Although many wrestling games pride themselves on featuring up-to-date rosters and letting you do any move you want during a match, Legends of Wrestlemania takes a different approach. It appeals to nostalgic wrestling fans, giving them the chance to play as classic wrestlers in historic Wrestlemania matches from the '80s and '90s. It also favors accessibility rather than complexity, and its simplified controls and limited moveset make it easy for anyone to pick up and play. However, this simplicity comes at a price, and the action quickly becomes repetitive. Matches feel the same no matter how many shiny, overmuscled legends you bring into the ring. It's good for a quick nostalgia fix, but Legends of Wrestlemania runs out of thrills faster than a Pay-Per-View event.
At the heart of Legends of Wrestlemania's appeal is its robust roster of wrestlers that stretches back a few decades to conjure such legends as Sgt. Slaughter, Ultimate Warrior, and Jake "The Snake" Roberts. It features main events ranging from the first Wrestlemania (Junkyard Dog vs. Greg Valentine) up through Wrestlemania XV (The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin). There are more than 40 superstars and managers, and even if you've never heard of such wrestlers as King Kong Bundy, you can still get psyched to relive his match against Hulk Hogan in Wrestlemania 2 thanks to the excellent video montages that play before each main event. These videos show clips from the encounters before the event as well as highlights of the matches themselves. They capture the all-important drama of professional wrestling and provide an exciting introduction to the action.
Once the actual match begins, you are introduced to the glistening character models, which appear to be smuggling large cuts of meat under their skin. The Hulkster was always a muscular guy, but in Legends of Wrestlemania he looks like ballooned-up action figure. These overdone characters are particularly jarring when you've just watched a video of the real wrestlers and have seen how they actually looked. This dims the nostalgic glow, but it becomes less pronounced with wrestlers in the mid-to-late '90s, who tended to be much more physically sculpted. Underneath their armored carapaces, the character models are pretty well animated and convincingly capture individual mannerisms such as Stone Cold's swagger and Undertaker's lanky rigidity.
The gameplay itself is quite simple. Most of the time you'll be using the buttons for strike, grapple, and block to damage your opponent and counter his blows. You can also climb on the turnbuckle, perform an Irish whip, take the action outside of the ring, and, of course, pin your opponent. It's easy to master the basics that you'll need to win matches, and there's not much beyond the basics. Scripted intros, finishers, and certain grapples will trigger quick-time events that challenge you to press the prompted button before your opponent does. These allow Legends of Wrestlemania to show your wrestler doing more-advanced moves, but you won't really get to watch him because you'll be so focused on the button prompt. There are some painful rapid-tapping sequences and a momentum meter that lets you do more powerful grapples, but these don't add much complexity to the gameplay. The action is ultimately shallow, and it's not long before all of your matches start to follow the same repetitive pattern.
One interesting attempt to spice things up can be found in the Wrestlemania Tour mode. Whether you are reliving a past event, rewriting history by competing as the loser, or redefining the event by changing the match conditions, each event has a number of objectives that you can complete to earn a gold medal and unlock small bonuses. These range from simple (taunt your opponent) to complex (attack your opponent from the top of each turnbuckle), and they can add some much needed variety to the proceedings. More-recent events have more-elaborate objectives, but having a longer to-do list doesn't make the match better, just longer.
There is also a Legend Killer mode that lets you pit your created character (or an imported character from Smackdown vs. RAW 2009) against grueling tiers of legendary wrestlers. You have to fight 10 consecutive matches to beat one of the six tiers, three of which are unlocked only with a Smackdown vs. RAW import. Each tier is long and painful. You carry the same health bar throughout the 10 matches, so you will become very familiar with the one taunt that regenerates a fraction of your health. Worse, you can't save your progress, so you have to do it all in one sitting. The action simply can't hold up during such a long session, which makes Legend Killer mode little more than a test of your tolerance for boredom.
Legends of Wrestlemania also sports a full array of exhibition match types and support for online matches. The robust creation toolset from Smackdown vs. RAW 2009 is included, with the notable omission of the fun Create a Finisher tool. Although it's great see so many legendary stars gathered in one game, Legends of Wrestlemania just can't live up to the hype. The gameplay can be fun for a little while, but it soon becomes an exercise in repetition and boredom. The highlight reels are really fun to watch, but when the most entertaining aspect of a game is a 10-year-old video montage, you're dealing with some serious mediocrity. And that's the bottom line.
PREVIEWS
E3 2008: Legends of WrestleMania First Look
If you're of a certain age--above 30 years old or so--and you're a wrestling fan, you no doubt remember WrestleMania III. March 29, 1987. The Pontiac Silverdome. Detroit, Michigan. 93,173 fans. Andre the Giant versus Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster picking up the Giant, slamming him down, and the torch passing from one legend to the next. It's that nostalgic atmosphere that fuels THQ's latest wrestling game, Legends of WrestleMania. We had a chance to check out the game for the first time at E3 2008, looking to see if this retro wrestling game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 brought back those old memories of classic matches of yesteryear.
While you can expect to see approximately 40 classic characters on the Legends roster, only three have been announced so far: the aforementioned Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and Andre's manager during WrestleMania III, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. The character models shown during the game were exaggerated versions of the famous wrestlers we all idolized as kids and, it should be noted, are still works in progress. The Hulk Hogan model, for example, still featured the 24-inch--wait, make that about 40-inch--pythons and lats wide enough to make the Hulkster look like a turtle from behind. The virtual Andre was still his 7-foot-4-inch, 500-pound self, with more defined musculature than was the case in real life. Producers told us that the look of the wrestlers has been purposefully designed to represent the "ideal" versions of those wrestlers--the Hogan and Andre we remember, not necessarily the sometimes less-than-heroic realities.
Though Yuke's is developing Legends, and the game is running on a modified version of the SmackDown vs. Raw engine, the game is going to play much differently than the SmackDown series. While THQ's foremost wrestling series is full of complicated moves designed for the more hardcore crowd, Legends looks to pare down the interface and control scheme for more streamlined action. The controls have yet to be finalized, but as of now, all moves are controlled with the face buttons. There's one strike button (tap for a light strike, hold for a heavy punch or kick), one grab button, and a defense button (tap to reverse a move, hold the button to block). Of course, all of the moves will be context sensitive with regard to the position of the wrestlers and their individual wrestling styles.
The interface in Legends is similarly stripped down. There's no location-specific damage meter like in SmackDown, and the many HUD elements found in that game--such as for reverses and submission minigames--are nowhere to be found in Legends. There will be some new wrinkles, however, including a three-tiered level meter that will change your available moves depending on what level your wrestler currently finds himself in. For example, a level-one grab might be a rake of the eyes, while a level-three grab might be a vicious choke on the mat. You'll have access to your finisher only by getting your wrestler to the level-three moves.
Another new feature is the idea of a chain system. By stringing together a number of attacks against an opponent, you'll enter a minigame where time briefly slows down. At that point, both you and your opponent will have the opportunity to do a move on the opposition. The first person to initiate the move will get an advantage and be able to pull out an additional attack on the opponent. For multiplayer matches, the person who initially began the combo will have a slight edge on timing. We're curious to see how the chain system evolves over time.
While managers don't play a big part in the modern WWE, they once were nearly as important as the wrestlers they looked after. During the match shown between Andre and Hulk, Bobby Heenan was active outside the ropes, moving around, climbing up on the apron, and making his presence known every chance he got. Managers will be able to interfere during matches in Legends and even offer advice to their wrestler, which will give him a small boost to his attributes. We're personally hoping for some classic Heenan shtick in the final version of the game, but we'll have to see how it evolves over time.
As with nearly any wrestling game, a big part of Legends' success is going to ride on that all-important roster. While none of the following are official, it wouldn't surprise us at all to see big-name WWE talent like Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Junkyard Dog, and Randy "Macho Man" Savage in the game. Nor would we be shocked to see more recent WWE superstars, like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and Triple H--all of whom have had illustrious WrestleMania moments--find their way to this game. Look for Legends of WrestleMania's release next spring, coinciding with WrestleMania XXV, which will be held at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. We'll be bringing you the latest on the game up until then, so stay tuned.
CHEATS,HINTS AND UNLOCKABLES
Unlockable: Match Types
Perform the following actions to unlock additional match types:
- Steel Cage Match - Win 1 match in Wrestlemania Tour Mode
- Hell in a Cell - Win 2 matches in Wrestlemania Tour Mode
- Ironman Match - Win 3 matches in Wrestlemania Tour Mode
Unlockable: Alternate Costumes
The codes below can be entered under "Passwords" in the main menu. Other costumes may be unlocked by performing specific actions, as detailed below.
- BrutusTheBarberShop! - Brutus Beefcake's alternate costume
- WithManagerJimmyHart - Jimmy Hart's alternate costume
- IronSheikCamelClutch - The Iron Sheik's alternate costume
- UnlockTheRockBottom! - The Rock's atlernate attire
- Complete Legend Tier 1 (Legend Killer) - Animal's alternate costume
- UndertakersTombstone - Undertaker's alternate costume
- TheBirdmanKokoBWare! - The Birdman's alternate costume
- TheRoadWarriorAnimal - The Animal's alternate costume
- HawkFromLegionOfDoom - Hawk's alternate costume
- ShawnsSweetChinMusic - Shawn Michaels's alternate costume
- CobraClutchSlaughter - Sgt. Slaughter's alternate costum
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