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This isn't a knockout blow for the series, but it's certainly a threat to the champion.
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This is your IGN review of WWE 2K26 by Jared Green.
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If it's a WrestleMania season, that means it's also time for a new WWE 2K game.
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Over the last few years, the series has been on its most impressive run-to-date, and
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WWE 2K26 is a solid enough next chapter in that story.
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I don't regret the time I've spent running the ropes in this year's ring, but with another
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Malik Toast Showcase mode and the growing tendrils of monetization wrapping itself around
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the experience like an Anaconda vice, it's starting to feel like the golden age for 2K
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wrestling games might be coming to an end.
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2K26 hasn't learned many new moves since last year, mostly just tweaking existing base
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The biggest slam to the system isn't adjustment to stamina, adding a condition called
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winded to superstars who run out.
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While winded, your stamina wheel turns from yellow to purple, and you can no longer run
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or use reversals until it empties and goes back to normal.
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This adds more risk reward to all of the offensive and defensive actions you do in the ring
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A big blast from the past are the additional match types added in 2K26.
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I quit, dumpster, inferno, and three stages of hell.
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That last one is essentially a gauntlet where you choose three different match stipulations
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and wrestle through them, 2 out of 3 fall style.
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This year's Showcase, themed around the highlights and low lights of CM Punk's 2 pronged
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WWE career, was a disappointment.
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It suffers from most of the same problems that these modes always have, like the gaping
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holes in history that it has to ignore for corporate reasons, or the awkward ways it
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tries and fails to recreate major moments in real matches as gameplay moments.
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This year's My Rise follows the archetype, a former top star returning from a long layoff
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to try to get their groove back.
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It's a more streamlined story overall, with fewer big beats across its six chapters,
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but some more consequential decisions to make in each, usually to change your alignment
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from heroic fan favorite to callous villain, and possibly back again.
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Though it's shorter than past My Rise's, grinding largely meaningless matches to get
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from plot point to plot point still feels like wasted time.
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Some of the more niche modes like Universe and My GM are still good, with small improvements
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that don't shake things up too dramatically, but are certainly nice to have.
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WWE 2K26 benefits most from having been built on a tremendous foundation, one that is
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barely had to change, but continues to in ways that are starting to hurt more than
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The smaller gameplay tweaks, slight expansions to niche modes like My GM and new match types
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are at best great and at worst irrelevant.
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Yet, there are still large bugaboos that show no real sign of improvement, like the centerpiece
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showcase mode, My Rise and its unavoidable thirst for wasting your time, or the money pit
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of the island online hub, and some changes, like the addition of the battle pass, make
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growing your collection of cosmetics, moves, and wrestlers worse and more expensive.
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This isn't a knockout blow for the series, but it's certainly a threat to the champion.
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WWE 2K26 is IGN score, 7 out of 10.
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Thanks for listening to IGN, my name is Tony Jackson, and for the latest WWE 2K26 updates
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and to read the full review, visit us at IGN.com.