WWE Legends Of WrestleMania: Andre The Giant and Hulk
Hogan square off
Kick
to the guts: now thats got to hurt!!
Bret
"The Hitman" Heart showing off
The
Rock's going to have a sore neck after this one
Ultimate
Warrior strutting his stuff
Don't
try this at home kids.
Anybody here a WWE fan from way back when?
My hand is held high, let me tell you!
Hulk Hogan, Bret “The Hit-man”
Heart and my favorite all-time wrestler Ultimate Warrior!
Something
about the Ultimate Warrior's face paint got me all razzed up as a kid
and made me want to run out into the street and practice my Bear Hugs
and Gorilla Press Drops on all the unsuspecting kids in the
neighbourhood.
Which was fine for a while, until my childhood
friend Rosko P. Coldchain decided he would get in on the act and assume the persona of Hulk Hogan.
Now anyone that's a wrestling fan
would remember WrestleMania IV, which saw Ultimate Warrior pin and
defeat Hulk Hogan for the WWF Intercontinental Championship and WWF
Championship.
It was a huge moment in wrestling history.
Well Rosko P.Coldchain to whom I'm still in
contact
with, would rumble in the streets for hours on end but he never would
be pinned and instead refused to note that the Hulk ever lost.
One incident comes to mind (because it left an impression to this day), as I have a small scar across my forehead.
The
story goes something like this: we were in the backyard messing around and
grappling and play fighting until something in Rosko's look changed.
He
climbed the balcony at my house which was three meters high on the second storey and flying elbow dropped
me.
Need I say anything more? The injury left me seeing rainbow's and unicorns
for hours.
So
I grew up, I left the face paint behind and forgot all about the wrestling
days of old.
Until now with THQ's latest title WWE Legends Of WrestleMania.
Firing
up the game for the first time on the Playsation 3 saw me sweating with
excitement and those old childhood memories came flooding
back.
Gameplay couldn't be easier, with the use of X (Grapple),
Square (Punch), Triangle (Block) and Circle (Action), that's all you
need to know to have a successful wrestling career.
Holding the
D-pad or analogue stick in a different direction when holding a button
longer makes the attack stronger, however the game features a new
grapple-based combo fighting system which sets the game apart from the
SmackDown series.
Legends of WrestleMania focuses more on a
arcade-style of gameplay (I think this was a move to entice “Casual
Gamers”) and it works for what it is. It's not as complex as some wrestling games.
During a match you will notice the health meters at
the top of the screen and underneath them numbers 1, 2 and 3.
After the
successful completion of chain attacks, the number increases which
makes more devastating moves available, but that's the simple beauty of
this game -- there are no difficult combos to memorise, you just charge the
number bar and press the X button.
Some
gamers will hate this simplicity but I liked it. It meant I could get
in, get my game on and have a good bash, and friends who had never
played before could join in and still have a lot of fun and not feel
out-classed.
After charging your bar to
the third level, the wrestler's finishing move can then be performed.
Continuous
chains of moves are performed by pressing a button highlighted on
screen in a cool cinematic sequence before the player's opponent
can.
If the opponent beats
the player at this, then the move is blocked and the chain is broken.
So moving along to the game modes there are a fair few: Relive, Rewrite and Redefine are the
main options to choose from in terms of story mode:
Relive: the player can play as a legend that won a
match over a certain wrestler.
Rewrite:
allows the player to play as the loser of a certain historic match in
order to "rewrite" history. This mode takes the player on a brief history of
certain wrestlers, a recap of their feud and a recap of their match at
WrestleMania which fans will love.
Player's must complete certain objectives, besides
winning the match in order to receive the gold medal for each stage.
Redefine:
the player chooses any wrestler to play as and then has the ability to
change the match type such as Single, Tag Team, Triple Threat, Steel
Cage, Ladder, Submission, Iron Man, Handicap, Hell in a Cell, and Royal
Rumble.
Before each match there is a cool retro video that has
highlights of previous matches from the '80s and '90s and in my point of
view this is a huge selling point of the game.
The real footage puts
you in the action and sets the stage nicely and will be keenly digested by wrestling fans.
What better way to
relive the entertainment than seeing your old favorites beat the living
snot out of their adversaries, which is made quite lengthy with the inclusion of 40
larger-than-life WWE Legends.
There's Andre The Giant, Junk Yard Dog, Bam
Bam Bigelow, Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve
Austin, Hulk Hogan, Iron Sheik, Ultimate Warrior and Jake The Snake
just to name a few.
Looking
at the game from a visual standpoint, it animates very smoothly and the
signature moves look good. There is a strange plasticky-look to some of
the wrestlers, but overall the eye candy is sweet and succulent.
Some
sources say that there was a little tampering with the size of some of
the characters such as Andre The Giant (slimed down and shortened) and
Hulk Hogan (beefed up and Advanced Hair treatment) much to the
displeasure to the fans.
I myself didn't mind too much as I didn't find the changes that noticeable, but some fans are notoriously hard to please.
If you're one of these fans, you may find the game a little patronising but my
closing comment is this:
If you're one of those die-hard WrestleMania
fans then I'm sure you'll love the presentation and the nostalgic video clips, but the gameplay might leave you wanting more.
I
think the game has been designed for a wider audience overall. If you
were a huge wrestling fan back in the day, but like me haven't followed
wrestling recently, you'll get a real buzz playing this game.
It's easy pick-up and play and that's what makes
this game so different to others in the wrestling genre.
Though not perfect, overall it's a good game as it takes the intimidation factor out. Most of all it lets you have instant fun, which is what gaming is all about.
