Legends of Wrestlemania

"A trip down memory lane"

Legends of Wrestlemania for the Xbox360 was released in the United States near the end of March in 2009. This is a game that features legendary wrestlers from the first fifteen Wrestlemanias.

At first glance, there is a lot to do in Legends of Wrestlemania. One of the biggest and longest things to do in this game is the Wrestlemania Tour Mode. Here is where you relive, rewrite and redefine different matches in the history of Wrestlemania.

The first mode you can choose which is relive is where you play certain matches from Wrestlemania and have them play out like when they actually happened. First you watch the promotional video for that match as well as clips from that actual match and then it's time to play out that match again. This is also fun because you have certain and specific objectives to do in each match.

The second mode you can choose is rewrite. This is almost the same as relive except you change who actually won the match that you are playing out. Now the objectives that you have to pull off seem basic in the first few matches but as rewrite mode continues, you have more objectives to pull off and rewrite mode seems just as much fun as relive mode.

The third mode is redefine where past matches from Wrestlemania have a stipulation added to them making the match a ladder match or a cage match or some other special match type. The problem with this mode is that this mode becomes repetitive. The objectives are the same and the objectives being this repetitive is Rewrite mode was easy to over look but now I got the same boring objectives in redefine mode?

In addition to Wrestlemania Tour Mode, you also have the Legend Killer mode. This is where you create a legend and take on five different tiers of legends. Now the first three follow the same format, face ten legends and you unlock the next tier. Now the tiers seem to get old after the first two Although the last two tiers is another thing that made me dislike this game. In the favorite legends tier, I ended up facing my own guy because he had so many wins but that's because I was using him in Legend Killer mode to begin with. But what really was a surprise was the All Star Legends Tier. In the All Star Legends Tier, you have to win thirty-eight consecutive matches and you can't even save in the middle of a tier. Who has time to go through thirty-eight consecutive matches? The last tier you can't even play though unless you have a Smackdown vs Raw 2009 file saved on your Xbox360 because you have to import the wrestlers to this game.

Now all the modes are easy or hard depending on what you set the difficulty on but in Legend Killer Mode, just earn enough experience points for your Created Legend and you'll do fine. The controls are different from Smackdown vs RAW 2009 because the grappling system is different and closer to the days of Warzone and Attitude although not as complicated. Unfortunately sooner or later, you do seem to pull off the same moves over and over and they made picking a weapon up from under the ring real complicated. Why couldn't they leave things simple? A positive thing about the controls are that to do your special, you press X and A and then a chain grapple comes up which sets your opponent up for the special.

The graphics and sound for this game may be the best part of the game after the relive and rewrite modes in Wrestlemania Tour. Unfortunately Jerry "The King" Lawler and Jim Ross are the only announcers found in the game and why couldn't more legendary announce teams be put in the game especially when you hear them while watching the video of the match you're about to relive or rewrite? On the plus side, Lawler and Ross say the exact things that were said from the announce team during the matches at least in relive mode. Also all legends have their own theme music and in Legend Killer Mode, you hear Ross and Lawler actually mention your legend by name. The graphics are alright and the wrestlers look like they're supposed to but however a lot of legends that were important in the first fifteen wrestlemanias are missing. There is no Diesel, Razor Ramon or Macho Man Randy Savage just to name a few guys that are missing in this game.

This game took less then fifteen hours for me to unlock almost everything but it's definitely not something you will want to play over and over once you unlock everything so the replayability factor doesn't exist when it comes to this game.

I have to give this game a 6 out of 10. It is worth the money to rent this game for a week from Blockbuster but after one week, I really don't see any reason to continue playing this game.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/08/09

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