Fun and easy to get into at first, but a few lackluster modes keep this from being a top-tier wrestling title.
WWE Legends of Wrestlemania marks the first WWE game to show up in a while that's not part of the long running Smackdown vs. Raw series from publisher THQ and development team Yukes, and while it's a definite departure in not only format but also in how the game controls, it doesn't seem like the entire game was as fleshed out as one particular area, and the end result feels like a mish mash of ideas that doesn't manage to blend together into one solid product. I'll admit that the idea of seeing classic matches brought to life in video game form definitely has an appeal, but it wasn't enough to keep my interest for an extended amount of time.
The idea behind LoW is that you'll be participating in a series of famous Wrestlemania matches ranging from the beginning of the long running PPV staple to Wrestlemania 15 (basically running up to 1999 during the Rock/Austin era). The initial grouping of matches is in the Relive category, meaning that you're simply taking on the role of the winner of that match and battling it out against your opponent in events meant to mimic what actually occurred during the show. However, instead of simply going for a pin and winning a match, the idea is that you're trying to hit certain key highlights of each match, and by doing so you're rewarded points that go towards achieving a gold medal and unlocking additional content for the game, in the form of alternate costumes and extra videos.
Before each match, you're shown actual footage of various clips and highlights leading up to the match, along with footage from the actual match itself. For fans that grew up with wrestling, but haven't been able to maintain much interest in WWE brand lately, it definitely brings you back to your youth when you're reminded of things like Sgt. Slaughter's heel turn, Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, and any of the crazy promo's guys like the Ultimate Warrior use to cut. Being able to see the highlights of the match before actually performing them in-game ends up being pretty cool too, and helps you to realize that some thought was actually put into the Relive mode.
However, the other two modes really feel like more of an afterthought to me. Rewrite comes from the same idea of Relive, but this time you're changing the outcome of the matches, usually because of some type of outside interference from the managers featured in the game that resulted in someone getting screwed out of a win in a previous Wrestlemania. The thing is, while Relive has you hitting certain objectives that end up being specific to each match and well thought out, Rewrite simply has you hitting generic things, like performing a finisher twice in a match, or a taunt twice, or causing your opponent to bleed. There's no specific highlight to hit that's actually unique to each match, which really takes the fun out of it. Compare it to the events in the Rock vs. Stone Cold match from the Relive section, and the whole Rewrite section pales next to that one match.
The same goes for the third mode in Wrestlemania Tour, which is the Redefine mode. This takes matches from previous Wrestlemania events as well, but allows the player to choose which of the two opponents they want to be, and simply tosses in a gimmick that wasn't actually present in the match to begin with, like a ladder match or Hell in the Cell. The same problem exists here with the objectives, they're not really match specific, and they don't even make use of the gimmick stuff that's introduced. It seems like it would have made sense to see an objective for knocking your opponent thru the top of the cage for the Hell in the Cell match, but you're stuck with the same generic line of objectives like Strong Grapple, First to Attack, Taunt, Finisher, and so on. The end result keeps the matches from being all that interesting to play, and they almost become formulaic since you know that you need to perform the exact same set of moves for every single match.
Along with the Wrestlemania Tour, there's a Legend Killer mode that uses the Create a Wrestler (or in this case, Legend) system. After creating a wrestler, you'll enter into a series of tiers, and face off against a certain number of Legends in a row, with no breaks between matches, meaning that you'll only regain a little bit of health after every win. However, on default difficulty there's not much of a challenge here, and once you get the hang of reversals, which are pretty easy to pull off, you won't have much trouble blowing thru the various tiers. There is one that's a bit of a marathon, but even then it's not particularly challenging outside of the amount of time it'll take to finish. Playing the Legend Killer mode is the only way to upgrade and max out the stats for your CAW, and for every win you gain you'll earn experience points that are based on how varied you managed to make the match, with different moves and grapples earning you so many points per match. You can then spend these points as upgrades for various areas on the CAW, but finishing the Legend Killer mode will give you more than enough to max out your CAW.
Of course there's quite a few exhibition matches you can participate in, including a Royal Rumble mode in the 10, 20, or 30-man variety. For the Rumble you can select your entry point or have it set as random, but even the Royal Rumble mode comes off as a little bland here. During the RR, you can't perform a grapple, so you'll only have strikes at your disposal, which is supposedly done to add a bit of realism in an effort to mimic early Rumble events (I'm not entirely sure how true this is), but the effort ends up sucking some fun out of the Rumble, and simply tapping the attack button or performing reversals ends up being pretty boring. Also, knocking someone over the top rope seems to be completely random, and unless their health is bottomed out, no amount of button mashing is going to get them to fall out.
Finally you can play online with any of the Legends or Superstars available or your own user created wrestler. I wasn't able to play a lot of online match-ups due to having the game a little earlier than release, but the matches I did play I rarely came across any lag issues, which is great since certain grapples require the use of Quick Time Events to come out on top. Also, playing online is obviously far more challenging than playing against the computer since I came across players that would go for counters pretty often, and actually finishing up one of the chain grapples without having it countered is far more entertaining than it is against the AI. Still, you'll run into players that have already figured out the cheapest moves and applied them to their favorite wrestler, so there's still balancing issues in this game like there have been in previous wrestling titles from THQ. There is an option to turn off user created/modified characters though, which is probably a good idea if you're just starting out, even if it keeps you from putting your created Legend to good use.
The controls in WWE Legends of Wrestlemania have been revamped compared to the Smackdown series of titles, this time to keep in line with the arcade feel the game is supposed to represent. For the most part I think the controls work really well, outside of ground moves, and the introduction of chain grapples is something I wouldn't mind seeing used in other wrestling titles, and gives less experienced players a fighting chance when it comes to reversing moves, and even finishers. Strikes are simple and haven't seen any significant change, but it does seem like reversals for strikes and basic grapples are far easier to pull off here than they were in Smackdown vs. Raw '09.
For grapples and finishers, your wrestler has a small meter that displays their current chain level, which goes up three levels. Each level has their own particular set of grapple moves, and once you hit level 3 you can pull off a finisher by hitting A and X together, and then you'll need to successfully perform the button prompts on screen to pull it off, just like some of the chain grapples that you can perform when your opponent is dizzy. In single player they don't seem to make that much of an impact since the computer will rarely hit the input before you do, but against another human opponent it becomes far more challenging to pull them off successfully.
Still, I'm not really in love with the actual game, and after finishing everything (the achievements/trophies are really easy to get by the way), I find myself more interested in the concept than the actual execution. The roster line-up is really solid, outside of some noticeable absentees, and being able to unlock the Smackdown vs. Raw '09 roster with a save file really opens it up, and allows for some interesting match-ups, but after playing the game for a few days you start to realize that the novelty wears off pretty quickly. It's worth checking out for the Relive portion of the Wrestlemania Tour mode, but that's only going to last you a couple hours at best, and the other two modes don't appear to have as much thought put into them as Relive did. I'd say wait for this one to go on discount, or just give it a rental first to see what you think, before paying the full price and finding yourself bored with it after a week.
