WWE Legends of WrestleMania Review (Xbox 360)
It isn’t often that I comment on the box art of a game, but THQ’s WWE Legends of WrestleMania cover is a gem; especially for old-school wrestling fans like me.
The focal point of the hand-drawn (or maybe retouched CG) cover is Andre the Giant—his massive hands cradling the Legends logo. It’s hard for this huge man not to be a focal point; he was reportedly seven-foot-two and like a gazillion pounds in his heyday.
Slightly behind Andre is Hulk Hogan, circa his “Hulkamania” motif. The Hulkster in his World Wrestling Federation glory years was an intimidating figure, which THQ’s box art deftly captures.
Like two bad-ass bookends, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock sport the scowls that made them wrestling phenoms in the ’90s. And for good measure, the WWE Legends of WrestleMania cover includes the “super managers” of the ’80s, Jimmy Hart and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, in all their annoying grandeur. It’s quite a work of art, and one that I wouldn’t mind having in poster size.
A cover is just a cover, however. They say never to judge a book by one, and purchasing porn solely on the merits of its box imagery is a huge no-no. Same goes for those video games that promised big through cover art, only to peter out in the gameplay department.
THQ’s newest grappler wrestles on a different mat, though. In Legends of WrestleMania’s case, the box art’s beauty actually matches the prowess of what’s etched on the shiny disc inside that box.
It would have been easy for THQ to have slapped some fancy graphics on the Legends box, re-mapped the wireframes from WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2009 with old fogies and called it a day. It would have been pretty easy to transfer SmackDown! vs. Raw’s match types and in-ring gameplay over to WWE Legends of WrestleMania too. While there are some similarities between THQ’s two latest wrestling titles, a lot of extra effort was put into Legends of WrestleMania to ensure that it would strike a nerve with a more widespread wrestling demographic.
WWE Legends of WrestleMania borrows the core game engine from the latest SmackDown! vs. Raw title, and you’ll also see similarities in the visual tech powering the characters’ models. This is all fine and dandy, since SvR 2009 was a solid title. But in order to capture the essence of the old school, and to increase accessibility, THQ has slyly pared back the game modes and control complexity of WWE Legends of WrestleMania, while, at the same time, coming strong like a Stunner with pageantry, nostalgia and other WWE licensing bits.
The gameplay of Legends of Wrestling will stand out to those who are familiar with the action of SmackDown! vs. Raw. While it may comes across as a tad basic to the real SvR fans, the system in Legends seems to match the classic format much better; perhaps a throwback to when controllers had less buttons. You only need one button to either strike or grapple, and more complex moves, such as finishers and specials, are only two buttons away.
On-screen prompts hold your hand along the way (in case you forget how to go for the pin or chat it up with your manager, for example). Features such as a “chain level” combos system—where grapple complexity is determined by damage doled out—keeps WWE Legends of WrestleMania from being a button masher, however. All of the AI intuition and context sensitivity built into SvR 2009 is also in place for Legends, which means matches never turn into “who can slam the buttons the fastest?”
Reversals are very much a part of the action, and it will take knowledge of how they work and their timing to have a chance at upsetting the AI. It’s easier to pin a human n00b, of course (1-4 players local or via Xbox Live), but don’t go thinking that winning any type of match in WWE Legends of WrestleMania is easy just because the controls are easier to understand. Yes, it’s less complex than SvR, but Legends is no pushover.
Match types, for example, have been scaled way back; not only for sake of efficiency, but also for a more era-specific representation of matches that would occur in a “legends” title. WWE Legends of WrestleMania’s game modes have also been kept concise and very specific to the notion of a nostalgic wrestling experience. Tour Mode, for example, enables users who closely followed past WrestleMania programs to mirror what happened in the event’s most famous matches. Sub modes in WrestleMania Tour enable famous matches to be rewritten or redefined; both of which are tied into a points system that will keep your interest on the key objectives in each event. A finely crafted Hall of Fame virtual trophy room gives additional incentive for completing these game-mode goals.
t’s obvious that The Legend Killer mode is specifically crafted for WWE Legends of WrestleMania as well. This one is a clever play off of Randy Orton’s “Legend Killer” run, where you’ll have to use Legends of WrestleMania’s Create mode to make a superstar that can compete with the best of the past. From there, Legends contains several gauntlets full of mid-grade wrestlers that will have to be beaten in order to progress to the big boys.
The Legends system is very deep and engrossing due to its aforementioned progression and the ability to power up your created hero/heel. There’s one definite downside to Legend Killer and one potential downside. The definite downer here is that you can’t create a finishing move for your wrestler like you can in SvR 2009. You can modify move sets and create an entrance, but stellar finishers are out. The one potential issue with Legend Killer is that at least a part of it requires character importation from SmackDown! vs. Raw. This is great news if you also own SvR 2009, since it will up the roster to hundreds of wrestlers and also allow the usage of SvR’s create-a objects, but it locks out a portion of the Legend Killer mode for those that don’t own/plan on owning WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2009.
Having the ability to add SvR 2009 wrestlers into WWE Legends of WrestleMania is sweet, but you probably won’t feel like you’re missing much if you’re into more ’80s/’90s mat action. It’s a pretty pure lineup—from superstar to who-the-hell-is-that—and many in-between. There are always those that should have made these classic lineup lists but were overlooked, and those who were going to make it but couldn’t because of disparities litigious in nature (such as, where’s the Macho Man?), but, for the most part, WWE Legends of WrestleMania’s roster is a WWF/WWE fans’ dream come true. The visuals are pretty much all there, too. A few facial maps are a bit questionable, but the personalized animations of each star more than make up for lack of exact lookalike wireframe skinning.
Legends’ classic wrestlers square off in era-specific arenas filled with era-specific fans; an extra step THQ took to better sell this playable WrestleMania timeline. The art direction runs a bit deeper in that the on-screen graphics that mimic various WrestleMania broadcasts are also spot-on in terms of what would be seen as the decades changed.
Classic entrance songs (I like that the song descriptors are always displayed when a track queues up) and character shenanigans very much true to the real personas help sell the all-important pageant side of the WrestleMania events featured in Legends. And, even though it’s a shame that the term WWF can’t be used because of a prior lawsuit, THQ has done a pretty good job at making this a non-factor in the presentation department.
One area in the presentation that does seem slightly more out of place is the announcing. Lawler and Ross do a fine job, and their calls are filled with tasty, archival factoids on classic wrestlers and classic WrestleManias, but having some classic announcers (even guest announcers) for the ’80s and early ’90s matches could have helped to polish off Legends’ broadcast side.
It’s tough to get a game like WWE Legends of WrestleMania right. It helps that the WWE licensing is all under one roof, of course (imagine trying to make a retro NASCAR game), making it easier for THQ to put what’s necessary in this ode.
Beyond the licensing, WWE Legends of WrestleMania is a smartly-designed game that enables studio antics to be more approachable to the common gamer. The gameplay isn’t dumbed down to the point where hardcore wrestling fans will scoff at Legends either.
Well, even if WWE Legends of WrestleMania’s gameplay does come across as basic for the SvR masters, all will be forgotten when a bloodied Hulk Hogan prances around the ring to “I Am a Real American.”
