Showdown: Legends of Wrestling

"Legends of Wrestling:Letdown"

Well after months of waiting, LEGENDS OF WRESTLING:SHOWDOWN is finally here. I don't know why I was waiting for this though. There are alot of things I could say right off the top of my head, but it hurts to have to say it. Let me start by saying that I've been a wrestling fan since the early eighties, yes most of my life, and a game like LOW:SD is something I've been dying to have-until I played it. I'll start with the positives.

LOW:SD has one of the most impressive rosters I've ever seen in a wrestling game. Everyone from Bret Hart to Bruno Sammartino is immediately selectable for a little in-ring carnage. The match types that are offered include among others; Hardcore, First Blood, Steel Cage, Ladder and Table matches. These matches are actually pretty fun. They all work perfectly(although when you place someone on a table often times they sort of "fall off" and then somehow end up back on the table again?). With only minor glitches(yes their are glitches) the matches play themselves out fairly well. Also there's 2 out of 3 falls, 30 and 60 minute Iron Man match, as well as up to 8 wrestlers in the ring at once (although xbox only supports 4 players).

The graphics are pretty good, but I was far from blown away. I can't say that I didn't expect better, but graphics are the least of LOW:SD's problems.

On to the negatives. The gameplay is confusing at best. The control scheme is set up in such a way that you can't just jump in and play. You have to learn what buttons to go for and when to use them. SD did bring back the Ready grapple which is a plus. These are a specific set of moves that you can apply to your opponent without a tie-up. The controls feel either to sluggish, or to fast. It seems like I'm always 1 step behind my opponent, yet the controls seem to be one step ahead of me. I found it difficult to pull off multiple moves. It just seems like I'm doing that same suplex no matter what I do! With practice I assume it would become easier.

On to the HORRIBLE. This game posseses the WORST CAL mode in years. There is practically nothing at all good to say about this feature. The costumes are POORLY designed, and you cannot change the color of any article of clothing(?). There is only ONE FACE to choose from and a handful of head shapes to stretch your ONE FACE into a few hideous directions. The LOW team decided that the CAL wasn't bad enough so they elliminated the best feature (although buggy) from LOW 2, the stenciling. You can no longer design your own facepaint or tattoos or T-shirt logos. This was my favorite feature from the last game and it's just not there. On the positive side you can select from a HUGE list of names to be announced. While I find that aspect very immpressive, what's the point if there's only 9 hairstyles to choose from? Edit a legend is NOT IN. What is in , is a way to clone a legend to create someone else. It does not take the place of the in game character and it doesn't work very well anyway. Another letdown is that the xbox version does not support custom theme music. It does however support custom soundtracks. Go figure! That doesn't really matter though because the entrances are so short you'd never get an opportunity to hear it anyway.

In conclusion, let me restate that I would LOVE for this game to be a winner. God knows the xbox needs a great wrestling game. I've tried to be fair in this review and unfortunately, Acclaim did it to us again. It really is a shame that Anchor, the developers of Raw 2 who got fired because that game stinks so bad, actually have the best wrestling game on the xbox. My score..................

2 out of 5-RENT IT

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/04