Legends of Wrestlemania

"Whacha Gonna Do, Brother?"

Wrestlemania. The premier event in sports entertainment. However, what would have happened if Hogan lost to Andre, or Bret Hart could have blocked the Sweet Chin Music? Relive or completely rewrite some of the greatest Wrestlemania moments of the 80's and 90's.

Control-8/10

At first play on the demo I found the controls to be erratic and difficult for what was taunted as a "arcade" style game, but as I played the finished product I found how often the controls were as precise as other wrestling games before it. If anyone has played Giant Gram 2000 on Dreamcast you will be reminded of that game throughout Legends of Wrestlemaina, and that's a great thing. Sometimes the camera angles caused the directional pad not to function as smoothly, especially when trying to reverse or run, but were passable. The quick time events are tight, and require precise timing due to the random buttons it requires to be pressed. For example, to do a finisher you must go through a series of quicktime events, that may or may not be the same as when you completed the last finisher/quicktime event. Also, I found difficulty in getting the wrestler to do various things in specialty matches, such as climb to the top of the cage in a Steel Cage match. Other than those minor flaws, it controls much like it's sibling SVR series.


Sound-10/10

Reliving the moments couldn't have been done better. I fondly remembered watching the Wrestlemanias highlighted in the game, and Howard Finkle's booming introductions did the game justice. In game sounds such as wrestler and fan noises were done well, and all other music fit as appropriate.

Graphics-9/10

Most of the graphics in game are fantastic. Most character models are faithful representations of their real life counterparts, but the over emphasis on oiled bodies and muscular builds took away from the sense of realism in the game. Some of the models looked slightly off, and the game suffers from the persistant problems plauging other Yukes titles. Created characters are the same old tired formula since the induction of the SVR series, and still suffer from unrealistic visuals and clipping issues when preforming moves to larger wrestlers. Entrances are faithfully reproduced and actually vary if the wrestler selected has an alternate costume that made them a face or a heel. Kudos to the small level of detail achieved by the graphics in that department.

Fun Factor-8/10

The game is an absolute blast to play. Once you get the control scheme down and understand how the chains work, you could sink hours into this game. There are various match types, and the Relive, Rewrite, and Redefine modes are some of the best I've seen in any game. However, sometimes you can get aggervated with the control scheme, espeically if you have come off playing the SVR series, as the ones in this game are a bit toned down to be accessable for many players.

Overall-9/10

When I initially played this game as a demo I was disappointed. I felt the quicktime events distracted from the overall jist of the game. However, I was blown away by the actual product. If Yukes had the opportunity to create a Legends game during Acclaim's run with a Legends series we would have had a better remembering of heroes past. The game modes are right to the point, and the clips that set up each rivalry does an awesome job at reminding us why the fued started in the first place. These matches largely defined years of WWE memories, and serves as a constant reminder of why WWE is one of the best wrestling compaines in the world. I will wait to see if they continue this series, simply because it is truly a fan's game. If you long for wrestling the way it used to be, then you could do no better than Legends of Wrestlemania.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/09

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