With that being said, however, I wouldn't hesitate to call WWE 2K17 a better video game than its immediate predecessors. It's an acquired taste, for sure, and if you haven't enjoyed this deliberate style previously-and perhaps yearn for the days of old-2K17 isn’t going to change your mind.

Much like last year, matches in WWE 2K17 have a distinctly measured pace, focused on capturing the look and feel of the current WWE product as closely as possible. It's clear that developers Yuke's and Visual Concepts want to forge their own unique path to a simulation style of wrestling video game, iterating further and further in this direction with each passing installment. Since the shift to current-generation consoles, 2K's WWE series has steered away from the arcade-style formula of its extensive lineage.