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Legends of Wrestlemania (360)

By Steve Wollaston on Mar 24, 09 12:52 PM

Dust off that spandex, stick on that greasepaint, perm your hair and oil those muscles... ok maybe not, but you do need to get into the spirit of things if you are going to cherish this game!

This is a huge dose of nostalgia as we revisit the 80s and 90s world of wrestling - the halcyon era of grappling.

If I had to describe this game in one word it would have to be 'genius'. Thankfully I have more than one so I can tell you why it is so good.

There are no stars missing here, fans of wrestling will be in sheer heaven, all the obvious favourites like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior and Andre The Giant are here intermingled with some of the more obscure wrestlers you may have forgotten like Million Dollar man Ted DiBiase.

Throw in the 90s favourites - The Rock, Stone Cold etc and you have a huge collection of amazing wrestlers that you can pit against each other and create some truly legendary match-ups.

Graphically the game is the best wrestling game I have played, face-mapping is perfect, crowds are animated, and the movement is smooth and sophisticated.

Once you are over the sheer heaven of all the stars you can pick from there is a vast array of different game modes to keep you interested.

The Royal Rumble never fails to be entertaining - nor does the chance to relive and change the course of history with the classic match feature.

Gameplay is relatively easy as is the difficulty level, although each wrestler has all the original custom moves which makes it a challenge trying to master them.

Attention to detail is immense, costumes, arenas, entrance music, mannerisms etc are all absolutely on the money. Creating your own wrestler as always offers the usual humour - I created the 'Phantom Pant Bandit' - a future legend I reckon.

All in all this is a great game, kids will love it but sad old 80's wrestling fans like me will love it even more. The fact that the gameplay and overall package are highly polished is a real bonus.

You would have to be Stone Cold crazy to miss out on this....

Authors

Steve Wollaston

Steve Wollaston - Sunday Mercury games reviewer Steve has been writing about video games for donkey's years. In fact he is probably far too old for it now which is why you will see a lot of reviews been done by kids... He has been nominated three times for Regional Games Journalist Of The Year at the Games Media Awards, but never wins. His major love is sports games and rates Sensible World of Soccer circa 90's as the greatest game ever made - closely followed by Championship Manager 2. Skyrim has currently taken over his life.


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