Legends of Wrestlemania
Legends of Wrestlemania was released between the 19th to 24th of March 2009 in Australia, Europe and North America to coincide with WrestleMania XXV. It was first announced in July 2008 by THQ Inc and JAKKS Pacific, Inc. The game was developed by Yuke’s and published by THQ who are also the developer and publisher for the WWE SmackDown video game series. Legends of Wrestlemania is a PS3 game that features legends and alumni of the professional wrestling promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). They are the same characters who have appeared at WrestleMania in the 1980s and 1990s during which WWE was still known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In this new instalment, Legends of Wrestlemania features a new grapple-based combo fighting system that focuses more on arcade-style gameplay in order to differentiate itself. Only the D-pad or left analogue stick and the four face buttons are needed in order to play the game. The player’s HUD is indicated through a health bar that shows a number between one and three. This number increases and more devastating moves become available after players deliver successful chains of attacks. Players get to perform the wrestler’s finishing move once the third level moves are completed. In order to deliver continuous chains of moves, players must beat their opponents in pressing one of the buttons allocated by the screen or their move will be blocked and the chain thus broken. Wrestlers possess five taunts each that are capable to either increase his health meter or his speed, among other things. There is also a meter that displays the possibility of the wrestler getting out of a pin, if he is pinned. Not only that, a submission meter is also available to indicate specific damaged body parts.
Reviews
Legends of Wrestlemania aims to appeal to nostalgic wrestling fans by providing them the chance to play as classic wrestlers in historic Wrestlemania matches from the ‘80s and ‘90s, instead of featuring up-to-date rosters and the freedom to deliver any move you wan during a match. It aims at accessibility rather than complexity and has simplified controls with limited movesets that might quickly become repetitive. One of Legends of Wrestlemania’s main appeals is its robust roster of historic wrestlers that date back a few decades ago including Sgt. Slaughter, Ultimate Warrior, and Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Legends of Wrestlemania features over 40 superstars and managers. Before every main event, video montages are played which show clips from the encounters before the event as well as highlights of the respective match, capturing the all-important drama of professional wrestling. The characters are deemed to be overdone and become even more exceptionally jarring when you’ve just watched a video footage of the real wrestlers in comparison. However, the characters make up by being pretty well animated and are able to convincingly capture individual mannerisms. Legends of Wrestlemania features a fairly simple gameplay, requiring you to use the buttons for strike, grapple, and block to damage your opponent and counter his blows. Action is deemed to be ultimately shallow, making all of your matches fairly repetitive after a short while. In an attempt to spice things up, Legends of Wrestlemania has included in the Wrestlemania Tour mode that allows you to relive a past event, rewrite history by competing as the loser, or redefining the event by changing the match conditions by completing a number of objectives attached to each even in order to earn gold medals and unlock small bonuses. Additionally, there is a full array of exhibition match types as well as online match support.
