With WWE’s Wrestlemania coming up here soon, I felt it would be a good idea to take a look at their new installment in the games area, WWE Legends of Wrestlemania. The game makes you an active participant in history’s best and most well known wrestling matches. From Andre vs. Hogan to The Rock vs. Stone Cold, it has a large array of matches. The real question is can it be better than SVR09? Legends of Wrestlemania allows you to connect your SVR09 roster to this game allowing you to use your characters from SVR09 in LoW. So let’s see if the game is going to hit its finisher and claim victory or if it is going to get con-chairto’d.
Story:
The story of the game is through different modes that you can play through. Let’s start with the headlining part of it known as Wrestlemania Tour Mode. In Wrestlemania Tour Mode it gives you 3 options to do with matches from the past; relive, rewrite and redefine. It is a real strength that the WWE has finally brought into its continual failure that was the Legends series of their wrestling games. It gives you a chance to redo (or correct if you must) history and make your favorite wrestlers (a.k.a. “superstars” ) win the matches you felt they should have. Think Andre should have beaten the Hulkster? Make it happen. Think the Corporate Ministry should have beaten the Texas Rattlesnake? Make The Rock layeth the smacketh down. It gives you a fun chance to right wrongs and change outcomes which is awesome. It is definitely the crowning feature within the game.
The other mode called “Legend Killer Mode” is used to boost your created characters attributes and is used in the same way that career mode from the SVR series is used. In LK mode there are 7 tiers each with 10 legends to battle. The mode is enjoyable, but only really worth playing one maybe two times depending on your obsession with creating characters. It is fun, but only for that limited amount of time and really wares you out and becomes boring after x amount of gameplay. It is a decent feature, but nothing more.
The match types are nearly identical to that of the SVR series minus the Money in the Bank match and the Inferno Match. While the main meat of the story is within the tour mode, it becomes more taxing that entertaining after awhile. After completing the relatively short tour mode (6 hours max, took me 2 1/2) it relies totally upon its multiplayer and honestly it holds up to a degree. The gameplay which is coming up next here, really is a big turn off and hurts the game very much.
Gameplay:
Between the redux’d SVR09 controls and LoW putting in a just as lackluster system, it is hard to see where the appeal fallows through. It does give a more basic feel just like in the old days of wrestling where a leg drop (Hogan’s Atomic Leg Drop) and a fisherman’s suplex (Perfectplex) were finishing moves. The grapple system is done by tiers, yes I will explain what that means further; it means that you have 3 tiers of move-sets and through chaining attacks you can move up the tiers. You must get to the third tier to get your finishing move. You can also taunt to regain health, increase speed so forth and so on. While the arcade-like experience is somewhat fresh it also becomes very demanding to your memory and your patience. The LoW series has always been one with more faults and it unfortunately has still not fixed them.
It does have strengths though, the arcade styled gameplay does give that old school feel as I said above and to add in the characters really enhance the games overall worth. From the Honky Tonk Man to the “American Dream” Dusty Rhodes you can be an elite number of former greats and some still greats in their old looks (Triple H is in his old Englishman attire with complying music). It really gives the game vigor and life and a hopeful chance to be good. The roster is really one of the biggest around and when you add that in with being able to mix it with the SVR 09 roster; you have an enormous roster to work with and a lot of great matches to be a part of.
As I said before the real problem isn’t just with this games controls it is with both this game and SVR 09 which has redone its controls 2 or 3 times over and honestly for the worse. I understand the simple system for this game due to it being a legends game where basic moves of today are finishers of yesterday. The game is so-so in the gameplay department and when it comes down to it, the game really relies on its story and its fan base to overlook the lackluster gameplay.
Graphics:
The graphics are really good and a strength that stands out. All the characters are done really well and their entrances are met with very good realism. Graphics have always been a strength for the WWE’s wrestling game franchises and this is no different. The game offers great arena’s and realistic old school fighting.
The games weakness though is within certain character looks. For example, if you do a match with Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant you will notice that Hogan is not much smaller than Andre. Hogan was never really a small guy standing in a 6 and a half feet and some 250 plus, but Andre was a 7 footer plus and some 450 or 500 lbs. So the difference should have been way more obvious than it was. This was one of those things you pick up and get kind of annoyed about but willingly overlook it.
The graphics are solid with some minor liabilities, but nothing enough to truly raise any alarm. The game has few strengths and this definitely one of those things that it relies on. The game graphically is just as strong as previous SVR titles and is the latest in the graphics department.
Sound:
Sound in this game is honestly more of a one trick pony. When you think wrestling you think of entrances and music and this game is no different my friend. It excels in its strengths with music and entrance effects like fog or lighting fixtures. The style is done just like SvR09 so it is done really well. The in game wrestling has decent sound and does its job, but really nothing beyond that. The game has decent sound effects and does its job but does not WOW you.
Replay:
The replay value depends totally on how much you enjoy the game series of SvR, play online and if your friend’s play as well. The game is truly fun and can keep your interest for a decent amount of time, but without enjoying online play or having friend’s that play as well you will find this on the shelf very quickly.
Final Analysis:
The game offers some great fights between old school rivals and a fun and lengthy story mode. The game has a large amount of yesteryear superstars and their finishers to help. The game connects with SvR09 and allows you to use both rosters of wrestlers which ads to the games overall value. The big problems are obvious ones that truly stand out, the controls and fighting style are annoying and rough to deal with and the game has rough replay value which depends too much on factors (see above).
The game offers another chapter into the WWE universe with this installment and is definitely the best legends based wrestling game that has come out. The game gives you that old school feeling which is a much needed in the Legends of Wrestling series and finally gets it right without taking too much from the wrestling. The game has some promise, but lacks in the replay value department to an extent and overall is an alright product.
Legends of Wrestlemania is a game that is good for those who are WWE fans and fans of wrestling games in general, but will only be truly valuable to those who play online and with friends as stated earlier. The game is one that takes time to learn and is worthwhile to those who are bi on the genre itself. The game is a hit and miss factory.
 | Chain Struggle | 30  |
| Win a match using a Chain Struggle | ||
 | Tag Chain Struggle | 30 |
| Win a match using a Tag Chain Struggle | ||
 | Grapplemania | 30 |
| Win a match using only grapple attacks | ||
 | Technician | 30 |
| Win by using five or more reversals in a single match | ||
 | Royal Rumble Winner | 90 |
| Win a 30-Man Royal Rumble | ||
 | Dive Attack | 30 |
| Successfully perform a dive attack from all four corners | ||
 | First Medal | 30 |
| Obtain a medal in WrestleMania Tour Mode | ||
 | Medal Collector | 100 |
| Obtain all of the medals in WrestleMania Tour Mode | ||
 | WrestleMania Tour | 90 |
| Clear all "Relive" matches in WrestleMania Tour Mode | ||
 | Memory Serves Me Well | 30 |
| Complete any match without pausing in the "Relive" section of WrestleMania Tour Mode | ||
 | New Legend | 30 |
| Defeat 10 opponents with a Created Legend in a single tier in Legend Killer Mode | ||
 | Legend Killer | 30 |
| Obtain a medal in Legend Killer Mode | ||
 | True Legend Killer | 100 |
| Obtain all of the medals in Legend Killer Mode | ||
 | Invincible Created Legend | 30 |
| Max out a Created Legend's attributes | ||
 | Super Fast Legend Killer | 90 |
| Become a Legend Killer in Legend Killer Mode in 30 minutes or less | ||
 | You're #1 | 100 |
| Have your Created Legend reach the Top rank in Hall of Fame Mode | ||
 | Created a Legend | 20 |
| Make a Created Legend | ||
| Secret Achievements | ||
 | Manager | 20 |
| Win a match using a manager in an Exhibition match | ||
 | King of Kings | 90 |
| Defeat the Favorite Legends Tier in Legend Killer Mode | ||
"Legends of Wrestlemania (X360)" is on sale March 24, 2009 and is rated T. Fighting. Developed by YUKEs Future Media Creators. Published by THQ.
