Legends of Wrestling

"Very solid attempt by Acclaim but it doesn't quite live up to the hype."

I got the chance to finally pick up this game yesterday. I was pretty impressed with it. Well, here goes my review.

Graphics: 8/10

- The graphics are very nice, much better than anything I've ever seen from Acclaim. The costumes on the characters and the detail of their bodies look very nice. Acclaim has always done a pretty good job with getting a character's costume right. The only work that needs to be done is with the crowd and the faces. The crowd looks totally fake and there are pretty much no signs except for one that says ''legends'' on it. The wrestlers faces are another issue. You can barely tell who a wrestler is without looking at his outfit. A good start but not even close to a game like Smackdown 3.

Sound: 6/10

- The music is old-school, I'll give Acclaim that, but come on. They once again made RVD's music sound like crap. Can't they get anyone's music right? They took all the time to license all these guys but they totally screwed up everyone's music. Plus the couple sentences between you and your manager in Career are pretty laughable. There are some grunts and groans but nothing else really.

Control: 7/10

If you've played Smackdown 3 a lot, this WILL take some getting used to. The ISP system takes a while to get to but it is a pretty cool system when you get the hang of it. The fighting system makes this game feel more like wrestling instead of Smackdown 3's push any direction and circle and hope you get a move off. The running still sucks though. While it has improved over Anarchy Rulz, it still is a pain in the ass to run. Another reason it was marked low is because of the turnbuckle attacks. If you've played WCW Nitro or WCW/nWo Thunder, you know what this is like. Basically, it's like Wrestlemania 2K or No Mercy, except you cant sit on the turnbuckle for a short period of time. You do your attack after your guy climbs the turnbuckle. It can be kind of annoying after a while. Again though, they've improved much over Anarchy Rulz.

Gameplay: 8/10

- Once again, it's something you have to get used to. Some of the gameplay was described in the controls portion. It's slower than Smackdown 3. Movement of your characters is not as fluid as I would've hoped, but the moves your character does look very, very nice. I've finally found a good 5 Star Frog Splash. Plus the Matrix cam can be very cool sometimes. Weapons play a huge role in this game. Even the strategy guide suggests using weapons all the time in your match. The coolest thing about the weapons is the triangle attack while you're holding it. Each wrestler has a specific move he can do with a certain weapon. Holding that 1 weapon and pressing triangle unleashes a very cool move (i.e. Double chairshot, Van-Daminator, Duck and Cane swing). Nice start for Acclaim with the gameplay portion.

Extras: 10/10

- This is where the game shines. The CAL is very, very cool. You can do many cool things like designing your own tattoo and text. You can also have multiple tattoos on one area and you can adjust them to wherever you want in that area. The clothing is a little light compared to SD 3 but you'll get over it when you see everything else you can do with CAL. Plus the move key unlocking is a brilliant idea. Having your legend start off with a small amount of moves, then earning keys through career to be able to ''equip'' more moves is such a cool idea. I hate being able to create a wrestler and always win in under a minute because I used a ton of power moves to demolish my opponent. Plus there are tons of hidden characters and a long career mode. Acclaim finally came through in the extras department.

Overall: 8/10

- A 8 seems pretty fair for this game. A 10 would've been very possible but I feel that the game still needs a little polishing. An extra month would've gone a long way. But, it wipes the floor with everything Acclaim has done before. They had a very problems with this one (rope glitches, weird fighting system, crappy music and sound) that would make me consider buying Smackdown 3 instead. If you look past some of the minor problems or inconveniences, you'll see it's still a solid game and I feel Acclaim put a lot of effort into it. If they could fix some of the issues plaguing this game, they could have a very serious contender next time around.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/06/01, Updated 12/06/01