Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Jason Ballew

THQ has had success for years with their WWE-branded Smackdown series, and one of the things that fans have been requesting time and time again is a Legends-based game. Never one to disappoint, THQ has delivered WWE Legends of Wrestlemania, featuring around forty of the most-recognized names from the 1980s and 90s and a Wrestlemania Tour mode that focuses on the significant matches of Wrestlemania 1-15, just in time for this year's 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania.

Will this game be a five-star title, worthy of being included with the 25th Anniversary of Wrestlemania, or will this be a game that we wish had remained dark?

Legends of Wrestlemania was developed pretty much concurrently with Smackdown vs. Raw 2009, so it shares much of the same graphic style. However, THQ did amp up several of the Legends to make them larger than life in keeping with the theme of bringing back the feeling of the wrestling games of the 80s and 90s. The Legends are very nicely detailed and generally look and move like you expect Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, and the rest to move back in their heyday, and the game has very good lighting effects on both the wrestlers as well as the pyro and the general lighting effects in the various arenas.

Object collision is also mostly a plus, with the ring ropes deforming as someone presses against them or steps into them, and all of the various items that the Legends interact with all impacting as you would expect them to, without any obvious gaps or 'air' between the characters on-screen.

One of the only issues, graphically, is that when the camera is at the right distance and angle, it becomes very obvious that the audience is made up of two-dimensional sprites as opposed to the three-dimensional polygons that everything else is. Sometimes as the match is ending, the camera will turn to show that the audience is very obviously flat, and at the right distance, certain rows of the audience appears pixelated. Also, when you get a close-up of the audience, the quality level between them and the Legends is even more pronounced, as they look flat-out ugly up close.

Admittedly, THQ and Yukes did an outstanding job at cramming in a large number of virtual audience members, and some shortcuts have to happen in order to make the game run with all of the figures present, which is understandable. However, the camera itself could have been better utilized to avoid the graphical shortcomings from being quite so obvious.

Yukes and the WWE did an outstanding job putting together the various video packages for the matches in Wrestlemania Tour mode, giving players the opportunity to see the Legends of earlier times in some of their most important matches. The WWE brought in WWE Hall of Famers Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler to do the commentary, and it's obvious that they enjoyed doing this, as you could see a number of references that were made to the Legends of the past, as well as tying the game's matches into the actual historical events that happened during those matches.

The entrance themes are also well done and accurate to the Legends, although in the cases of some of the WWE Legends, there was no entrance music or Titantron videos for them. In these cases, the WWE created new themes and videos for them, and they fit the Legends quite well, and help to flesh out the game a bit more. Also, the sounds of the wrestling and associated noises involved with the matches are also very well done, and sound accurate.

One of the only issues sound-wise is sometimes Jim Ross or Jerry Lawler will be in the middle of a sentence and then completely cut off to hit another reaction when you pull off a move or something. While I'm sure they cut themselves off on television now and again, it isn't as abrupt as it feels in the game, which can be a bit distracting.

The controls for WWE Legends of Wrestlemania are much simpler than those of Smackdown vs. Raw 2009.  The entire game is control by the left analog stick and the face buttons.  The left analog stick moves you around in the menus and the game itself, while the square button performs striking attacks, the X button does grapples, the triangle blocks and counters while the circle button is used for pinning your opponent as well as various interactions in and around the ring. 

The basic controls can be learned in about five minutes, and the first match you play offers pop-up tips to help you quicky get used to the game.  When you're at various areas in and around the ring, text will appear beneath your health bar giving you added instructions.  Also, during various chain wrestling moves during the match, what is essentially a quick time event will appear on the center of the screen, about 1/4 between the center and bottom of the screen, letting you know what to press.  This was one of the big control issues that I had in the game, as the indicator is just low enough on the screen to pull your attention away from actually watching the match, which goes much farther than it should in breaking immersion.  The only other major control issue with the game is that it auto-switches between targets, which can cause you to attack, say, your opponent's manager when you meant to take him out yourself.

Have you ever had a sandwich where all of the meat was in one spot, so that that part of the sandwich was wonderful, but the rest of the sandwich was nearly bread?  WWE Legends of Wrestlemania is like that.  It's obvious that the developers spent a lot of time making parts of the game, and this really shows in the Relive portion of the Wrestlemania Tour mode. 

The game itself consists of Wrestlemania Tour, which is 19 matches spread over Relive, or the ability to recreate some of Wrestlemania's greatest matches, Rewrite, the ability to take the role of the loser of a Wrestlemania match and have them win, and Reimagine, which takes Wrestlemania matches and changes the rules before allowing you to play as either side.  Then there's Legend Killer, which allows you to take a created Legend through all forty-two Legends (as well as the Superstars from Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 if you import them) in an effort to be the best Legend of all time.  Finally, there's exhibition mode, which allows for a number of match styles, and online play. 

The issue here is that most of the care and attention was given to Wrestlemania Tour, and most of that was given to the Relive mode.  Each mode has six to seven matches, with each having a very nice video package that explains the feud and shows highlights from the actual Wrestlemania match, so that you know what's going on.  In each match, you have to perform certain objectives to earn points.  If you reach a certain threshold of points, you receive a gold medal, which unlocks a number of things in the game.  The problem is, for Relive mode, the objectives are all tailored towards the match itself.  You'll have a number of objectives which allow you to attempt to accurately recreate how the original match went, such as putting Steve Austin in the figure-four leglock around a steel pole as Bret Hart, letting Shawn Michaels throw you into the band setup as Steve Austin, and so on.  In Rewrite and Reimagine modes, however, the first two matches of each have the exact same objectives:  Hit a taunt, hit a finisher, win the match, hit a strong grapple, and counter a strong grapple.  The next two matches in each also have the same set of objectives, as do the final two.  It's like they put all the effort into Relive, and then coasted through the other two modes.

Legend Killer is much like Season mode was in Smackdown vs. Raw 2009, with you taking your created Legend, which is exactly the same as Create a Wrestler in SvR2K9, and then running them through tiers of Legends and Superstars, earning points with each victory.  The more that you defeat in a single run, the more points you get, which is how you build your created Legend for exhibition play as well as online.  Taking a character all the way through all 100-plus characters does a pretty good job at getting you ready for online play, as well.

One of the biggest issues with the game is similar to an issue with SvR2K9.  It's very easy to power through a match, hit your finisher, and win without ever really taking a beating from the computer, at least with the pre-created Legends and imported Superstars.  The only real challenge comes from Legend Killer mode and trying to hit all of the objectives, especially considering some of the later objectives in Relive mode require you to be flawless.   Playing the Royal Rumble in Exhibition mode becomes a button-mashing fest as you pound the controller to either knock someone out five seconds after they enter, or try to keep yourself alive. 

Online play has the standard settings that were in SvR2K9, but they were unable to be played at this time, simply because the game has not hit store shelves yet, so there was no one to play against.

As I said before, the largest problem with WWE Legends of Wrestlemania is that the meat of the game is in the Relive portion of the Wrestlemania Tour.  Given that this is their first attempt at a Legends game, it isn't bad by any stretch of the imagine.  However, you can technically complete the Wrestlemania Tour section in under six hours, with a few more spent trying to get all of the objectives and medals.  Legend Killer can take about twenty to thirty hours, but there's really not much point in doing it other than getting all of the trophies and achievements in the game, unless you're going to play a lot of exhibition and online play. 

The game is most definitely worth a rental, and if you like a lot of online wrestling, or play with friends, or just love the create modes, this is definitely worth the money. 

I really like the concept of this game, and the game itself is very fun for the most part.  Also, the video clips are a treat to watch for anyone who watched WWE wrestling during the time.  I just wish that the game had more filling content spread throughout the game.  The ability to play exhibition modes with the hundred-plus people between the two games was nice, and the Wrestlemania Tour was incredibly fun.  Legend Killer was fun as well, but I'm not a particular fan of the creation modes, just because of how incredibly complex they can be. 

For fans of WWE games, those who grew up in the 80s and 90s watching WWE wrestling, or those who always wondered who would win between John Cena and Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and Big Show, or how about the tag team of Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase Jr vs. Dusty Rhodes and Ted Dibiase; this game is a must-buy.  The game itself is solid, and if you have people to play with, you can burn hours and hours in the various modes of the game.  Personally, I'm hoping that next year we get Legends of Wrestling with not only WWE, but WCW, AWA, Mid-South, WCCW, ECW and all the other federations that WWE owns the rights to. 

Gaming Trend Score

87

1. Graphics: 89
2. Audio: 93
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 85
5. Value/Replay: 78
6. OVERALL:87