Legends of Wrestlemania Review: Back In The Ring

“Oooooooooh What a RUSH!!!!” was what I was greeted with when I first booted up “Legends of Wrestlemania.” I thought it was quite fitting that those were the first words I heard, being the beginning lines of the entrance music for the one and only Legion of Doom Tag Team.

“Legends of Wrestlemania” has been a long time coming for me. Not to be confused with the “Legends of Wrestling” (I & II) games put out by Acclaim last generation, this title has the licensing of the WWF …er WWE. With this, THQ left no stone uncovered by utilizing the real, classic footage of these wrestlers and their historic matches to tell the story.

Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that this isn’t a flawless game. THQ decided to “dumb down” the controls in order to make it more friendly for those, dare I say, “casual” fans of wrestling by relegating all controls to the four face buttons. This took a while for me to get used to coming off of “SVR 2009″ which, to me, had finally begun to get wrestling control schemes right.

In “Legends” you get your basic chops/punches/kicks and your grapples, and if you hold the button down longer and you get a different move. For some reason though, I found it difficult to Irish Whip my opponent in the direction of my choosing, but I digress. “Legends” also includes what’s called “Chain Moves,” which are basically a series of quicktime events that allow you and your opponent an equal opportunity to do high-risk maneuvers and reversals. Yes, there will be blood muwhahahahahaha.

I’ve always felt that QTE’s were for those people watching someone else playing the game. These events usually trigger stunning sequences that would be difficult to actually control. If you are the one with the sticks, you are seldom focused on the awesomeness of a move, instead honing in on that precise time you get to make a button press so you don’t fail. I could just as easily do without these sequences in the game.

“Legends” is not deep; on the surface as you get three basic Wrestlemania modes, Relive, Rewrite, and Redefine History. If you are playing a Relive match, you need to win the fight like how it actually happened, in a Rewrite match you need to change the outcome by picking the loser, and for the Redefine ones you play the scenario with different rules like a ladder match or cage match. Some of the matches let you actually play some of the sequences from the real deal, doing these earn you points towards a medal for staying true to history.

This is actually fun if you are old enough to remember when most of these matches went down, which is where I think the real key to this game is. There’s charm in remembering what it felt like to watch “Live” Hulk Hogan getting his ribs crushed by King Kong Bundy, or the ahead of its time skits the old timers did to hype a match. Some may say what goes on today is over the top, but the WWF had some wild story lines back in the day as well. The presentation of these matches really puts you back in 1988 complete with old school TV title graphics.

With a title like this someones always going to have gripes about the roster. Luckily for those who have “SVR 2009,” you can import your entire roster into this game, and fight the current stars versus the greats. You know that THQ and WWE are setting this game up for a franchise so they can have more stars in the next installment. But how in High Holy Hell can you have a “Legends of Wrestlemania” and NOT include “The Macho King” Randy Savage? He’s one of the most important wrestlers of ALL TIME. I know he has some beef with Vince, but you are cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Now, it may be a wildcard to ensure sales of “Legends of Wrestlemania ll” but still, the number of matches you can have with the Macho Man alone is worth the price, with Wrestlemania V being the pinnacle. Hearing the pomp and circumstance music would definitely raise some goosebumps. Which brings me to my next point, wrestlers having individual entrance music is a stroke of genius. These tracks were heard damn near every week and etched themselves into our memories.

Big shot out to all the wrestling superstars who are no longer with us. This is a good way to remember your favs.

Here’s my want list for the next title in order of preference:

Randy “Macho Man” Savage
Ricky Steamboat
Mr. T

More Tag Teams!
Bushwhackers Butch and Luke
Demolition (c’mon you got Mr Fuji!)
The Rockers

Also, we can’t limit the game to Wrestlemania’s, there were a lot of other events that were memorable too.

Rating:

“Legends of Wrestlemania” was released on March 24th the the Xbox 360 and PS3. The version reviewed was for the XBOX360.

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• March 25, 2009 -- Play Theater: Legends of Wrestlemania: Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy
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