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[xirtamehtsitahw]

It is possible to amp up the AI's reversal ability even beyond what the game normally allows. After all, have you ever noticed that the AI's reversal ability seems "better than usual" in certain matches, say, a 6-man tag match? That is because, even when you "max out" the AI's reversal-frequency sliders, and set the difficulty to legend, there is still a bit of "reserve difficulty" the AI holds back "I.C.E.--in case of emergency." Often, the "emergency" is simply when the AI wants to win a match "really bad", wherein it will throw everything and its Dutch uncle--and the kitchen sink--at you, in hopes of presenting an overwhelming offense as well as a seemingly impenetrable "wall of counters" whereby it hopes to win a one-sided victory against you.

The "wall of counters" effect is simply where the AI becomes a sort of defensive "brick wall", countering (nearly) everything you throw at them, in an attempt to wear you down by chip damage or collateral damage resulting from absorbing moves the AI uses to counter your moves (strong strike following a blocked grapple attempt is a particularly effective AI favorite), while attempting to absorb as little damage from your moves as possible. The "wall of counters" could also be called the "adamantium turtle" tactic. The AI is simply trying to "turtle up" and block most, if not all, of your attacks, by turning them against you.

Here is a list of "adamantium turtle tactics" the AI uses that are quite effective (and will, eventually, make you want to scream obscenities in twelve simultaneous languages at your PSP, whilst hurling it with lethal force at your bedroom wall):

--Blocked-grapple strong strike
--Blocked grapple standing strike
--simply stepping to the side when you attempt a running strike/grapple
--seeming to be able to stand where you won't be able to hit them with a running strike/grapple, no matter how many times you try to change direction and re-aim at them
--"hiding" the reversal icon (I've actually caught the AI doing this!)
--"ignoring" your reversal input (the reversal icon is onscreen, and you hit the reversal button, but the AI just stands there, shaking his head, as he continues to hold on to your arm/leg)
--their seemingly "magical" ability to spring to their feet just when you're about to escape from the cage in a Steel Cage match, and grab onto your leg, and fling you back down, rather painfully, to the mat.
--immediately following the above, the AI calmly walks over to the nearest cage wall, while your character is forced to endure a rather lengthy (and irritating) selling animation, and proceeds to climb even faster than the fastest possible time a human could climb the cage and escape, while you frantically mash all four face buttons (to no avail--when the game wants your character to "stay down", there's nothing you can do to make them "get up").

However, if you have a masochistic side, or are simply a glutton for punishment, then go ahead. Push the envelope. Just be prepared for when it snaps back in your face! Heh heh. How to do this: use CWCheat or TempAR (I prefer TempAR for two reasons--more advanced cheat-search interface and much faster cheat searches overall). I will use TempAR's cheat-search interface for this tutorial. Go to Unknown value--8 bit after "maxing out" the AI reversal frequency sliders. After initializing the search, decrease one of the sliders (it doesn't matter which one--they're all located in the same general area of the game's RAM memory) by one tick. Then perform a Decreased by search, and use the value 8. Wash, rinse, and repeat a couple of times until the total number of results is less than 100 (ideally, less than 20). Look for a value which is less than 160 (probably will be 144 or 136 or some other multiple of 8). There will be two such identical values. Pick the second one, and create a CWCheat code with the value FF (255), or, you can simply edit the value in the game's memory itself, then back out of the AI reversal menu, and the game will prompt you to save. Do so, and you've now got even harder AI than before--expect to shed a lot more blood, sweat and (tons more) tears (of frustration)!

"Super-Hard" AI is really tough, but the ultimate challenge (read: nearly impossible to even get a single move in) is to attempt "Super-Legend" difficulty, also known as "Hall of Shame" difficulty. You WILL be put to shame by the AI at this difficulty, because the AI reverses more than 99 percent of your moves--it isn't exactly the full 100 percent; you might get lucky and land a couple of moves, and if you're REALLY lucky, a finisher (or two), but expect to be the one receiving most of the damage throughout even a match against Santino Marella (or even, O shame of shames, the Druid!). On top of that, it's even harder to escape from pins and submissions when the AI's reversal abilities are this high. I highly suggest a few things to make it a little easier: turbo your Cross and Circle buttons (even though this will prevent you from dragging your opponent on the mat or ringside, as well as using the Hammer Throw ability), and swap the functions of your R and Circle buttons, so that the button used for countering is adjacent to that used for Irish whipping (normally the Irish whip command is to tap or hold R and Cross simultaneously, but now it's Cross and Circle). Also, but optional, you can swap the functions of your D-pad and Analog Nub. These remaps can be accomplished through CWCheat's RemaPSP function, which is really useful!

[xirtamehtsitahw]

Turns out that "forcing" the AI to be better than it's "supposed" to be will freeze the game in certain rare circumstances. I was playing as my Frieza CAW against Kofi Kingston, and The Rock ran in on Kofi's behalf, and attempted the Rock Bottom. The very moment I went to reverse the Rock Bottom, the darn game did a "freeze frame" on me, as if it did not want me to reverse that move! However, once I "corrected" the AI reversal-frequency issue (set the sliders to "default maxed-out" Hard difficulty), this particular game freeze issue went away. As it is, it's still somewhat difficult to defeat your opponent(s), but it's also easier to counter your opponent's moves (and counters). Therefore, I suggest playing this game on maxed-out Hard difficulty, as the game doesn't have the same stigma of "tons of cheapness" from the Legend-difficulty AI, but the AI opponents will counter a lot of your moves, so...stay on your toes!