Legends of Wrestlemania

"Celebrate 25 Years of Wrestlemania!"

THQ has always been one of the best game developers to make wrestling games since the days of the N64. At the height of the WWE Attitude years there were plenty of games that began rolling out onto consoles and giving fans plenty of pleasure in chokeslamming their way to the top. Legends of Wrestlemania is a fantastic wrestling game from THQ and Jakks Pacific involving a short look back on some of the famous bouts throughout the first fifteen Wrestlemania events up to the 1999 Stone Cold vs. The Rock championship match. Legends of Wrestlemania is a short game, but makes up for its brevity with a custom creation mode, excellent online play, and easily unlockable achievements for the Xbox 360 version.

The first thing you have to get used to with Legends of Wrestlemania is that the controls are not unlike the old THQ games where moves had been made very easy to use. I have not played Smackdown vs. Raw and since you can import the characters from that game to this one then I would suppose that the control scheme is pretty much the same. Legends of Wrestlemania reminds me a lot of old console games like WWF Attitude and Warzone. However, there are plenty of options to make the game less difficult than it needs to be and you can pause the game at any time to search the tutorial for the move you want to perform. Certain problems still exist in trying to tap a button that performs different moves depending on where you are at so I spent a lot of time trying to climb the turnbuckle when my character would keep going out of the ring.

Despite the complex controls, the fighting system is a whole lot of fun as you can reverse moves on your opponent most of the time and quickly bring back the momentum with your own moves. The three level system allows you to quickly get up to performing your finishing move and a quick tap sequence system along with a button mashing system keeps the game play variable and focused on defeating your opponent.

There are only three big modes to the game. The Wrestlemania Tour is your main mode where you can relive certain matches in the history of Wrestlemania or fight in matches that should have been a part of Wrestlemania. There are no roads to Wrestlemania or big championship matches to fight except for the ones you relive and redefine. A must-have exhibition mode comes along with most of the match types and then you have your Legends Killer mode which gets a little bit repetitive after awhile, but only lasts for four tiers (five if you are going for all of the achievements in the game).

The create a superstar mode is very advanced with plenty of emphasis on detail so it is possible to create some classic superstars that did not make it into the game, (Doink, Tatanka, Randy Savage...where are you!!!) but you can also take plenty of time to make a superstar, or in my case a gigantic super freak of nature.

Online is where the action is at once you learn how to deal with the control system. Once mastered though, online play becomes very competitive and very fun to play. Me and Ric Flair have taught a lot of players that to be the man, you have to beat the man.

The likenesses of the characters are spot on for the most part. They look a little like they are plastic, but the resemblances are very good and detailed right down to facial expressions during matches. The game loops the entrance music of all of the wrestlers featured in the game and that is always good listening. There are some glitches when it comes to building your custom superstar though. Arms and legs get lost when you try to super-size your wrestler, but you have to try hard to find this glitch.

The replay value is excellent for a game that does not take too long to beat. There are over 40 WWE legends featured in the game that will take you way back to the roots of wrestling and if you have Smackdown vs. Raw then you will be able to create matches between current and former superstars. Online multiplayer matches are exciting due to the fighting system where you can attack and reverse attacks on your opponent as well as participate in tag team matches. The exhibition mode has plenty to offer as well so you can play around with custom matches or watch a computer controlled match. Back in the day I used to make my own tournament brackets and watch all of the CPU wrestlers compete against each other on the older THQ games. That was fun stuff.

The achievements are really what make this game totally worthwhile. You can easily unlock all 1000 by completing some easy exhibition games and completing the Legend Killer and Wrestlemania Tour. I was able to get them all unlocked in a day, but this should take the average person 2-3 nights to do. It is kind of a short game without a lengthy championship mode, but it fully satisfies diehard wrestling fans like me.

Legends of Wrestlemania is totally worth the rental, maybe a buy if you are that big into wrestling, but totally worth the time to play. Reliving the classic entertainment brings back plenty of memories of watching those old rivalries reignite time and again. The controls are a problem, but nothing that should discourage you from thinking about picking Legends of Wrestlemania up. This is a great lead up to wrestling fans looking forward to April 5, 2009.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/09, Updated 04/02/09

Game Release: Legends of Wrestlemania (US, 03/24/09)