WWE 2K26 - Review
It must be March, because WWE 2K is back to capture the ultimate spectacle of sports entertainment. WWE 2K26 is an attempt to refine what made the past few games great, while adding a number of new modes and matches in order to make this a must-buy for wrestling fans. With an ever-expanding roster and some exciting new modes, the game is threatened by the ever-looming monetisation aspects built into the game.
As usual, Visual Concepts nails the presentation right out of the gate, giving the game a mostly punk rock theme inspired by this year’s cover star CM Punk. Looking at the game itself, it is clear that leaving the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One behind has helped make a dramatic difference in the character models. Even older versions of superstars look incredible this year. There are some areas that still need work, like pyro effects and lighting that make some of the wrestler entrances look undercooked which is a shame.
Once you are into the gameplay, the feeling of being in a ring is represented rather well. Grappling and reversing requires good timing to stay on top, and there are a lot of small tweaks made to gameplay to add a lot of depth to every clash. Wrestlers react more to damage and fatigue and being able to sacrifice some of the Signature Move meter to kick out of pins, escape the ring, and other momentum shifting moves helps mirror what you see on television. Beginners will struggle with dodging and reversing at first, as it takes a lot of practice to get things right, but it is clear that Visual Concepts has sacrificed simplicity to better emulate WWE matches on TV.
The roster remains an incredible feat with WWE 2K games. At release, there are just under 400 playable wrestlers to choose from, with more being released via DLC and through the MyFaction modes. As usual, there are a lot of double ups, including four different Undertakers, five different Triple Hs and nine different versions of cover star CM Punk.
Some roster-related quibbles that I believe were only designed to annoy me include a lack of official renders for some superstars such as Captain Lou Albano and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, instead opting to use an in-game model to represent them. Also, past versions of wrestlers such as Rey Mysterio from 2008 is listed as “Rey Mysterio ‘08” on the name plate when making his entrance. Again, minor quibbles.
The 2K Showcase mode this year is very CM Punk in nature. The mode takes many ideas from past showcases and moulds them together in a quintessential showing of CM Punk’s career. Rather than focus on only the best wins of CM Punk’s career, there are a number of “what if” scenarios where we see CM Punk reverse his most crushing losses into great victories, and a number of dream opponents that CM Punk never got to face during his career. I would say that next to John Cena’s Showcase a couple of years back, this is probably my favourite so far.
MyRise makes its return and allows you to create your own wrestler from scratch and give them a WWE Career, complete with full branching storylines. This mode can be a lot of fun, but as usual confuses itself between kayfabe and shoot. Universe mode still allows you to book your own shows, rivalries and championship matches creatively without the constraints of a budget or rival shows trying to steal your best wrestlers.
MyGM continues to improve every year as well. Running a full wrestling promotion over an entire season while trying to manage your own roster is a surprisingly deep experience. Wrestlers will make demands of you which you can enact or ignore helps build relationships with your roster. Of course, you can choose to manage a show as CM Punk’s late dog, Larry, which I think is a sweet addition to the mode.
The Creation Suite remains incredibly strong, however becomes limited by the monetisation decisions made by 2K, which I will get onto later in this review. Even so, improved modelling tools and additional image layers thanks to current-gen hardware builds on the flexibility shown when creating your own wrestlers or trying to make people who are not in the game.
While so much of this game is an enhancement over WWE 2K25, it is not without capitalism rearing its ugly head. Picture this, you have paid for some DLC that includes wrestlers, arenas and more. Now that you have paid for it, you are then given a Ringside Pass, which unlocks all of these things the more you play the game. On the surface this does not sound too bad, however the game pushes you to purchase “tier skips” which allow you to unlock the characters, arenas, MyFaction cards and more instantly, rather than grinding to get the things for which you have already paid. To skip from the start straight to the end will set you back over $150AUD which is laughable.
This isn’t to mention that the game also wants you to pay for card packs to unlock things in MyFaction, as grinding takes an incredibly long time to unlock anything decent that can be used in online matches, as well as some of these cards being tied to wrestlers that you can unlock in the game itself.
All of this monetisation comes across as predatory and gross, not to mention that going into the game’s “The Island” mode, there are even more shops for you to purchase WWE merch, as well as brands like Nike, Puma, DSYF and more to purchase.
As mentioned before, the Creation Suite’s limitations come when you are looking for some good online creations made by some really talented folk in the WWE 2K community. When someone makes a wrestler that you can download, you must have all the aspects of that creation unlocked in order to be able to use them properly. You have not unlocked Eddie Guerrero ’97 yet? That means you cannot download someone who has the one move only he has. It used to be simple in the older game, but this has complicated things unnecessarily and taken a lot of the wind out of the game.
Despite these growing concerns, if downloading wrestlers and buying DLC that you have to unlock again in order to play with do not worry you, then you have a really solid WWE game on your hands here. The matches flow naturally, reversing a move and taking the momentum is really satisfying. While there is still a way to go before the game truly emulates the WWE experience, the improvements are varied and great.
WWE 2K26 succeeds for the most part because it knows what makes wrestling games fun. The spectacle, the drama, the storytelling, it is what makes WWE what it is and does it unapologetically. The huge roster, the refinements to gameplay, and a vast selection of different modes ensures there is always something to do, even if you do not fall for the aggressive progression and monetisation systems.
The Score
7.5
Review code provided by 2K
The Pros
CM Punk’s Showcase is the best one yet.
Improved gameplay over past games
All modes are improved significantly.
The Cons
So many repeated characters on the roster
The monetisation is getting out of hand.
The grind to unlock everything is real.
