Showdown: Legends of Wrestling

"Showdown: LOW. An Improvement"

Showdown has it's ups and downs that would make someone that does not respect the sport of wrestling cringe. I have been watching wrestling since the 80's so this roster is like a dream come true for me. From watching the NWA, AWA, WWF, World Class, UWF, USWA, ECW and many more wrestling federations over the years I feel that Showdown helps me relive the glory days of wrestling.

Did Acclaim create the best wrestling game in the world? NO. But did they improve a franchise that was only looked at by the hardcore gamer? YES. Showdown has been in the making for almost 2 years. It shows that Acclaim has put time and effort in improving the LOW series. As much as IGN, Gamespot, and every other negative review out there bashes this game, the bugs and glitches are not as bad as these reviewers have claimed. Am I a fan of Acclaim? No. They have screwed me over the years with the WWF and ECW licsence as I have spent over $500 just in the wrestling games that Acclaim have released over the years, this is not counting the LOW games.

I will commend Acclaim on Showdown: Legends of Wrestling as being one of the better wrestling games to be released in North America. I have played all the N64 wrestling games (U.S. & JPN), Smackdown's, King of Coliseum series, NJPW series, and etc. Showdown may have taken a few steps backwards with bugs and glitches, but I feel like the series is moving forward in a big way due to gameplay and graphics.

This game will not only cater to the wrestling fan of today, but if you're a fan of old school wrestling this is you piece of pie.

Roster
Showdown features one of the largest rosters in a wrestling game to date. No other wrestling game to date can lay claim to having the superstars that Showdown possess. Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain just incorporated legends into their game last year, but theirs is missing proper entrances and entrance music. Not only do you get Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat, The Road Warriors, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Mr. Perfect, Terry Funk, and Jimmy Snuka, but Acclaim signed a bunch of popular legends. The Ultimate Warrior, Diamond Dallas Page, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Dusty Rhodes, and Sting have been added to the mix. There is a proper representation of wrestlers from the NWA, WWF, AWA, and independents from over the last 30 decades. There is also a special memoriam section in the game for all the deceased wrestlers that are featured in Showdown. It was nice of Acclaim to pay their respects.

I am hoping that in the next installment that Lex Luger, Barry Windham, Ole Anderson, The Midnight Express (both versions), Big Van Vader, Yokozuna, The Powers of Pain, Tully Blanchard, Magnum T.A., Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Junkyard Dog, Demolition (might be a problem since WWE owns the name, they can create them and name them something else), Marty Jannetty, The Freebirds (All 3 Versions) and etc. to name a few are added to the roster. The only other wrestling game that comes to memory with such a large roster is Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 for the N64; it was close to 100 I believe and the Fire Pro Wrestling series which had over 300+.

Classics Matches Mode/Showdown Challenge
A new feature that Showdown has incorporated that is fun and helps the game gain some replay value is the addition of the “Classics Matches Mode”. This is feature is a blast to play as you are allowed to recreate/re-write history in some of the top classic matches in wrestling history. I like that you start the classic matches at a crucial point during the bout. This is setup as a tree format. When you beat the first “Classic Match” then it unlocks the next and so forth. For example they have the classic match between Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and “Macho Man” Randy Savage, you start with Steamboat and he starts out with low energy and almost beaten to a pulp. This feature reminds of how Giant Gram 2000 had incorporated a similar “Classics Mode”, except in that one you had to replicate move for move in the match. I'm hoping in the next installment that we get more classic matches to be involved in.

The career mode in Showdown has been dubbed the “Showdown Challenge” and is fairly straight forward. You select the wrestler that you want to take through this mode and the first screen that you will see is a TV screen with the 70's logo waving in the middle and then a video package of wrestlers that participated in this era is shown on your screen. This is fairly neat as for each era there is a video package that is played before you start competing in that era. Another neat edition to this is that for each era, your wrestler changes costumes and wears the clothing that they wore during that decade.

I've only gone through this mode once with Randy Savage, and I must say that it was a great idea (overly hyped) during the previews but I can see where the “Showdown Challenge” can get boring. You only get to fight 5 matches per era and once you win the title of that era you start the next decade as if nothing ever occurred the decade before. You don't get to bring the title belt with you or even defend it in the next era. The biggest gripe, you are not shown wearing the belt down to the ring. How could Acclaim screw this up, I don't understand.

After each match you are presented with a comic book style story where you get into feuds, create/disband alliances according to the scripted events. These storylines just felt like blah to me. I thought originally that Acclaim was going to replicate feuds from the selected wrestler's career in this mode. Hopefully if there will be a LOW4, we will get real time cut scenes. Once you reach the 90's you do battle with Hulk Hogan for the coveted Showdown championship. This setup reminds of the one in WCW/N.W.O. Revenge, where you wrestled 6-7 matches and then you fought the champion for the title. I feel like this mode was rushed, as Acclaim I think was trying too much to fix the gameplay and add more superstars to the fray.

At least we did get a better career mode than the horrible one in WrestleMania XIX on the Gamecube. I still think that the career mode in Legends of Wrestling II was much better, as you traveled through the different territories (regions) winning championships and uniting them for the much grander prize, to become the U.S. Champion and then get the privilege to fight in the World league for the World Title. There was much more interaction in the career mode for LOW2. There is nothing to unlock when completing the “Showdown Challenge” on any difficulty level. That is a shame since some people will not want to play this game over and over due to no replay value from this single-player mode.

Match Types
Acclaim did a good job in incorporating enough specialty matches to keep the game fresh, but there are gimmick matches from the 80's that are missing and need to be incorporated. Showdown has Ladder, Table, Hardcore, First Blood, Cage, Iron Man 30 Minutes, Iron Man 60 Minutes, Battle Royal, and Best 2 out of 3 falls, 6 & 8 Man Tag Team, Elimination, Handicap, and 3 & 4 Way dances. One thing that I can commend Acclaim for is that they have recreated excellent Ladder and Cage Matches. In the cage match, you can either climb out of the cage or call the ref to open the door. The cage does not have a life meter anymore like last years version. You tap the X button until it has depleted to escape. I have noticed during the cage matches that the bugs/glitches are not as bad due to the cage containing the wrestlers in the ring. The blood in the game has been done very well and not excessive to the point that you think you are playing Mortal Kombat. You can see it dripping down your opponents face once you have busted them open.

I think that in the next game they need to incorporate such 80's classic gimmick matches as the Texas Death Match, Scaffold Match, Texas Bull Rope Match, Chain Match, War Games, and The Bunkhouse Stampede.

Licensed Arenas/Wrestler Entrances
I've read some reviews complain that who cares about the licensed arenas in the game especially if the bugs are horrible. I think that this is a great addition since Legends does not have any Pay-Per-View arenas from the past to add to this game since the WWE owns all the copyrights to the NWA and ECW PPV's. They could always use the names of the Supercards from the UWF, AWA, World Class, and USWA for PPV style arenas. Back to the licensed arenas, Showdown has Madison Square Garden, Boston Garden, The Pontiac Silverdome, The Kiel Auditorium, The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia, The Tokyo Dome, Cow Palace, Dory Funk's Gym, Mid-South arena and etc. Each one of these arenas have been perfectly replicated.

To go along with the licensed arenas, Acclaim also purchased the services for Gary Michael Chapetta of WCW fame as the ring announcer for all the matches. Gary sounds great and makes these licensed arenas even that more of an enticing feature. I think that the entrances are some of the best seen in a wrestling game. These entrances remind me of the ones from the WCW/N.W.O. Revenge entrances when the camera showed your wrestler from an up close view when they first enter the arena walkway. It is nice that this year they finally added tag teams coming out together again like in LOW1, but for some reason this was taken out of LOW2. I still think that the tag team animations for them walking down to the ring are horrible since both wrestlers have the same exact walk to the ring. This is something that needs to be fixed.

Create A Legend
I have not yet had a chance to try out the Create A Legend, but everything that I have read, it doesn't look too good.

Sound
It was a joy to find out that a three man commentary team was going to be used for this game. The only wrestling games to get commentary to sound right were the WCW Mayhem and Backstage Assault playstation releases. I'm not counting the Japanese wrestling games since their commentary blows away anything that has been tried in an American released wrestling game. We get Tony Shiavone, Larry Zybszko, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan in the broadcast booth. They do a tremendous job keeping up with most of the action, but can be slow at times. I love the references that they make about each wrestler. When wrestling as Savage I heard about winning my first World Title in a tournament and how many times Savage has won the World Title. Even though the commentary can get repetitive, it is really good.

Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart did an excellent job in recreating entrance themes; he made them sound just like the actual themes from when each wrestler used to wrestle for WWF or WCW. Every single wrestler has some kind of recreation of their themes without overstepping boundaries on copyright issues. One cool feature for XBOX owners which might disappoint those looking to create Entrance themes, you can add your own music for during the matches like in LOW2. Any songs that you select to play during the match will play from your XBOX dashboard. Sorry, there are no entrance themes where you can add your own songs like in RAW2.

Gameplay
I am glad that Acclaim decided to refine the gameplay which helps make the moves appear a bit smoother. They did get rid of the IPS meter that was used for counters and creating chain combo moves. I didn't mind the IPS system from LOW2, but at times it did feel like it slowed the game down a bit. Acclaim went ahead an kept this system, except there isn't a meter anymore that is used by the player to determine reversals or to create chain combos. Now you click on the X button to perform reversals and if you get lucky to hit the button as your opponent is about to place you in a move you can reverse it. Grapples and strikes have been somewhat tailored after the Smackdown series control scheme. Grapples and Strikes have been assigned to the face buttons on the controller.

Even though this is a nice addition to be able to have a very simplistic control scheme, there just aren't enough moves to perform for each wrestler. I am hoping that next year they add a larger move set in the next edition of the game. Another thing that bothers me that has been somewhat fixed from the first 2 LOW games, is that wrestlers still perform moves that they never did during their time as wrestlers. I still see guys doing powerbombs, diamond cutters, stunners, and etc. that they never performed while wrestling. One of Randy Savages finishers is a sit down pile driver. Please, someone tell me if he ever had a sit-down piledriver as a finisher before doing the flying elbow off of the top rope. Things like this is what irks me about this series, if they spent less time trying to beef up the roster than they could concentrate on things like this.

At first it appears like the no selling in this game is like a page out of Hogan's or Undertaker's books. After a few matches, I have noticed that the much longer a match goes and the more that you wear down your opponent that the longer they stay down. I believe this is one of the reasons as to why we have a slower paced game. It is meant for the gamer to wear down their opponent before going in and start performing moves where the wrestler gets right back up. Acclaim has the right idea, but it hasn't been implemented quite properly. I think if they were to try and incorporate no selling in the game, check out the King of Coliseum series as LOW and KOC have been compared very closely since their gameplay is a little bit similar. In KOC you have to work at wearing down your opponent before you can perform certain power moves and I think that is the notion that Showdown is trying to emulate but it is not done properly.
There are problems with the collision detection and some animations. I've seen wrestlers (A.I.) get caught in the ring ropes, weapons, and in the outside of the ring. I had to walk over to them and knock' em around just to get the match going again. I've attempted to perform continuous punches to my opponents and at times it feels like I'm punching mid air and not providing any contact. There are teleportation issues that occur once in awhile where you might be ready to perform a move and all of a sudden your opponent transports to the other side of the ring and you even pull the move off. It looks very strange. I've had these things happen a few times while playing this game, but it hasn't been anything consistent. The A.I. seems smarter than the one in LOW2, but I think that the A.I. is still fairly easy to play against. There isn't a challenge in Showdown like the A.I. in Smackdown: HCTP.

Tag Team A.I. and the performance of Aerial moves are my last gripes that I have with the gameplay. This is one area that I don't understand, when you get all 4 wrestlers in the ring it becomes a cluster@#$%. It becomes hard to lock on your opponent and then it even becomes much worse when your opponents tag team partner feels like they have to interfere every few minutes. It can get frustrating. I do agree with IGN on this, the aerial moves. If you opponent is standing on the top turnbuckle and you get into their leap area it locks you in and bam you get nailed. This is something that I think needs to be fixed for the next installment.

I do like the weight detection animation when you try to lift someone up that is much heavier than you and since you have not depleted their energy or received enough fan support you grab your back in pain. This is added touch to the game.

Graphically, Acclaim has done a great job in making each wrestler look like their real life counterpart. You can tell just by looking in the wrestlers faces how much detail went into each wrestler. Everyone has their proper tattoos, tights/trunks/outfits, hairstyles, and entrances. Showdown finally has ditched the cartoon looking design from the LOW1 and LOW2 games, and has decided to go for a more life like design in the wrestlers look. The managers do look still like a bit cartoonish, but I think their meant to be that way over-the-top.

Final Score: 8/10
Showdown: Legends of Wrestling has come a long way from LOW1 and LOW2. I am glad to report that even though the game may have taken a few steps back due to glitches and bugs, the gameplay, graphics, and added features are the saving grace. Acclaim needs to take this version of the game and work on fixing the bugs for the next installment before they decide to start adding more wrestlers and features. It is time that they go back and rework the “Showdown Challenge” mode or bring back the territorial career mode which no one had a problem with from the previous games. I like the “Classics Mode”, but this would be nice if it were expanded upon since we have such a large roster. Hopefully the trio will return in the next game with more lines and less repetitiveness.

This game does feel rushed at times and I think what if this game had another 2 months worth of development time? It would be one of the best U.S. games to be released in a long time. I don't blame Acclaim overall for these bugs, I blame their QA department.

If I could have 2 legends added to LOW4, it would be The Midnight Express. I highly recommend buying the game as I have been having a great time with it. Granted there are a few problems, but those things are minor to me and I know that this game is a blast.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/04