Posted on: April 7, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

For about the last twenty years or so, I have kept my ear to the ground regarding wrestling games. Naturally, I was excited when I first heard that THQ was going to release WWE’s Legends of Wrestlemania for the next gen consoles. The game differentiates itself from other wrestling-based offerings in terms of the ease of game play, the evolution in game graphics, and the timelessness of the characters that are available for players to choose.

The one thing that players will immediately notice with Legends of Wrestlemania is the fact that the roster is chock full of the biggest names from the WWE’s history, be it Jake “The Snake”, the Ultimate Warrior, Mr. Perfect, and Hulk Hogan. This is different than the yearly installments of the Smackdown Vs. Raw series, which have present wrestlers like Nunzio and The Boogeyman. The control scheme is miles simpler than the yearly series, as it limits moves to the directional pad and the four main buttons – no weird combinations or non intuitive combinations are needed to lock on a sleeper or do Yokozuna’s big splash. For those individuals that just have to get their CAW (create a wrestler) on, Legends of Wrestlemania provides enough in the way of tools to make someone the equivalent of a Bam Bam or even Andre the Giant. Whether one wants to show off their character or their prowess to other individuals, the game’s live functionality makes it possible to take on opponents all across the world. Where the appeal of the single-player game diminishes after hours (days) of playing, the online side of things will keep players locked in their seat.

While there have been countless wrestling games that have hit the market in the last ten years, the only one that I could conceivably see sticking around players’ Xbox 360s would have to be THQ’s Legends of Wrestlemania. The sheer amount of customization, the nostalgia value, and the recreation of some of the biggest moments in wrestling ensure that the game will do just that. Where the game is limited to the first fifteen Wrestlemanias (with only a few exceptions), there is no limit to the amount of fun players will gain from this game.

Rating: 9.0/10

WWE Legends of Wrestlemania (Xbox 360) / 2009 THQ / http://www.thq.com / http://wwe.com

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