WWE Legends of Wrestlemania review

New to the site, but not new to gaming, and having played tournament level of numerous fighting games, I picked up this game the other day and deciding to write up a little review on it.

Anyone familiar with the Smackdown vs Raw series of games or going further back, the Smackdown series in general, drop any expectations you had set for this game regarding depth or longevity. This game is about as deep as Royal Rumble 99 for the Dreamcast, if even.It comes down to four (yes, FOUR) buttons.  An attack -basically always a badly animated punch-, a grab, a block, and an action button.. That’s about all there is to it this time, no move modifier, no complex out-of-ring tactics,  and most importantly;  no variety in the actual wrestling moves whatsoever. That’s right, this game hearkens  back to the days when a piledriver was a finisher and a bodyslam ended the match. Very little flash to be found within the actual fighting, the graphics leave much to be desired as well; the crowd is poorly animated and the character models for the wrestlers are extremely cartoonish and uncharacteristic of how wrestlers of the 70-80′s era actually looked. Instead we have models that appear to have been injected since birth with steroids 2 times a day.

The modes are disappointing as well, limited to only 3 of any depth.. none of which offer any sort of a story other then repeating an actual historic event in Wrestlemania history. Relive, Rewrite, Redefine. Relive: Repeat a match exactly as it happened at the actual event. Rewrite: play as the loser of said event, and attempt to win whereas they had failed. Redefine: Play the same match that Relive was, except under new rules (I.E: a cage match, ladder match..etc)  Honestly, your enjoyment of this game boils down to this. Do you have WWE friends that suck at games/play them casually? Then, this will be a extremely easy pick up & play for you to enjoy with them if Smack down vs Raw 2009 is perhaps, too complicated for them to learn. The game is very reminiscent of old arcade Wrestling games that hearken back to the Snes era.

There is some innovation to be found in the form of QTE (Quick Time Events) that occur in the form of what is known as Chain Grapples. These occur when certain moves are executed, allowing you or your opponent to reverse said move sequence providing they press the button which appears on screen faster then the other player. While this is a good idea on the surface, it really breaks up the pacing of the game and could be done without. Also there is a 3 tiers special meter that you build up that grants you the ability to taunt, which in turn gives you the equivalent of power-ups. Building it to level 3 lets you perform your finisher which is also a Chain Grapple which once more kills the games pacing. Actually, the game surprisingly is slower paced then the Smackdown series all around, which is strange considering the arcadey spin on the game play. Also you can import your ENTIRE RvS09 roster into the game which freshens up the slightly stale 40man roster, but it severely limits their move set keeping only a couple of the imported wrestlers Signature moves. Your enjoyment of this title, will be based upon how much you’d be able to play the multiplayer aspect as the single player offering is quite weak.

A side by side comparison of the new vs the old ~ make your own judgment people

Controls: 6.5/10 Simple gameplay mechanics open up easy playability but very shallow depth.

Graphics:  6/10 Overly cartoonish models and bad crowd models overshadow the accurately modeled venues.

Sound: 7/10 The usual assortment of grunts and groans with the accurate entrance music for most of the wrestlers

Replay value: 7/10 A very carbon copied version of SvR’s create a wrestler mode which allows you to recreate wrestlers that are missing from the roster, 3 short main modes and the grueling legend killer mode are all that are offered for single player. The online mode is welcome as it greatly extends longevity of the game for some. Latency is decent and the matches experience very little lag as long as your opponent isn’t playing from East Asia or something.  Dock 2 points off the score if you have no access to online play.

Extras:7/10 Wow, this is one area the game scores highly in for me. There is a TON of footage that is very high quality of each match that you will play through in the Relive/Rewrite/Redefine modes. If you’re into watching that sort of thing, then you will get some serious nostalgia out of watching them. Unlockables I noticed are sparse however limited to a few characters and alternate costumes.

Overall: 6.3/10