WWE Legends of Wrestlemania Official Thread

instant win for me.

The one thing that will make this an instant buy for me is a possible appearance from Todd Pettengill. If there's some sort of tutorial mode, I want him telling me how to do the moves, damnit!

Was I the only one who was hoping for a second Shawn entrance with him coming down froom the rafters?

They had to of added it, that would be stupid if they didn't.

Someone from Gamingring played it at Comic-Con:

My Hands-On Preview!

Yes, I actually played the game at today's New York Comic Con!

They had a ton of Red Faction set-ups but only 2 Legends. They had as playable 2 Wrestlemania Relive Mode matches:

Hogan v. Andre
The Rock v. Stone Cold

My General Impression:

Well, other previews done by gaming sites rarely have FirePro and KOC II as measuring sticks or play tons of Smackdown/DOR games! These are views from one of your own - a fellow wrestling gamer! So first off - it's fun. It's simplified - it's arcade and they've accomplished their goal of creating a pick-up and play game that's fun. It's fun the same way the arcade game Wrestlefest was fun. It was nothing like the much more in-depth Firepro - but it was still fun.

But any of the rumored similarities to KOC are lost on me. Is it simply Smackdown repackaged? No. While you may see some similar animations - it is an entirely different game.

SIMPLE CONTROLS:

There is none of the grapple button combinations as in Smackdown. One button for Strikes, one for grapple one for block. The shoulder buttons are for taunts.

I played about 4 matches (1 Hulk v. Andre and 3 Rock v Stone Cold) and I frankly didn't see a lot of moves. There are less than the Smackdown games, so the simplified controls come at a price.

AI:

Hard to say. Someone wanted to play against me and I said - "Nope I want to see what this game is like against the CPU first."

I beat Andre as Hulk rather easily - but the match wasn't short either. (maybe 7 minutes?) Of course, the Strike and Grapple of wrestling games is such second nature to probably so many of us that it's rarely a challenge and i did whup the CPU. The THQ guys at the booth had no idea what difficulty the AI was, so it's hard to comment on what the final game will be like. I can say it was a fun match that went back and forth quite a bit before it ended.

GAMEPLAY:

This is where many will either love or hate the game. It has simple controls and it seems to have QUick Time events. Reversing from a Headlock or from a bunch of strikes in the corner is NOT the same reverse button. You get a big round circle in the center of the screen and then a button will pop up - either X,B,Y,A (not sure - I have a ps3 and it was a XB360 pad).

That is like a God of War gameplay feature smack in a wrestling game. I don't know why you couldn't just reverse like the regular Smackdown and go into that reversal animation. The plus side is that it does give you some increeased ring drama as it plays out and can lead to some cool chained moves.

It reminded me of the Acclaim games where you had to look elsewhere than the action and that annoyed me. The plus is that the button is not on the HUD and is in the middle of the action, so you 're still watching.

I'm not positive on this, but it also seems like the tiered system of moves can go backwards. For example, it's been explaned that there are 3 levels and you get more moves as you progress and damage your opponent and ultimately have your finisher available.
I'm not positive on this, but I can almost swear I was on Tier 3 with Hogan and then took some damage from Andre and got pushed back into tier 2. That seems to be very cool as it doesn't make the match so predictable and can go back and forth more.

I also noticed that when you go for your finisher, some of them might have quicktime events for the build. For example, if you have lead-up moves, like Hogan's punches, big boot and THEN the leg drop - each part of that sequence will have the Quick Time event and if you miss it, then you don't get the finisher.

I also noticed that there are a few ways to break pins. For example, I got pinned early in Rock/Austin match because I couldn't get the meter to the top, but you could also just get your meter to a certain part in the middle and then hold it there. It's an arcade mini-game that if I played enough and was better at could be fun.

Now they didn't have Exhibition matches on, so some of the gameplay was repetitive in teh beginning. For example, for Rock and Stone Cold you always had a pre-match quicktime event. If you lost it as Austin, it had Rock dumping you over the top rope and you stumble towards the announce table. Her eRock could do some special moves or complete the Wrestlemania objectives. These objectives could be grabbing the steel stairs or slamming you on the table, etc . . .

The letdown is that EVERY time I started a match with Rock & Stone Cold, it wound up with the same sequence of Rock dumping me over the top rope. I was annoyed until I realized this was the RELIVE mode and probably wouldn't be an issue in straight exhibition matches.

GRAPHICS:

Honestly, there's been much said, but the graphics do not seem out of place with Smackdown Legends appearances of the past. In motion, they look virtually the same as a Smackdown model. Rock/Austin & Andrre all look like they'd be at home in a Smackdown game.

I've seen the pictures of Hogan, but in action he does look like he belongs and doesn't look cartoony. They did give him a lot more hair though, so he's not the version of Hogan from 1990 forward. But it's not like it's the Acclaim models plopped in a Smackdown game either.

Not really much to say here - look at the new IGN roster reveal to see more wrestlers and how they look in line with a Smackdown release.

CONCLUSION:

It was fun and I'd get the game as a big fan of this era. It is not as in depth as Smackdown adn for those that think Smackdown is too arcade - then you'll be disappointed. But the matches didn't seem like they'd be simple race to the finishers and it was fun. Count how many times I say fun and you can see the game has value.

But pure and simple - it is an ARCADE game. It is NOT DOR. It is NOT Smackdown. It has a similar engine but is something completely different. i'm disappointed it is not the DOR engine myself, but i can definitely see working some maches here.

Heck - it's loads better than the Acclaim game and we've got a heck ofa roster. The engine doesn't suck in any way, so for me it's a purchase as of now. But certainly, if you have FPR and KOC II as your measuring stick - this doesn't come close. It's a totally different experience. This is the simple game anyone can pick up and play and the result will be a match that looks and feels like the past.

That may work with the Hogan era matches - but will it work with a Bret Hart v. HBK match where you expect tons more moves and longer matches with a lot of near falls. There's no way to tell with the demo they're running.

I'll see if they update with anything else tomorrow.

You counted? ;D

The only shock for me in that video was the appearance of Bam Bam Bigelow. I don't think anyone had him penciled down to be in the game (largely down to all the fake rosters i suspect) but i'm really pleased he's in, but i'm a bit dissapointed that he looks excatly the same as he did in the smackdown game a couple of years ago. He will defintely be one of my most used wrestlers.

Big John Studd and Sgt Slaughter look utterly amazing!!!

So i take it this is the updated roster:

1>Hulk Hogan
2>Andre The Giant
3>Steve Austin
4>The Rock
5>Bret Hart
6>Shawn Michaels
7>Roddy Piper
8>Ultimate Warrior
9>Iron Sheik
10>Brutus Beefcake
11>Big John Studd
12>Dusty Rhodes
13>Junkyard Dog
14>Sgt Slaughter
15>Bam Bam Bigelow
16>Jimmy Hart
17>Bobby Heenan
18>Jimmy Snuka (there's a photo link to him over at IGN)
19>Undertaker (virtually confirmed)
20>Mr Perfect (virtually confirmed)
21>Jake Roberts (virtually confirmd)
22>Big Bossman (virtually confirmed)

So that's half the roster and what a roster it is shaping up to be!

I'd expect the following names to make it into the game....Flair, Volkoff, Dibiase, Bearer, Hawk, Animal, I.R.S., Rude, Honky, Bundy, Yoko, Valentine, Bulldog, Tito, Martel and a couple more.

Judging from the fact that they are reusing old models for this game this is basically what the roster will look like give or take a few people.

01. André the Giant
02. Bam Bam Bigelow
03. Bret Hart
04. British Bulldog
05. Brutus Beefcake
06. Eddie Guerrero
07. George Steele
08. Hillbilly Jim
09. Hulk Hogan
10. Iron Sheik
11. Jake Roberts
12. Jerry Lawler
13. Jim Neidhart
14. Jimmy Hart
15. Jimmy Snuka
16. Junkyard Dog
17. Kane
18. Mr. Perfect
19. Nikolai Volkoff
20. Rick Rude
21. Road Warrior Animal
22. Road Warrior Hawk
23. Roddy Piper
24. Sgt. Slaughter
25. Stone Cold Steve Austin
26. Ted DiBiase
27. Terry Funk
28. The Rock
29. The Undertaker

30. Shawn Michaels
31. Ric Flair
32. Big John Studd
33. Ultimate Warrior
34. Tatanka (confirmed on Tatankas site)
35. HTM (confirmed on Jim Ross' blog)
36. Bobby Heenan

I think I hate those controls...I don't like doing them with hot tags...And I don't think I'd like to be doing them to pull off moves on this game