WWE Legends of WrestleMania Review

"Dun dun dun dun duhduhduhduuuuuuuuhhh! When it comes crashing down and it hurts insiiiide"! Who can forget sitting at home watching some old school classic wrestling. 3 different colours for the ropes, a wrestlers persona could pass off as him being a barber and wrestling was a different kind of technical. I have very fond memories of those days and can clearly remember watching for hours with my brother, playing with the figures and of course wrestling with him. The next time i really registered wrestling as awesome was watching the Hardy Boys VS the Dudley Boys at the Royal Rumble, to this day i still see these two tag teams as 4 of the most talented entertainers i have ever seen. I lost touch after that, taking with me fond memories of the Hulk Hogan days, along with the D Generation X days, through to the American  Bad Ass Undertaker days. So to hear they were going to release a game reliving if only a portion of the memories i have as a kid, needless to say im there. So lets lay it out. The game is WWE Legends Of Wrestlemania, it bought to you proudly by THQ, its rated 15 and has been released for the PS3 and Xbox 360.


So how does this WWE game differ from other wrestling games? The main marketing for this game was to do 3 things, relive, rewrite and redefine. The idea is you play through past Wrestlemania events, playing as classic WWF/WWE wrestlers, but not just beating the crap out of your apponent for the 3 count. For each match your given a set of criteria to meet, these criteria are used to score you on how well of a performance you give, giving a better performance gains you more points which leads to gold medals. For example, we all know the famous moment for wrestling around the world, the iconic Hulk Hogan scoop slamming Andre The Giant, so, in order to recreate that match faithfully, you need to at some point scoop slam Andre. For doing so, you earn say 20 points towards a gold medal in that match, which could be 200 points, so your constantly checking the objectives to see what you need to do. Push that concept into the 3 categories, coupled with the usual mash up options you expect from any wrestling game and you've got yourself a game. There is the usual create a wrestler option, as well as the Legend Killer mode, in which you play in a desired teir and basically fight through superstars endurence style.

One of the other main things this iteration of a WWE game offered was a whole new "easy to use" control system. No triggers or bumpers are used, all is controlled by the 4 face buttons. As i reviewed this on the 360 convert these how you will. X is your basic punches and chain combos, A is grapple, B is block/pin and Y is to perform a reversal. Double tapping in a direction makes you run and holding X or A performs stronger versions of attacks or grapples. You have a health meter which has oportunities to refill, as well as a move tier system. The more you hurt your apponent, the more your tier bar fills, when it fills you move up a tier allowing you to do a different grapple move and generally perform stronger attacks. When you reach the final tier (tier 3), you only need stand in front of your aponent and press A + X together to perform your finishing move, though its not quite over yet! You then get pushed into the classic God of War style button pressing sequences, in which you proceed through 3 moves that eventually lead to your finishing move. Miss the first one, and you wont get a chance to see your finisher, so be ready the second you press it. When i first picked it up, i wasnt entirely sure what i was doing, and after reading the 20 some pages of tutorial moves they feed you, i felt i had an understanding of the moves but no solid feel to what i was doing other than grapple and punch. I often find i would do the same moves over and over with no real knowledge of how to mix it up a little. This new easy to play system does effect gameplay significantly, the game feels very easy and finishing the main 3 sections of the game wont take very long at all.


The redeeming feature to this easy but limited control system is the fact your playing with these superstars again. The graphics in this game really stand out well. Every charecter model is a good representation of the superstar, right down to their individual walk and entrance moves. The style given to the game is of an exaddurated nature, but not exaddurated enough to detatch you from the game. Hulk Hogans upper body is a little big, and the Ultimate Warriors hair is a little crazy, but when playing the game its easy to see the intentions for the style. By the time you have selected your charecter its not so much "jesus christ his arms look stupid", more along the lines of "DOOD I JUST FUCKING SUPLEXED BRUTAS THE BARBER BEEFCAKE!!!!". The intro's look beautiful but are thankfully skipable and all the original entrance music is there. The only other 2 sounds your going to be thankful to hear are A) the jackhammer sound when you move to the next move tier, and B) the undeniably excellent commentary delivered for this game. All your favorite commentary is here and really adds a nice nostalgic feel to the game, its nice having Vince at ringside getting you pumped every small package you drop. As well as that there is the use of re recorded commentary scripted from the original Wrestlemania matches. These recordings sometimes signify you have completed a match objective which adds yet again, a lovely warm nostalgic feel.

When it comes to multiplayer WWE games are always fun for party nights in. So to say that this WWE game will hold up just as much replay value as 2009.. is probably dead on the money. The new easy to control system will add a more simple pick up and play approach for newcomers, but that certainly doesnt mean you'll be playing for longer. I cant deny 4 player elimination matches will always go down in history as the most repetetive thing you can do on a wrestling game, and the added bonus of being able to pit all of your classic superstars together, will probably come to think of it, give it more replay than 2009 ever could have. That all aside, it is essentailly a wrestling game with new old superstars, and a controll system you can operate blind and drunk. Oh and if you have no friends to do this with, get drunk alone and enjoy the wonders of online play.


All in all, WWE Legends Of Wrestlemania is a typical wrestling game whose appeal mainly surges from the past. This is in no way a bad thing, as it was what drew me to the game in the first place, but drawing from the past isnt always enough. The fact that th game is rediculously easy removes any learning curve for different apponents, as each one can be taken down first time. The main challenge is performing all the objectives to earn a gold medal in each scenario. This concept quickly gets boring and it comes to a point when all you want to do is play as old wrestlers. I would much prefer to play this over the last few WWE games to hit the market, but im still sure the control system has a lot of hard work ahead of it. Who knows, in a few years time they might get it perfect, and i hope they do, truly i do.