career Mode            [Build up your rookie wrestler here]
6.0 Mini-Movelist          [Wrestler's specialty and rush moves]
7.0 Miscellaneous Stuff    [Tips, tricks and other odds and ends]
8.0 Acknowledgements       [Acknowledgements, what else?]
To quickly jump to a chapter of choice, press CTRL-F (Windows Browsers)
or Command-F (Mac Browsers) and type in the section number followed by a
single underscore e.g. 8.0_ to get to the Acknowledgements chapter.
___________________________________________________________________________
/__________________________1.0_INTRODUCTION________________________________/
When Square-Enix (back then just Square) unleashed All Star Pro Wrestling 2
into the puro gaming community, the reaction was decided mixed. There were
a number of glaring faults with the game engine, most commonly mentioned
being the flawed stomp-till-you-die gameplay. Also, the total absence of a
create-a-wrestler mode is totally inexcusable, considering that just about
every other wrestling game out at the time already have them, and have them
done well. That being said, ASPW2 has an otherwise solid system. It had a
well-built wrestling system core, and if you work at it, you have no problems
coming up with four-star or higher matches at regular intervals.
Though being such a perceived flop, one would believe that Square-Enix would
have dropped the idea of ever touching the wrestling genre again. And then
came ASPW3, which, in all sense of the word, is a remarkable effort. It's
loaded with plenty of excellent features that many puro gamers have wished
to be in a game. The boys at Square-Enix have done their homework; one can
imagine them having this conversation at their little meetings :-
"Create-a-wrestler is a must! The current best is that silly excuse of a
wrestling game, Exciting Pro Wrestling." "Let's one up that game by being
able to tweak every bloody MUSCLE on your CAW! And let 'em create massive
giants and tiny midgets! I'd like to see other games try that!"
"How about CAW spaces? That's going to be limiting right?" "Ah, just let
'em save separate CAWs using our patented wonder compression file. Then
it'll fit dozens upon dozens of CAWs on every memory card!"
"A lot of people wanted to put their CAWs faces on the select screen. How
the hell do we do that?" "Put in photography mode, duh."
"A lot of people like to rename their finishing moves." "We'll go one
better and let 'em rename a whole bunch of moves in their entire movelist!"
"A lotta people complain about that infinite stomping bit in ASPW2." "Hey,
put in stamina! Swing too many punches and you'll get winded! And let 'em
get up faster!"
"Everybody complained that ASPW2 had no entrances, you know." "Hah! We'll
put in the best freaking entrance sequence ever in a wrestling game! Just
you watch!"
"But what are we going to put in that will set it apart from all the other
wrestling games out there?" "Well, easy! Put in a hot underage CG chick!"
Well okay forget the last one. Seriously, the Square-Enix crew has put a
lot of effort into improving the downfalls of ASPW3, and it shows. While
it's still not the perfect wrestling game (I don't think any game will be,
not for a while anyway), it's still an excellent addition to the sparse
wrestling game genre.
So what are the downers? Well, most have to do with the new Power Make
mode. It's powerful when in comes to body shapes and faces, but it's
incredibly sparse when it comes to costumes. You won't be making any
fancily dressed wrestlers in the game, that's for sure. Also, everyone
in Power Make starts of weak as a puppy, so you will need to play through
career mode with each and every one of them to get them to the point where
they can challenge for titles or even have an entrance for that matter.
Sure, career mode is fun, but do you need to go through it so many times?
But what really comes down to it is this - it's got the same basic engine
of ASPW3, and it's capable of creating some classic matches. That's perhaps
the most important part of any wrestling game, in my opinion. ASPW3 does it,
and does it well. I'd go as far as to say that if you're a wrestling game
fan, you need to check this title out pronto!
Gameplay - 8/10  [Some nitpicking here and there, otherwise solid gameplay]
Sound    - 9/10  [Great sound effects! You'll feel every slap]
Music    - 8/10  [All the official themes are in]
Graphics - 9/10  [Graphically unmatched by any other wrestling game thus far]
Replay   - 7/10  [Not many wrestlers, but you can create tons more]
Overall  - 9/10  [If you're a wrestling game fan, get this game now!]
Now that my little review/rant is done, lets get down to the game proper!
___________________________________________________________________________
/_____________________2.0_GAME_MODE_EXPLANATION____________________________/
The main menu of All Star Pro Wrestling III consists of the following
(this part is in English, so it's not hard to figure out) :-
__________________
|_NORMAL_GAME______| - Goes to the main game mode for normal matches
|_POWERMAKE________| - Goes to the Power Make menu
|_OPTION___________| - Goes to the option menu
|_DATA_____________| - Save/Load game data and delete your Power Make data
|_SPECIAL_(LOCKED)_| - Allows you to edit existing wrestlers
This section will explain the details of NORMAL GAME, OPTION and DATA.
POWERMAKE is too massive to explain here, so it's got its own section
a little below this one.
NORMAL GAME
===========
Upon selecting NORMAL GAME, you'll get three options :-
______________
|_SINGLE_______| - One-on-one match
|_TAG__________| - Two-on-two match
|_BATTLE_ROYAL_| - Four-way elimination match
Select one of these are two small options appear below them :-
______________
|_NORMAL_MATCH_| - A normal player match
|_CPU_MATCH____| - Everyone is computer-controlled
After this you'll get to the big list of match options. The options are
mostly the same for all three match types :-
___________________
|_BEGIN_____________| - Select this only after you've set every other option
|                   |   in this menu. Brings you to character select
|___________________|
|_SELECT_PLAYER_____| - Decides control which player will control who. This
|                   |   game supports up to 5 players with multi-tap; four
|                   |   wrestlers and the referee. To switch control of
|                   |   the ref press down. Note that when you select COM
|                   |   as the player you'll get to choose COM 1 to COM 5.
|                   |   This is the COM difficulty of that particular
|                   |   wrestler. COM1 opponents are dumb as a rock, while
|                   |   COM5 opponents are strong and evil. And yes, you can
|                   |   choose different COM levels for different wrestlers
|___________________|
|_MATCH_TYPE________| - The type of match
| -> EXHIBITION     | - A basic exhibition match
| -> TECHNICAL      | - This one only appears in Singles and Battle Royal.
|                   |   More info on this below
| -> TITLE MATCH    | - A title match. More info below
| -> TORNAMENT      | - Joins a tournament. More info below
|___________________|
|_MATCH_TIME________| - Choose from 15, 20, 30, 45, 60 minutes or
|                   |   Unlimited Time for your match
|___________________|
|_NO._OF_FALLS______| - Choose from one fall or two-out-of-three falls
|___________________|
|_MATCH_RULES_______| - Changes the match rules
| -> PINFALLS       | - Whether you can win by pin fall or not
| -> SUBMISSIONS    | - Whether you can win by submission or not. Don't
|                   |   switch off both pins and submissions or the game
|                   |   will warn you that you can't finish the match!
| -> KO             | - Turns on or off KOs in the match. When you're down,
|                   |   the ref will count to ten then end the match if this
|                   |   rule is on
| -> ROPE BREAK     | - Turns on or off the rope breaks. If it on you will
|                   |   automatically break a hold or submission when too
|                   |   near the ropes. Off means you  can perform any move
|                   |   near the ropes. Loose means the ref won't end the
|                   |   the match when you perform a pin or submission near
|                   |   the ropes, but you can keep them on if you want
| -> DQ             | - Turns on or off Disqualifications. If on, the ref
|                   |   disqualify you for holding onto a submission near
|                   |   ropes or during tag, your partner stays in the ring
|                   |   longer than the five count. Loose means the ref will
|                   |   still count, but not actually DQ you
| -> RING OUT COUNT | - Sets the ring out count to 10 count or 20 count or
|                   |   Loose. In the case of loose, the ref will count and
|                   |   restart the count over and over, but not actually
|                   |   count you out
| -> REFEREE HIT    | - Allows to hit the referee, if you're feeling mean
| -> PARTNER HIT    | - This option only appears in the Tag menu. Turns on or
|                   |   off the ability to bash your own partner (out of
|                   |   sheer frustration maybe?)
|___________________|
|_VENUE_____________| - Chooses your venue, ring and mat
|  -> VENUE SELECT  | - Choose a venue (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka or Fukuoka)
|    -> RING SELECT | - Choose the ring designs of NJPW, ZERO-ONE or NOAH
|      -> MAT TYPE  | - Choose the available mat types
|___________________|
|_RING ANNOUNCER____| - Choose from the two ring announcers, Hidekazu Tanaka
(NJPW Announcer) or Ryu Nakata (NOAH Announcer)
Upon selecting all your match options, choose the BEGIN (the first option).
For exhibition matches, you can now pick your wrestler and referee, then the
ass-kicking begins! If you had picked a Technical Match, you have to defeat
your opponent using a specific action. The menu for this appears after you
have selected your wrestler of choice. From left to right, they are :- Win
By Pin Only, Win By Submission Only, Win by KO Only, Win By Weapon Strike
Only, Win By Performing Specified Moves Only. These are pretty much
self-explanatory. If you had chosen a Title Match, you would have picked the
titles you are to defend. The titles available are the IWGP titles from NJPW,
the GHC titles from NOAH, and the fictional ASWG (All Star Wrestling Glory)
titles.
When you choose a tournament match, you'll be brought to a totally separate
menu. First option is NEW GAME or CONTINUE. CONTINUE obviously lets you
resume a previously started tournament. NEW GAME takes you to the tournament
brackets. Here you can enter where your player appears in the bracket. After
entering your player or players, the rest will be filled up with COM
Wrestlers. Now select which wrestler the player(s) will control. After that,
you can enter everyone else in the tournament one-by-one or just select AUTO
to chuck in random wrestlers into the brackets. Finally select END when
you're all done. During the tournament, if you decide to exit, you can save
the tournament thus far and resume at a later time.
Note that created wrestlers cannot fight for titles or enter tournaments
until they finish career mode with S Rank.
OPTION
======
These are the available options here :-
________________________
|_ENTRANCE_[ON/OFF]______| - On or off the wrestler entrance
|_RING_INTRO_[ON/OFF]____| - On or off ring introductions
|_COCKPIT_[ON/OFF]_______| - On or off the tension bars and portrait
|_COUNT_DISPLAY_[ON/OFF]_| - On or off the count display
|_MOVE_NAME_[ON/OFF]_____| - On or off the move name display
|_CAMERA_FLASH_[ON/OFF]__| - On or off the flashing cameras in the crowd
|_CAMERA_CHANGE_[ON/OFF]_| - On or off dramatic camera angles for moves
|_VIBRATION_[ON/OFF]_____| - On or Off joypad vibration
|_GAME_BGM_[ON/OFF]______| - On or off the background music during matches
|_CAREER_VOICE_[ON/OFF]__| - On or off voices during career mode
|_BGM_VOLUME_____________| - Adjust the background music volume
|_SE_VOLUME______________| - Adjust the sound effects volume
Thanks go to Muka of the Gamefaqs board for the initial translation of
this menu.
DATA
====
The available options here are :-
__________________
|_DATA_LOAD________| - Loads game data
|_DATA_SAVE________| - Saves game data
|_AUTO-SAVE_ON/OFF_| - On or off automatically saving after changes are made
|_DELETE_POWERMAKE_| - Deletes a Power Make Wrestler off your save file. You
cannot delete a wrestler that is in the current four
Power Make slots. Go there and vacate him from his
slot first
PAUSE MENU
==========
When you pause the game during a match (with the START button, naturally)
you'll get to the Pause Menu. It's pretty much the same as the OPTION main
menu for the most part :-
________________________
|_COCKPIT_[ON/OFF]_______| - On or off the tension bars and portrait
|_COUNT_DISPLAY_[ON/OFF]_| - On or off the count display
|_MOVE_NAME_[ON/OFF]_____| - On or off the move name display
|_CAMERA_FLASH_[ON/OFF]__| - On or off the flashing cameras in the crowd
|_CAMERA_CHANGE_[ON/OFF]_| - On or off dramatic camera angles for moves
|_VIBRATION_[ON/OFF]_____| - On or Off joypad vibration
|_GAME_BGM_[ON/OFF]______| - On or off the background music during
|_RESTART________________| - Restarts the current match
|_QUIT___________________| - Quit the match and go back to the main menu
SPECIAL (LOCKED)
================
This menu becomes available once you have cleared all four paths in career
mode (see that chapter for more info on this menu).
___________________________________________________________________________
/___________________________3.0_PLAY_GUIDE_________________________________/
The game has changed a little from ASPW2, but the main controls stay pretty
much the same. Here are the basics :-
Controls
========
Direction Pad - Give directions to your partner during tag team matches
Analog Left   - Moves your wrestler about
Analog Right  - Crowd Reactions
[] (Square)   - For pinning and entering/exiting the ring
> <            - Light Attacks Button
() (Circle)   - Medium Attacks Button
/\ (Triangle) - Strong Attacks Button
R1            - Pick up an enemy to a face front capture
R2            - Pick up an enemy to a reverse capture
L1            - Taunt 1
L2            - Taunt 2
Striking - Easy. Simply hit any of the three attack buttons to strike an
opponent. > < produces weak strikes, () produces medium strikes, and /\
produces strong strikes. If you hold towards an opponent on your Analog Left
while pressing the buttons you'll have another set of strikes. Strikes will
also differ with the position of your enemy, whether his back is turned, or
the stance he is in (standing, kneeling, in the corner, down on the mat, and
so on).
Capture and Grappling - To grapple your opponent you first have to capture
him. To do so, press R1 or R2. R1 is a normal capture. R2 is a reverse
capture, meaning if you press R2 while he's facing back you'll turn him to
the front, and if you press R2 while he's facing you, you will turn him to
his back. After that, press the three attack buttons or three attack buttons
plus forward on the Analog Left to put on the hurting. While front capturing,
pressing away on the Analog Left and one of the three attack buttons will
allow you to perform hammer throws, discussed in more details below.
Knockdown - Like the previous game, if you're a little away from your
opponent and he's running at you, press towards him and R1 or R2 to tackle
him and knock him down to the ground. You opponent can counter that with an
R1 or R2 press of his own, resulting in you being knocked face down in front
of him instead, not a good position to be in.
Test of Strength & Grapple Clutch - If both you and your opponent hit R1 or
R2 at the same time, you'll enter either the Test of Strength or the Grapple
Clutch. Now, simply tap any attack buttons as fast as humanly possibly to
win the grapple. The odds of you winning depends largely on how fast you tap
and how much stamina you have left.
Tension - Like before, tension plays a major part in how your match flows.
Both wrestlers start off at low tension, and as you exchange blows, your
tension will increase. The more damage you suffer, the faster your tension
goes up. Also, the more often you do strikes without any pause, you tension
will go up as well. If your tension goes past HIGH due to damage, you will
get GROGGY. When groggy you cannot perform captures and move very slowly.
If an opponent catches you while you're groggy he can perform more powerful
maneuvers on you. If your tension goes past HIGH due to you attacking
non-stop, you will get TIRED. When tired, you will have to pause to catch
your breath, and this allows your opponent to attack your defenseless self.
This, and the quick opponent get up, removes the greatest flaw of ASPW2; the
unlimited stomps. This also discourages you from repeatedly using strikes of
any sort; you have to mix it up now.
Stamina - If you look at heads up display a little more, you will notice two
bars below the tension indication. The first bar is the Rush Bar, which is
explained in more detail just below. The second is the Stamina Bar. As you
get injured your stamina bar drops. When it's near empty (almost all red)
you will get GROGGY much easier, and will find it hard to kick out of pins.
Basically, you're pretty much dead. Finally, you'll also see a little green
figure indicating body part damage. Damaged body parts go from green to
yellow to red. Once these hit the red zone, it's fairly likely you will
submit if your opponent locks on a submission on that part. There's a
tell-tale sign when that body part goes out; the injured wrestler will
writhe in agony while clutching that injured body part when he's down.
Rush Mode - As you get your ass handed to you in a match, you'll notice
the top little green bar going up. This is your rush indicator. When it
hits max, you'll see RUSH Ready at the tension indicator. Now comes the
newest feature of ASPW3! To manually activate Rush Mode, press all four
of the top shoulder buttons (L1 + L2 + R1 + R2) at once. Your wrestler
will then do a quick Goldberg impression and you'll be in Rush Mode. At
this time, you will get up much faster after getting knocked down, and
counter grapples much easier. You also cannot be pinned or trapped in a
submission at all. Rush also lets you perform Rush moves, last-ditch
desperation moves and finishers only available when in Rush Mode.
Finally, Rush also lets you steal an opponent's finisher (more on that
below). There's a time limit for Rush Mode; once you're out of it you'll
be in TIRED mode for a little bit. Also, getting nailed by an opponent's
"Favorite Hold" (his specialties; they're marked "F/H" if you turn move
names on) decreases your Rush Bar. The first F/H you perform on your
opponent depletes his Rush Bar completely, after that the amount depleted
from the Rush Bar decreases with each application of a favorite hold. If
you want to cheat a little bit, check the tips and tricks section for a
method to manually fill up any rush bar (you or your opponents) real
quick. If you're too lazy to go there, tap left on your Right Analog
Stick to fill up your Rush Bar faster.
Steal Finisher - Here's a neat little trick you can use as well during
Rush Mode. Upon entering Rush Mode, press R1+R2 and your wrestler will
perform a little taunt. Now you can steal your opponent's finisher!
First of all, you need to know how his finisher is done. For instance,
Misawa's Favorite Hold is the Tiger Driver, done with Front Grapple and
/\. So press R1 and R2 simultaneously, the grab Misawa and press /\.
Instead of doing your own /\ move you will now do the Tiger Driver. Note
that you can only steal moves that are Favorite Holds (marked with
"F/H" in the move names) and nothing else, so it helps if you know your
opponent's movelist very well. Though if you grappled and didn't get his
favorite hold right you can keep trying. Once you have stolen his
finisher once you cannot doing it again for the rest of the match. By the
way, stealing a finisher depletes your opponent's Rush Bar.
Hammer Throw - To hammer throw an opponent, front capture him then press
any other direction other than forward on the Analog Left then press any
of the three attack buttons. If the direction of the stick is to the
ropes, you will whip him to the ropes then perform a running counter. If
the direction of the stick is to the corner, you will whip him there and
then do a running corner attack. You can also press [] instead of the
attack buttons, in which case you will only whip him and not run to attack.
Manual Running - New to ASPW3 is manual running. Simply hold down [] and
move to do manual running. This helps you get around the ring much faster.
Countering - To counter strikes, simply press R1 or R2 when the opponent's
strikes are just about to hit you. Strikes from all directions (near, behind,
running, top rope, apron side, etc) can be countered this way. When an
opponent is running at you, you can also press an attack button or attack
button plus Analog Left towards him to perform a running counter. To counter
a grapple simply mash the attack button until your fingers are sore when the
word Reversal appears. Same with trying to break out of a submission hold.
Ground Techniques - These are done exactly the same way as strikes, except
the opponent is down on the ground. Just like ASPW2, the variations of moves
that can be locked on is staggering. Attacking face up at head, left arm,
right arm, left leg, right leg, feet, all can differ. There's another set
when your opponent is face down as well. Each section can potentially have
six different attacks (just the attack buttons or press towards plus attack
buttons) though most wrestlers don't have them all filled up with different
attacks, obviously. If you are a little away from the prone body and attack
you'll do running attacks. Believe if or not, these can ALSO differ depending
on which direction you run at him at. That's a hell of a lotta ways to hurt a
grounded opponent.
Corner Attacks - Once you've chucked your opponent to the corner and he's
staying put, you can then perform corner attacks. Pressing strike buttons at
different distances to your opponent will have you perform different strike
or running strike attacks. To perform corner grapples like the Superplex,
press towards your opponent and an attack button. Another new feature of
ASPW3 is the Tree of Woe position. To get him in this position, when he's
in the corner, capture him with R1 then press []. To perform corner to corner
attacks, once he's in the corner, capture him with R1 then whip him towards
the furthest turnbuckle. Not everyone has corner to corner attacks though.
Aerial Attacks - To climb a turnbuckle and perform an aerial attack, just
press towards a vacant turnbuckle and an attack button and you'll climb
it. The attacks will differ depending on whether your opponent is standing
or flat down on the ground. Certain attacks require your opponent to be down
in a specific position. His body must be lying perpendicular to you standing
on the turnbuckle; I call this the Splash Position. Don't worry too much if
he's a little out or not facing up; he will flip over if necessary and
re-adjust himself to better take your moves (wrestling is fake after all,
even in a video game). This is of course assuming your wrestler has that
sorta move in his arsenal in the first place. If you climbed the turnbuckle
and suddenly decide not to perform an aerial attack, press towards the center
of the ring to cancel it.
Jump Out of the Ring - If an opponent is standing nonchalantly outside, you
can perform an attack to him while still in the ring. Simply press towards
him and any attack button. The attack varies when you are near the ropes or
far away from it.
Jump Out From Top Rope - To jump out to the opponent from the top rope to
the outside, you'll need your opponent outside near the middle section of
the ropes. Assuming your wrestler has that move, press towards the corner
nearest to your opponent and he'll climb the turnbuckle then do a suicide
dive to the outside.
Rope Attacks - A new category of attacks in ASPW3 is the rope attack. Go
near the ropes and press towards the rope on the Analog Left then []+/\.
Your wrestler will climb out then slingshot back in. Not all wrestlers
have it of course, if you want to try it, use light heavyweights like
Marufuji or Kanemaru.
Outside - Bored of staying in the ring? To go outside, walk to the ropes and
press [] and the direction towards the rope. When you're outside, things to
try include whipping your opponent into the side barricades (and watch them
dent) or whip him head first into the corner post (and watch him dent). When
you are on the ramp, you can even jump off the ramp and attack him when
he's on the floor below. If you want your opponent to be outside instead of
you, hurl him out by capturing him while your back is to the ropes, then
press towards the rope and any attack button or []. NEW in ASPW3 - when you
are outside and he's inside, and you want him to join you outside, when he's
near the ropes press R1 or R2 and you'll drag him out of the ring feet first!
Assuming you've punished him enough on the outside, you can also attack him as
he's coming back in with...
Apron Side Attack - When he's climbing back into the ring (not rolling back
in, that doesn't work) press towards him and an attack button to perform
apron-side attacks. Most wrestlers have the simple suplex to inside ring, but
some others have more spectacular ones like Misawa's Apron Side Tiger Driver.
The spectacular ones are a little harder to do though, since the time frame
for you to perform these are a lot shorter.
Down for the Count - When you are downed and your opponent pins you, tap any
attack button rapidly to kick out. The odds of you kicking out depends on
how fast you tap and how much stamina you have left, of course. When you're
down on the mat after a particularly long battle, you can stay unconscious on
the mat, pinned or otherwise. A little picture of the rotating stick and the
tapping buttons will clue you in as to how to get back to conscious state.
When downed you can also roll around the ring and even right out of it to
avoid getting pinned. Simply hold the Analog Left in the direction of where
you want to roll to. Rolling is disabled if the KO Rule is turned on, for
obvious reasons.
Pinning and Flipping Over - To pin an opponent, press towards him and []
when he's down. You can run over from just about any position close by
and pin him. If you're near and you press [] without pressing the stick
in his direction, you'll flip him over instead. By the way, like ASPW2,
in order to keep the pin on you must hold down the [] button. This also
applies to moves that end with a pin, but in those cases hold down the
button you used to initiate the move.
Submissions - Just like with pins, to keep a submission on you must hold
down the button used to initiate the move. If you are the one being locked
in a submission, just wail at the attack buttons. Screaming profanities at
the screen also seems to help.
Combo - Performing certain moves will result in a big word COMBO appear at
the bottom of the screen. When the word is still there press an attack
button to combo into another move or turn your current move into something
else entirely. For certain combo moves, pressing different attack buttons
can result is different combinations of moves.
Bleeding - If you repeatedly strike your opponent's head with strong moves,
chances are he'll start bleeding, causing a mess all over the mat. If you
keep attacking the same spot while he's still losing the red the referee may
call off the match due to excessive bleeding.
Wanna do a Groggy? - Many of the wrestler's best moves can only be done on
a groggy opponent. So how do you get an opponent groggy? Sadly, there isn't
any shortcut method thus far anymore unlike ASPW2. However, the groggy state
appears much more often when your opponent's stamina is down to around
one-quarter or so. Picking him out when he's down on the mat or out in the
corner still seems to induce a groggy state more often than not, especially
when he's low on stamina.
Repeating Moves - Just a short note about these. A number of moves can
repeat with the correct action. When you see a little tapping button below
your cockpit when your put on a move, you can tap the button to repeat.
Basic example is the club to head combo, and the shooter-style knees to
the head. Another type of repeating moves don't show the tapping button,
and this means you have to hold down the attack button used to initiate
the move for it to repeat. How many times it does repeat is determined
by your opponent's tension and stamina. Examples of these are Kobashi's
Corner Chops, Misawa's Elbow (2nd Combo), Vader's Combo, Ohtani's Face
Wash Kicks. There are more; you'll have to go by experience to find out
which ones can repeat.
Weapons - If you're feeling a little hardcore every now and then, you can
grab weapons and attack with those instead of the usual boring suplexes
and headlocks. Go outside and go to the part of the railing where there
is an announce table nearby. Then press R1 or R2 and you'll reach in and
fish out a random weapon. Try to get into the ring normally and you'll
throw your weapon in there. Swinging your weapon tires the hell out of you
in this game for some reason; don't swing it too often.
Tag Team Tactics - Like the previous game, the partner control system is
still intact. Basically, the game will use the four direction pad err...
directions as button commands. Pressing DOWN on the pad and your partner
will come in and stand in position ready for a double-team attack (just
perform any grapples when he's in the right position and it'll turn into
a double-team attack). Pressing RIGHT calls in your partner to attack
the active opponent (the one who's in the ring). Pressing LEFT calls in
your partner to attack the inactive opponent (the one who's on the apron
on the other side of the ring most of the time). Finally, after enough
double-teaming, you can press UP and your partner will hurry on back to
his corner. Note that these controls assume you are the active wrestler;
these don't work when you're not. When you're in the corner, you can cheer
him on with the L1 or L2 taunt buttons or press [] will call out to your
partner to tag you in (which he may or may not do, depending on how much
fun he's having in the ring at the moment). Or you can just go into the
ring illegally and raise hell if it tickles your fancy.
Double Teams - There are a number of different positions you and your
partner can stand in to initiate double teams.
- Front Capture Double Team - First wrestler capture the opponent,
second wrestler stand to his right facing the opponent. First wrestler
then presses an attack button or towards + an attack button.
- Hammer Throw Double Team - Same as above, but wrestlers must press
away towards the ropes and an attack button.
- Back Capture Double Team - As you can imagine, same as front capture
double team, but first wrestler must do a back capture instead.
- Ground Double Teams - There are four varieties here. First three are
done when an opponent is down, facing up. First one is to have both
wrestlers stand on either side of a grounded opponent's arms, then
the wrestler on the left must press an attack button. Second is the
same, but instead the wrestler on the right must press an attack button.
Third is for the two wrestlers to stand on either side of an opponent's
legs; then either one can be the one to press the attack button. Finally,
the fourth is the same as the third, but with the opponent facing down
instead.
- Corner Double Teams - The easiest one to do. Throw an opponent to the
corner where your non-active tag partner is standing. Then press any
attack button near the opponent.
Note that certain wrestlers have preferred partners. For instance, if you
try a Front Capture Double Team /\ with Omori partnering with Takayama,
you'll get the No Fear Big Demolition double team. Try it partnering Omori
with anyone else and you'll get squat.
Technical Matches - If you're bored of normal matches, Technical Matches
are also pretty fun. Select this in the match type option (only for single
and battle royal). Then after you've selected your wrestler, a Win Method
menu appears. From the left to the right, they are :- WIN BY PINS ONLY
(submissions, KOs, bleeding all will not end the match), WIN BY SUBMISSION
ONLY (only submissions nets you the victory), WIN BY KO ONLY (win by
knocking your opponent flat on his back for a ten count), WIN BY WEAPON
STRIKE ONLY (the first wrestler to strike his opponent with a weapon wins)
and WIN BY PERFORMING SPECIFIED MOVES ONLY (you'll only win the match after
performing the move specified randomly by the game). You can set different
wrestlers to have different winning conditions.
Tactics - This little section I'll share some general game tips for ASPW3.
If you have played ASPW2, you'll notice the game flows much faster than
before, which is a good thing. It's still built on the same wrestling
principle as the previous games, so the general rules still apply. This
game tries it's hardest to emulate a real wrestling match (and it's done
quite well, I might add) so in order to get anywhere in this game you
must understand that as well. Basically, you have to start off the match
slow with simply strikes and weak attacks. As your opponents start
wearing down, you can start transitioning to stronger and stronger attacks.
When he's near death, you'll see him appear groggy fairly often, and that
means it's time to unleash your best moves. It helps that you know what is
your wrestler's finishing maneuver, of course. Avoid completely owning your
opponent. While it's obviously not too much fun to be completely one-sided,
it also does damage to your tension, and repeated attacks can get you tired
out. So pause a while, and let your opponent have a go at you for a bit. If
you don't let him attack you often enough, your Rush Bar will never fill up
and you'll never see your wrestler's cool Rush Moves. Also, for a more fun
experience, vary your moves. Many players I know only stick to grappling,
and then complain there's not much moves, and the match is boring. Realize
that wrestling matches don't involve only doing grapples in the center of
the ring! Every now and then take down your opponent, go for ground holds,
whip him all over the ring, go for some top rope maneuvers, heck, even toss
him outside and whip him into the barricades. Once you get down to it, there
are PLENTY of things you can do to your opponent in a match, so it's always
far from boring. And proper flow is important in a match. If you repeatedly
hit your opponent with nothing but grapples, it's not going to damage him
all that much; and that seems to be a major complain many people have ("I
gave him twenty powerbombs and he kicked out of all of them!"). This game
punishes repetition; so mix in different strikes, holds and grapples and
you can see the clear difference. Oh, and finally, the old saying still holds
true - practice makes perfect. If you have trouble playing the game, fight
lousier opponents to get a good feel for the basic game engine. You're going
to get owned and be real frustrated if you try to battle a COM5 Kobashi on
the get go without any knowledge of the game system. Even if you're familiar
with the ASPW2 system, the updated COM is much more dangerous, so you'll
probably need practice as well. A COM1 opponent isn't going to give you much
offence, so use him as your tackling dummy until you are sure of how the
moves are done. That's it from me at the moment, but if you've got better
tips, I'd like to hear them too... ^_^
___________________________________________________________________________
/____________________________4.0_POWER_MAKE________________________________/
Probably the most impressive new feature of ASPW3 is, of course, POWER MAKE.
That's just typical Japanese Engrish for the game's Create-A-Wrestler mode.
Though note that this one is a little different from most in that it's
really more of a Career Mode than a CAW mode, because all your CAWs start
off weak and you have to build them up from jobber to ace one match at a
time.
When you select POWER MAKE from the main menu, you'll be brought to a screen
showing all the four available slots for a Power Make. As far as I know
there is no real limit to how many Power Make Wrestlers (henceforth in this
FAQ called PMWs) you can make, but you can only put four into the game at
anyone time. Though emptying a slot and putting another PMW in doesn't take
all that long, really.
Well, when you first start off the game, there are obviously no PMWs in
Any slot. There are only two options at this moment, MENU and EXIT. I'll
let you figure out what EXIT means, but MENU will take you to the Power
Make Menu.
The Power Make Menu for an empty slot isn't too hard to figure out either,
since there's only two options and both of them are in English. NEW lets
you create a new PMW, and LOAD lets you load a PMW from your memory card.
First, let's go make ourselves a PMW! Select NEW then choose YES to the
box basically saying "Make a new wrestler?". You'll get a new menu :-
NEW POWER MAKE MENU
-------------------
_____________
|_NAME________| - Green colored menu
|_BODY_TYPE___| - Blue colored menu
|_FIGHT_STYLE_| - Red colored menu
|_QUIT________| - Light Blue colored menu
|_ENTRY_______| - Silver colored menu
NAME - Enter your wrestler's name. Note that this is the only place to do
so; you cannot rename a PMW after that. You'll get two options here. The
first option, SELECT NAME, lets you piece to together two words to make
you name. The options are pretty bad. The first one is some random English
word, and the second is a Japanese name. So you'll end up with the likes
of "Earthquake Aikawa", "Wizard Mutoh", etc... Names entered this way will
be announced by the Ring Announcer. If that doesn't interest you, select
the second option in this menu, ENTER NAME. This lets you enter your name
manually. Again, not many options here; you can enter your first and last
name, four letters each. The ring announcer will not announce this (he'll
simply call you "Original Wrestler").
BODY TYPE - You can choose from Small built, fat or toned in that order
in this menu. Don't worry, you can tweak your body shape much more than
that after selecting this.
FIGHT STYLE - The options here affect your initial movelist as well as
the path you will take in career mode. The main aim of the game is to
finish all four paths to unlock everything, so ideally you should make
one PMW for each path. The paths, in the order on the menu from top to
bottom, are :- PURORESU (Typical Japanese Pro-Wrestling, mostly technical
styles), AMERICAN (brawling, low finesse, big damage style), LUCHA LIBRE
(high spots style, lots of high-flying), GRAPPLING (Mix martial arts
style).
QUIT - If you don't want to make a wrestler right now, choose this to
leave Power Make. But... why?
ENTRY - Once you've set up your name, body and fight style, choose this,
select yes twice to save this game to your memory card. This will save
to a 146K file, separate from the main game file. Don't worry, all the
finer details of your wrestler can be tweaked in a separate menu.
Now that you've actually created a PMW, your slot should now be filled
with his details. A new option will appear above MENU, and that is TITLE
HISTORY, letting you see that PMW's title history, obviously. But select
MENU again (that's the second option, in case you've forgotten) and
you'll see a different menu. The options are (mostly in English, even) :-
_____________
|_NORMAL_MODE_|
|_POWER_MAKE__|
|_CAREER______|
|_DELETE______|
NORMAL MODE lets you go to the NORMAL MODE menu directly and have a few
matches, hopefully with your PMW.
POWER MAKE takes you to the massive main POWER MAKE menu, which is covered
below.
CAREER sets you off to CAREER MODE, which is covered in the next chapter.
DELETE empties the current POWER MAKE slot. This does NOT delete your PMW
off the memory card. To do that, you'll have to go back to the main menu
and go to DATA.
Okay, before you hurl yourself into Career Mode, there's just a little
something you might want to tweak first...
MAIN POWER MAKE MENU
====================
I've broken this huge menu into various sections. The main menu highlights
all the sections available :-
_______________
|_MISCELLANEOUS_| - Blue colored menus
|_APPEARANCE____| - Green colored menus
|_MOVELIST______| - Yellow colored menus
|_COM_LOGIC_____| - Red colored menus
|_CAREER_MODE___| - Pink option
|_SAVE_&_EXIT___| - Blue option
Lets go over the easy ones first, shall we? CAREER MODE sends you to
career mode directly from here. Go to the next chapter to learn more about
this mode. SAVE & EXIT does exactly what it says, it saves the changes you
have made to your wrestler and exits. The other options require somewhat
more explanation...
MISCELLANEOUS
-------------
This blue set of menus let you set some of the stuff not in the other menus,
basically. You'll have :-
_______
|_VOICE_|
|_PHOTO_|
|_THEME_| <                - Exit without snapping any pic
THEME is the third option. It only appears once your wrestler's rank is
high enough to actually have an entrance. Press /\ to preview a piece of
music, then () to select it. A number of music pieces cannot be previewed,
for whatever reason.
APPEARANCE
----------
Pick the green set of menus to get to this one. Woohoo... you can be in
this menu  for a while. This HUGE menu lets you edit the wrestler's
appearance in almost ever way, shape and form. There are five available
options :-
___________________
|_CHANGE_APPEARANCE_|
|_TWEAK_APPEARANCE__|
|_DECAL_MAKE________|
|_SIZE_/_COLOR______|
|_RANDOMIZE_________|
Before we go into these menus in detail, first learn how to view your
wrestler. When you get to a section where you can change various stuff,
you can use the following controls :-
R1                - Zoom in
R2                - Zoom out
ANALOG LEFT       - Moves camera angle
ANALOG LEFT + []  - Moves camera view
L3                - Centers onto wrestler's entire body
()                - Accept changes
> <                - Cancel
Now then...
CHANGE APPEARANCE lets you change your general facial features as well as
change or add clothing articles to your costume. This is what I call first
level of detail. Not many people will be satisfied by their creations at
this point. The options are fairly easy to figure out - there's even a
little icon one the right on the menu showing you exactly what part you are
selecting. If you're complaining about the lack of options, don't forget
that you haven't unlocked most of the parts yet! The options are :-
____________
| HEAD_______|
| ->  FACE    | - Select your facial appearance. Upon selecting this you can
|            |   take a pick of a couple of dozen faces. Select one you want,
|            |   then a menu with two options appear. The first option
|            |   accepts the face you select, the second option lets you
|            |   select other variations of the same face
| -> MASK    | - Selects a mask. Don't forget you can tweak the mask colors
|            |   later, so don't get too worked up. Once you've slapped a
|            |   mask onto your wrestler, you won't be able to select HAIR or
|____________|   Back HAIR anymore. Selecting a FACE removes the mask
|_HAIR_______| - Select your hairstyle. Black is the standard color, but you
|____________|   can change that later
|_BACK_HAIR__| - Gives your wrestler a little pony-tail or long hair
|_UPPER_BODY_|
| -> CHEST   | - Selects what you are wearing on your chest. You've got
|            |   tights, T-shirts and what have you here. You can change
|            |   their design and color later
| -> ELBOW   | - Select this if you want to put on an elbow pad. The three
|            |   options that pop up after this are for both sides, right
|            |   side and left side
| -> WRIST   | - For putting in wrist tape. Again, you can choose to put them
|            |   on both wrists or just one of them
|_->_HAND____| - For gloves and taping. And again, both hands or just one
|LOWER BODY  |
|-> PANTS    | - Choose what you'll be wearing on your lower half. There's
|            |   more advance options later to tweak the designs here, but
|            |   just pick a base
|-> FEET     | - Select your footwear, if you plan on wearing any
|->_KNEE_____| - Slap on a knee pad here. This won't be available if you
chose long pants as your pants type. Again, you can choose
to put them on both knees or just one
You're all done with this menu. You PMW probably doesn't look all that good
yet, but don't worry, there's more...
TWEAK APPEARANCE does exactly what it says. It tweaks some of the details of
what you set in the CHANGE APPEARANCE menu. This is the second level of
detail. The menu will mainly consist of the parts you've placed on your
wrestler (can't tweak the detail of something you're not wearing, of course).
_______________
| HEAD__________|
| -> FACE/MASK  | - If you have selected FACE in the previous menu you can