NYCC 09: WWE Legends of WrestleMania Progress Report
It's time to relive WrestleMania XV.
by Greg Miller
February 5, 2009 - Like it or not, there's something hypnotic about WWE Legends of WrestleMania. It seems whenever I'm playing this game and on comes one of the historical videos that precedes every Rewrite, Relive, and Redefine match, I'm immediately turned back into lil' Greg running around the house in his Hulk Hogan tank top or reminded of the Attitude era that defined my high school years.
Today was an Attitude day.
This weekend at New York Comic-Con, THQ is letting the pubic get its hands on WWE Legends of WrestleMania, and I was able to get a look at the game ahead of time. While the demo relies heavily on the famed Andre/Hogan match from WrestleMania III that you've read about before, the sneak peek also includes Stone Cold vs. The Rock from WrestleMania XV. If your professional wrestling education began with The Miz (you poor *******), this was a main event that pitted good guy Austin challenging jerkface Rock for the WWE Championship.
Hell yeah!
Hell yeah!
When you jump into the WrestleMania Tour mode in Legends, you're going to have to choose whether you want to Relive (play a match as the person who originally won it), Rewrite (play a match as the person who originally lost it and try to change the Superstar's fate), or Redefine (play the match as whomever you want but have to deal with a modern stipulation such as a ladder) history. Aside from the fact that these matches are all packed together and you can only get to the next one by completing the one before it, this mode is quite a bit different than your standard exhibition match. No matter which history-defining choice you make, you're going to have a list of objectives that you need to complete to get points and build toward the event's gold medal. These objectives are the milestones of these WrestleMania matches -- it's stuff like Hogan slamming Andre and Stone Cold giving the Stunner to The Rock.
When you pick one of these bouts for the first time, the aforementioned compilation video plays and recaps the feud leading up to the match as well as what went down at WrestleMania and who walked away victorious. When I selected the Stone Cold/Rock match, the video loaded up and started with the Rattlesnake announcing "If you're ready for WrestleMania, give me a 'hell yeah!' " on Raw and took me for a trip down memory lane. I got to relive Stone Cold driving the beer truck down the aisle and spraying the McMahons with booze, Austin whipping The Rock into the XV sign at the big dance, and Stone Cold dropping the Stunner and walking away with the strap in Philadelphia, Pa. When the video was done, I was at the start screen where I could load up the match and/or check the event's specific objectives.
Never one to show its entire hand, THQ wasn't showing all of the match objectives, but what it did have listed made sense -- winning the opening chain battle gets you 20 points for "Slobber Knocker," you can bank another 20 points if you perform moves on the Spanish announce table until it breaks, and a simple taunt nets you an easy 10 points for "Sign Language." Now, if you want to, you can play through these matches and ignore the points because even a simple win will unlock the next WrestleMania match to take on. However, if you dedicate yourself to grabbing the set number of points, your medal will be displayed in the game's Hall of Fame and the progress will play into the game's Trophies/Achievements.
Once I got into the match, I found myself having fun. Last time I played Legends, I wrote a bit about being let down by the control scheme -- the game is designed to be accessible to anyone so you're only using the face buttons and joystick -- but things went a lot smoother this time thanks to a more polished build. When I delivered moves, Rock stayed down; when chain battles kicked up, the button I needed to press popped up in the center of the screen as clear as day; and the objectives actually enhanced the experience.
Yeah, that's going to hurt.
Yeah, that's going to hurt.
See, when I worked my way up the entrance aisle and to the XV sign, a button prompt popped up beneath the Rattlesnake's HUD. With a button press, the camera angle changed to a fixed cinematic point and I got to watch Stone Cold whip Rock into the metal structure. When I took the fight to the front of the Spanish announce table, it was another one-button hit and I got to watch Stone Cold roll The Rock onto the table, climb on the barricade, and drop an elbow from the structure. The two guys rolled off the table, and when Rock got back up, I did the same thing except that this time the table finally broke and I was awarded the points for "Brake'n the Furniture." Then, it was a quick walk to J.R. and Jerry "The King" Lawler where I grabbed a water bottle off the table by double-tapping a button and then watched as Stone Cold spit the drink all over the downed Rock.
The fight went on and I pulled off a Lou Thesz press while The Rock broke out his patented swinging neckbreaker. The fight looked good, was easy to control, and I had to dig Stone Cold celebrating with the world title -- although it was the old school WWF title and not the round one the Rock and Austin actually competed for. I'll need more time with the game before I made a final judgment, but WWE Legends of WrestleMania definitely has potential -- just ask all the non-wrestling fans who stopped in during my demo and talked about how they might have to pick this one up to see their former heroes in the ring again.
Want to know who all is going to be on the WWE Legends of WrestleMania roster? Tomorrow, IGN kicks off a video feature documenting each and every Superstar in the game -- it's even hosted by WWE Ring Announcer "The Fink" Howard Finkel. Be sure to check out the site tomorrow, Friday, February 6, 2009.
....that was a wrong move to leave the demolition out!-the only game that i think ive been able to play as them was the wrestlefest arcade back in the early 90's-what a game that was too!-one of the best wrestling games ever in terms of gameplay! royal rumbles used to fill up with about 8 wrestlers !-none of that 4 in a ring max like console versions!- i vividly remember upto 3 or 4 wrestlers would jump on "earthquake" in an attempt to pin him!..they should have put him in the game too!!
