Review: Legends Of Wrestlemania

I have been a die hard dedicated wrestling fan since around 1990. Before that I was a casual fan, catching it on TV whenever I could. I have remained a huge fan to this day. And back then I played every WWF game I could get my hands on. My first one being WWF Wrestlemania Challenge on the NES. Since that game I have bought every WWF game that has come out.

Lately, it has been Smackdown Vs. Raw games every year. And I started to wonder if I would ever see a game dedicated to those legends I watched as a kid. Well I got my wish, and Legends Of Wrestlemania was announced by the makers of the Smackdown games. The countdown began, and last night, it reached 0....

Which sadly... is what this fucking game is.

For some, insane idiotic reason, THQ and Yukes, took what was working, and ass raped it. See the graphics are AWESOME. The music rules. The look of the game is great. But then you actually PLAY the game.... See they decided to just drop the ENTIRE control scheme from the past few Smackdown games and come up with something new. They wanted this to instead play like an arcade game, instead of the simulation that we are already used to. Well guess what, go find me mother fuckers that still go to the arcade. NO ONE DOES. Why? Because arcades fucking SUCK now.

You know the buttons on top of your controllers? Like on the Playstation you got, R1, R2, L1, L2? Yeah, those are worthless now. No seriously, in the tutorial for this game, there is nothing those buttons are used for. The game is BUTTON MASHING. Seriously, when the hint pop ups during the match, it basically tells you to just mash fucking buttons. Yeah that's fun. Just mash some god damn buttons, no skill really involved in this at all. Oh yeah and now there is a BLOCK feature. Yeah, BLOCK. Not reversal. If you're thinking, what does he mean, BLOCK? Like in Mortal Kombat when they would just sit there and hold down block and sit in the corner like a fag? YES, THAT IS WHAT I MEAN. I mean SOMETHING, THAT NEVER EVER HAPPENS IN WRESTLING, IS IN THE GAME. You sit there, hold down triangle, and just block. Can you imagine Wrestlemania 15 if The Rock just sat there with his hands up and held his hands in front of his face and that blocked everything Austin did to him?

Press square to punch, press a direction and hold down square to punch HARDER? There are so many crazy insane button combinations to do in this game that it will be impossible for anyone to just pick up this game and start playing. I mean the Smackdown games were a LITTLE confusing at first, but nothing like this. Smackdown you can at least get a friend over and they can pick up and start playing and halfway into the match they got it down. With this game? Fuck that, half way through the match I was ready to just throw the controller on the ground and use my toes cause it would do just as much good. There is no point to anything in this game. MASH BUTTONS. That is it. There is constantly hint pop ups going up on the screen that instead of watching and playing the match, you're always looking around for the next hint so you can figure out what the fuck to do. Gone is any type of real timing and skill that the old games took for you to win. This is button mashing then just pin the guy. I played about 4 or 5 matches, I won a couple, lost a couple, but none of the matches actually lasted any longer than 2 minutes.

This game is the biggest dissapointment in the history of my video gaming life. So much hype and build up for an awesome game to come out only to be ruined by its pointless and assanine control layout. No wonder THQ is going out of business. Everyone over there has their heads up their ass.

4/10

First Trailer and Pics From the Legends of Wrestlemania Video Game!

There are very few posts that are a true pleasure to write, this is definitely one of them for me. When "Legends of Wrestlemania" was announced for all the next gen game systems, the idea alone was something I'd been waiting on for YEARS. Finally, a legends game, that brings back the magic, and leaves out the current crap that ruins wrestling. Today, direct from E3, we get the very first look at the game, and wow, even though we only confirm 3 superstars on the game, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan are a great way to start! Not only that, but the graphics look great, the old school red white and blue ring ropes are there, the re-creation of classic moments will be there, this should be a wrestling game fan's dream. The story mode apparently shows classic footage in story mode of matches that you are about to re-create, and the game will feature 40-45 stars from the 80's and 90's. Check out the trailer below, and the moment the blue cage was shown around the ring, I was sold, just so awesome. So far so good! I was afraid, because this game could easily be ruined, and I"m so glad the first thing we saw in this game was not some shit like John Cena FU'ing Andre...that alone would ruin the game from the get go. Just imagine the Wrestlemania matches that can be recreated. Hell, with wrestlers from that era, the replay value here could be HUGE. And I'm hoping if it's a success, we could see sequels, unless this game is just so great it does the job on its own. I cannot wait to see more info. on this, people are already wondering about downloadable content etc., tons of possibilities here. The trailer has sold me, and the info that the game features managers and classic arenas is just over the top, enjoy the trailer, old school wrestling fans cannot help but love this I'm sure hearing Gorilla Monsoon's voice in the trailer is cool enough, and IGN.com confirms that legendary commentators will be included, which is awesome, but not sure how that will work. Enjoy this awesome trailer:

**Edit** Upon further investigation, if you look at the shirts on the fans in some of these pics, I think it's safe to assume that the shirts confirm more wrestlers on the game, as I doubt they'd have shirts on for guys that aren't in the game....so add Bret Hart, the Legion of Doom, Old School Undertaker, and Ric Flair to the game. We need more pics soon!