Legends of Wrestlemania

"Is this game Legendary?"

Graphics: The wrestlers were made to look like “action figures come to life” and that they do. Most if not all of them are over proportioned but it doesn't look bad. They also “glisten” as if made out of plastic, but again this isn't over done and looks pretty nice. Every wrestler is easily recognized, has most, if not all of their mannerisms from back in the day, and will without a doubt take you back to the time the WWE was the WWF and a lot of fun to watch. There are numerous arena's (14 I believe) including thirteen Wrestlemania's and a Royal Rumble that all look very good. The fans reactions are loud and make the game more legitimate but the actual people in the crowd look pretty bad. It doesn't take too much away from the game but you will notice. There is no referee in the ring but a fairly good looking (though pixilated) Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler do commentary from a ring side table. The ring, arena's, and wrestlers look great though so I'd give the graphics an 8.5

Control: Now this takes some serious getting used to because while some of it is familiar, there are parts of it that are brand new and very, very different. At first I hated the control but found out that I really just didn't want to learn a new scheme. Ultimately I love the New Mercy control scheme, followed by Fire Pro, and lastly Smackdown. This game doesn't control like any of those, so now I have yet another scheme to learn. The game uses mostly two face buttons for wrestling moves combined with am analog stick direction. You build up your “tiers” (1,2, and 3) the more successful you are pulling off moves. Each tier gives you a set of new moves. A third face button is used for numerous actions (pinning, turnbuckle climbing, running, etc.) and you have to learn how to use it for each action. This does take some getting used to. The fourth face button is used for reversals (along with away from your opponent on the analog stick) and in the quick time event moves. Yes, that's right, there are quick time events utilized for some moves in the game. This shocked me and even angered me a little. Every time you “grapple” you have to “win” a quick time event. If you don't have your controllers face buttons memorized you're going to have a very difficult time with this. That said, you can change the difficulty “sliders” in the options to slow the required reaction times way down, which is nice. You can then add difficulty by turning them back up after you memorize the face buttons (Yes, I did not have my 360 face controls memorized). Shoulder buttons are used for taunts (combined with two face buttons and a direction on the analog stick). Certain taunts give you certain “rewards” like more health, more stamina, immune to reversals, etc. However, taunting also decreases the “tier (1, 2, or 3) you are on by one. You cannot pull off a finisher (also a quick time event) unless you are on tier three. The control takes much getting used to, especially if you play every or many wrestling games but give it a chance! 8/10

Sound: This feature helps so much with this game! Hearing those old entrance themes playing the minutes you start the game instantly brings a smile to your face. Well, there are those I hate (Sorry Koko B Ware) but over all it brings much enjoyment to this game. There are a few wrestlers that didn't get their actual theme, I don't know why really. Some say Vince McMahon no longer owns the rights to the song and while that may be true, I don't understand why that would be, or who owns them now? Especially Freebird Michael Hayes who wrote his own song many years ago but it still isn't in this game. He (as a few others) have new entrance themes written just for them in this game but if you're like me you're going to want to rip the old school songs to your hard drive and change them. This feature is a nice one that you can use for in game wrestlers or created ones. EVERY wrestling game needs to have this feature from now on, there's no excuse not to have it any more. The fan noise is very good and loud, and Howard Finkle will bring the memories rushing back with his ring announcing, especially with title changes (And the Neeeeew WWE Heavy Weight Champion), great stuff! Lawler and King do an acceptable job at commentary though somewhat out of place in a Legends game (at least Lawler) 9/10

Story: While there is no “story” or “season” mode there are several fun options to take your wrestler or creation through. Created wrestlers go through 10 man gauntlet matches to improve their stats called “Legend Killer”. There are three or four “tiers' of this to go through, and while some say it gets boring after the first one, I've enjoyed it. When you're done your creation will have stats equal or better than Hulk Hogan!

You also have the option to play “rewrite” matches. This is where you play an old Wrestlemania match with the loser and try to win it! Not only that, you have to earn points by accomplishing certain tasks along the way like reversing so many moves, busting them open so they bleed, and tossing them into every corner of the ring. These goals can be tough especially in a timed Iron Man match! However they bring a nice challenge in what could be a very easy mode if not for them. Along with redefine you get relive where you can replay old matches trying to get the SAME outcome with the same goals mentioned above and redefine playing the same matches with different options, for example make Hogan vs Andrea a Hell in the cell match. All of these are very enjoyable. You get classic WWF videos before every match and they stay open to view after you win the gold medal for accomplishing the goals. A very fun experience 8.5/10

Game Play: While I explained in some detail much of the game play, let me wrap up some issues and other fun things here. The matches play out well once the controls are mastered but kicking out f a pin can be irritating until (once again) you completely understand how to do it. Think of the old golf games where there was a circle meter to swing your club. The kick out meter works very similar to those old golf game swing meters. When being pinned a circle meter appears and you must press a button to start the meter and stop it when it touches the blue part of the circle. It's actually intuitive once you grasp it, but again it's new so many will complain about it.

While you can leave the ring you cannot run outside it. It doesn't bother me too much but I'll admit that I don't know why this is the case. You also cannot get a weapon from under the ring any time you chose either. You must grapple a stunned opponent and then your character will “win” in one of numerous ways (manager interference, getting a weapon under the ring, smashing your opponent into the ring apron or corner pole, etc.) if there is a way to figure out what you're going to get from an outside the ring grapple, I've not figured it out yet. It's till fun, but I don't think it's a good idea to take away control from the player.

Matches can be won quickly once you've gotten good at the game, sometimes less than three minutes. However, if you utilize taunts you will can extend a match. I've gone as long as twenty minutes doing this and it's been fun and engaging. The game can turn in to a punch and kick fest even though most real wrestling fans wouldn't do that, be aware that many online players will. Combine that with the fact that created wrestlers with tattoos or symbols can't be used online and it takes some of the fun online away from the game.

The match types include tag team, handicapped, Royal Rumble, ladder, Hell in a cell, and cage (the big blue cage). They are all an absolute blast, control perfectly, and add a lot to the game. In each of these matches control is solid. I can easily use the ladder as a weapon or to climb. Climbing the cage is simple as is tossing opponents in Royal Rumble. Hell in the cell starts on TOP of the cage and you had better learn to win the quick time button presses to be any good at this match type (tossing off the top of the cage, through the cage walls, slamming against the cage when inside the ring, etc. are all quick time events)

A few managers are in the game and play their roles well but are not controlled by the player unless you feel that accomplishing certain tasks (grappling, pressing a button, tossing an opponent into the managers side of the ring, etc) controlling the manager. He will interfere for you doing numerous different things depending on the situation. He can also heal you a little if you go to him and press a button. Like taunting this also decreases your “tier” (Levels 1,2, or 3) so use it wisely.

Game play is an 8/10

There are issues I've not covered heavily in this review. I'll try and hit a few complaints before wrapping up. Tag teams are fun but there are only two team finishers so you're going to see EVERY team use the Hart Foundations “Hart attack” or The Road Warriors “Doomsday Device”. To me there is no excuse for this as it comes off silly more often than not. I mean when I saw the team of Ric Flair and Arn Anderson using this I wanted to throw my controller.

While the “Create a Legend” is great (you can make many awesome creations. Check out many different sites for created legends you can copy for some good examples) the moves lists are sorely lacking for creations. If your created Legend does not use a finisher one of the in game wrestler uses, you're out of luck. You can remedy that slightly if a move is in the game and while not assigned as an official finisher can still be used to end a match. For example my Randy Savage uses the top rope elbow drop pin to win his matches but it's not an “official” finisher in the game. That said, this doesn't always work. A good example is Scott Hall/Razor Ramon as his finishing move is not only not a finishing move, it's not even in the game.

So the two biggest weaknesses in this game are a lack of moves and finishing sequences (quick time) moves for created wrestlers and the serious lack of tag team finishing moves (how about a spike pile driver for example?). While the game box doesn't claim to have downloadable content I am hoping THQ releases at least those two things for us!

One last bonus is the ability to upload the entire roster from WWE Smackdown vs RAW if you have a save from that game on your hard drive. I am not interested in the modern characters being in a Legends game, but uploading them does give you all their moves in create a legend so it's worth it for that in my opinion.

Over all this game is fun and so nostalgic! After getting used to the controls I am very much enjoying it and can easily recommend it to any and all old school wrestling/WWF fans! I rate Legends of Wrestlemania an easy 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/01/09

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