Legends of Wrestlemania focuses on including wrestlers who were impactful from the time of the first Wrestlemania event in 1985 to Wrestlemania XV in 1999. This means you see guys like Big John Studd, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Mr. Perfect, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant, and Hulk Hogan on a character select screen along with guys who are still in the ring, like Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and The Rock. With over 40 wrestlers to choose from, it serves as a great history lesson, depicting both the big stars of the era, as well as some of the mid-card guys. While there are plenty of wrestlers in the game, there are a few glaring gaps in the roster, such as Mankind and Diesel, both of whom are currently working for WWE's competition over at TNA. Also, "Macho Man" Randy Savage is a tragic omission.
When playing Legends of Wrestlemania, you'll only use the analog stick and the four face buttons. That's it. For someone who finds that the SmackDown! series has gotten ridiculously complicated (because it has), it's refreshing to actually be able to play a wrestling game without feeling like you're trying to simulate an actual sport. The Legends scheme is easy to understand, and it still allows you to strike, grapple, and reverse your opponent's attacks. The downside is that move selection is way down, and the moves you perform are governed by the current status of your three-level momentum meter. If you're at level three and do a strong grapple, you'll do the same move, every single time. Same for a level two normal grapple, or a level one grapple, and so on. This, combined with the game's increased focus on canned animations--which, to be fair, make the game look a lot more like wrestling looks on television--makes the gameplay a little too stripped down for its own good. Even players who prefer the simplified gameplay style will probably get tired of seeing the same headlocks and suplexes again and again.
In addition to reliving a handful of matches, other Wrestlemania matches appear in the "rewrite" and "redefine" modes. Like the relive set, these matches start off with video packages that detail the actual events. But in rewrite mode, you'll change the outcome by winning the match. In some cases, you're playing to get a pinfall win to earn a title, instead of winning by disqualification. There are objectives here, too, but they're all very generic, like "win the match" or "use a strong grapple." It's a shame that key moments from these matches weren't included with a slight twist to set up the altered outcome, because these matches just feel hollow compared to the relive mode. Rewrite takes old match-ups and brings them into new circumstances. What if Andre the Giant and Big John Studd fought in a Hell in a Cell match? In these matches, you can choose either wrestler, but the objectives are just as generic as they are when you're rewriting matches.
There's also a survival mode called "legend killer" where you're given multiple tiers of ten wrestlers each. You'll need to conserve and carefully recover health during the matches to make it to the end. In this mode, you play as a created wrestler, and you earn experience points that are later used to increase your created wrestler's stats. Along with the standard offline multiplayer options, you can also take the game online and get into matches with up to three other players. When playing against other people, the game becomes more challenging, but not in a way that makes things more exciting. The different moves at your disposal don't feel balanced, meaning that some attacks feel like they are right for any situation, while others feel sort of useless. Also, in some of the matches I played, the game felt like it gave the match host a real advantage on the Quick Time Events used for whipping people into the ropes, mat wrestling, and finishers.
On the audio side, the game uses the standard type of wrestling commentary you've come to expect from SmackDown!, which is to say that it isn't particularly good. However, the matches in the relive mode are better, with plenty of custom phrases, some of which actually came from the original match commentary. However, all of the talking is done by WWE's current announcers, Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. While some combinations would be impossible to record (like Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan), it might have been nice to hear Vince McMahon and Jesse "The Body" Ventura or something like that. Either way, the commentary only barely matches up with the action and often skips out on using names, resulting in "he did this" and "did you see that?" sort of lines.
If nothing else, WWE Legends of Wrestlemania is a good first attempt by THQ at delivering the classics in a way that's accessible to a larger crowd. It's a shame that so many little things hold it back, but if you prefer the WWF to the WWE, you'll find enough nostalgia here to enjoy yourself.
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