I am a wrestling fan.  I am also a huge fan of THQ’s WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw series. With SD vs. Raw, the “Legends” of the WWE are normally unlockable characters that, for the most part, go unused when I am playing. So, how did things go when these Hall of Famers are put into their own game?

Compared to the previous efforts put forth by other developers, Legends of Wrestlemania comes together pretty well.  THQ seems to have wanted to capture the attention of those who have not played a wrestling game in it’s current, more complicated control model, as the one they use in LoW is a lot more simplistic.  Gone are the dual stick configurations that were put in at the beginning of this generation’s SD vs. Raw titles, instead going with a more simplistic face button only system. While it can be a nice change of pace, it almost seems too simplified. The range of moves you are able to pull off are based on a 3 level chain system, but for the most part you seem to only do the same couple moves at each tier. The reversals kind of annoyed me, as you are required to use the block button + move the control stick away from the opponent in order to pull it off, which I personally think would follow the simple avenue more if they were on a shoulder or trigger button instead.  One part that I really could not get into was the quick time events system that was put in place. Random groggy grapples, grabbing weapons from underneath the ring, some  irish whips and finishers are all met with these, which I guess are suppose to make it look and feel like the shows on television, but for some reason just got on my nerves.  The worst part for me was the way you kick out of a pinfall.  When you or your opponent are pinned, you have to hold down or tap a button to make a meter fill up, with stopping inside a specified area (that’s sized depending on how much health you is left) being the key to kicking out.  This led to several times where I would get pinned really early in the match if  I accidentally shot past the zone.

The single player modes are short yet solid.  Wrestlemania Tour Mode has three ways you can go: Relive, which has you doing certain objectives in order to follow a match exactly, Rewrite, where you do things to change the outcome of some matches and Redefine, pitting you as the person who decides who wins in changed up versions of classic matches. The best part of each of these was the historic footage that’s shown before each match. It definitely makes me wish I had the ability to watch wrestling back when these guys were on top. Unfortunately, there are only 19 different scenarios to play out. In order to get more replayability out of these, THQ added a point system that gives you medals and other unlockables if you score a certain number of points while playing. Legend Killer mode lets you take a created superstar and put them up against a gauntlet of Legends while earning experience points as you fight. The standard exhibition mode is there that allows both single and multiplayer with about 11 different match types.  Legends of Wrestlemania also allows you to play online, though whenever I did try to do so, I could only find ranked matches at any time of the day and the lag experienced during these was horrible.

There are some odd glitches that can be found throughout the game.  One that definitely caught my attention happened in all ladder matches that were for titles. After the winner grabs the belt, even if its the Million Dollar Championship or the Intercontinental Title, the WWF title was what appeared in their hand all the way down the ladder, only to magically change to the correct title after the winner turns around looking exhausted. You also are not able to hit your opponent with the ladder while they are downed. Trying to leaves you swinging the ladder at nothing while your opponent lays writhing on the ground.  Another glitch that made me bust out laughing was after a match between Bret Hart and Yokozuna, a rather large sumo wrestler, when Yoko was declared the winner, the WWF belt was for some reason stretched around the big man’s waist.  One more thing about the titles on the wrestlers was that they don’t really seem like they were actually touching when the belts were either on their waist or over their shoulders.  These are basically nit-picky things, but it does detract from the presentation for me a bit.

The roster is pretty large, with 38 Legends and the ability to import 45 wrestlers from a Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009 game save.  It’s a nice inclusion, but it definitely shows the different art direction THQ took for the character models in this game.  Where the wrestlers from SD vs. Raw are quite realistic, the Legends in here are a bit caricature like. Jacked up wrestlers like Batista and John Cena look small in comparison to The Rock or Stone Cold. The lighting in this game must have been toned down also, as the character models from SDvR appear to have a spotlight shown on them throughout the match when put next to the Legends. With that said though, the ability to play matches between the likes of Big Show and Andre the Giant or Cena verses The Rock greatly outweighs these little things.

The announcing is alright during the Wrestlemania Tour Mode, but once you do exhibition matches it turns back to the sometimes repeated commentary from JR and Jerry “The King” Lawler that we’ve seen in the SDvR games previously.  And speaking of those two, it feels a bit odd with them commentating on the matches. Was there no possible way to get Vince McMahon and maybe someone else to do this?

Overall, Legends of Wrestlemania was a decent game. This is THQ’s first effort in making a more casual friendly wrestling title, and while there is room for improvement, it is a good attempt. The nostalgia factor should be enough to keep long-time wrestling fans enjoying this title.  I am just not so sure it should have cost $60, considering this is a dumbed down version of the Smackdown Vs. Raw games that cost the same price.

VN:F [1.9.1_1087]

VN:F [1.9.1_1087]