Showdown: Legends of Wrestling

"Come down the ramp, step into the ring, and get ready for Showdown!"

Showdown Legends of Wrestling, if you are looking for a game that recaptures some of the greatest legends of all time, then here it is, dropin an elbow from the top ropes, or perhaps, a massive leg drop, in any case, Showdown Legends of Wrestling deffintly gets a high 9 out of 10 in my opion, but there is more to Showdow then just a GREAT roster, such as graphics, annoucing, sound, well if you are dying to know what is so great about this game, then get ready to read below because this is my review on, Showdown Legends of Wrestling!

Ok first lets start off with all these negatives. As I'm sure a lot of you have read, there are a lot of complaints about this game. Well I'm here to tell you that you can work around them. Yes, there is glitches, some are much more noticble then others, such as your opponet backs up as if he was hit when not a single punch was thrown, or a move will be exucuted, with out the two wrestlers not even touching each other. However, these glitches only happen one or two times within a match that is roughly 7 minutes long, and I rarley get a no ouch glitch, the other glitches are really not big at all, in fact you barley even realize them. With that out of the way, lets get to the good stuff.

Gameplay: A great thing about this game is the realistic speed of the game, it is slow pased, as if you were back in the old days, when they were more technical and started off slow, then when they would go awhile, one would get tired and the other would then begin to really start to shine and would eventually take over the match. The challenge of Legends of Wreslting Showdown, is not to great, infact this is the only thing that really bothers me. It is quite easy to beat even on legend mode, but again I can work around that. Tag Team mode is wonderful in this game. To have the abilty to have four teams of two in the ring with mulitple elemination is great, or have two teams of four, this mode is great for survior seris or tourtamnets. The single play mode on hardcore is very fun to, because if you are ever getting into trouble you can simply hit the R2 button, and you could have a run in from another wrestler to help you. The cage match is fun as well, you can either climb out of the cage, wich I havent yet to escape that way yet, but you can also do it like the old fashion way, and have the ref open the cage door, but after a certain amount of time he will close the door again. Table matchs, are like any other, the only neat thing about this is if you jump from the top rope onto the opponet who is laying on the table, you wrestler will hold his stomach as if he is in pain from the manuver he just did. Ladder matches are the same as any other match, no need to get into that. The entrances are beautiful, with athuentic entrances and close to their real music, along with the announcer saying everyones name. Another nice thing is if you crete a tag team with two men who never ever were once a tag team they will still come out together and will be announced. The annoucing is golden, with on target remarks, it is like you are listening to a real match, and with those beautiful camera angles, it puts you right in the action. The classic matchs are cool, but they could use some more work, but hey a huge step forward in the LOW series. If you want an example of the classic match's it is like the Madden Challenge, where you play as the losing team, but sometime you play as the winner in this one.

Sound: Like I said the annucing is great, and the bumps on the mat are just as great, loud enough for you to hear. the music this year dosent have words in it wich is great, this way you don't have your annoucing getting covered up by some lame song.

CAL: Create a Legend. Ok this could use some work. Such as your wrestler can have black hair, or you can not change the color of your pants, mask, shirt, jacket, ect. However, you could look at it as a challenge, such as other and myself do. Or if you absoulty need black hair, you canclone a wrestler, and make a wrestler based off of that Legend you choosed. This is also nice if you remeber, Hulk Hogan wearing a different color ring gear then the one he is wearing in the game. Also with the large list of names to choose from you can just about create anyone you wish. So you just have to look at it as a challenge most people hate this option in the game, I however can mange to get by it.

Graphics: One word..... AMAZING. These are in my opion, bar none the best graphics I have seen in a wrestling game. The only thing I wish they would fix is the crowd, they looked like they were smashed by a steam roller befoe they gave their ticket, again I can live with it. The arean's are as well amazing. Real life arena's, what is not cool about that, and they are for the most part accurate.

So all in all I think, Showdown Legend of Wreslting, is a winner in my book, only thing stooping it from get a ten out of ten, are the glitches, but hey with a step this big, the next game is bound to be great.

Rent or Buy?: If you love the olden days of wrestling, Buy. If you watched old days of wrestling, but werent such as great fan, and you enjoy the Smackdown games a lot, then you should deffinetly rent first, because this game is much different than Smackdown. Great game though in my opion.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/04