by Acclaim
While THQ have been dominating the market for the last few years with their licenced WWE games, it hasn't stopped Acclaim from continuing with their own range of titles. In Legends Of Wrestling II, Acclaim have taken the different approach of licencing individual wrestlers instead of companies offering a mix of superstars that no other game can match...
There are a number of game modes on offer both as a single and multiplayer game. In the one player mode, you can have a singles match, 3-way and 4-way matches, a battle royal, a cage and a ladder match. When it comes to the multiplayer, there are three and four way tag matches as well as 6-man and 8-man action. It would have been nice to have seen a hardcore option included, or matches with some interaction with the arenas, but there's enough to satisfy most gamers.
Rather than the limited career mode offered by previous Acclaim wrestling games, there is finally a story mode present in Legends Of Wrestling II. Here, you start off with your chosen wrestler choosing who your manager will be for the course of the game. You'll then take part in a range of matches across the US, with storylines building up around your actions. It's fairly limited compared with Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth though, and this is something that will always be in the back of your mind while playing this.
The range of wrestlers on offer is impressive with no less than 65 wrestlers being available to the player. These cover a number of current and former WWE wrestlers, ex-WCW stars, and many wrestlers who are still active today on the independent circuit. The most notable is, obviously, Hulk Hogan, but there truly are some wrestling legends here including Scott Steiner, Andre The Giant, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, Bret "Hitman" Hart, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Rowdy Roddy Piper and many more. The chances are that you'll find at least a few of your personal favourites amongst those on offer.
Another nice touch with the choice of wrestlers is that there are a number of wrestling families represented here with Rocky Johnson (father of The Rock, Dwayne Johnson), and "Cowboy" Bob Orton (whose son, Randy Orton is currently in the WWE).
In addition, the game has been customised for the UK market with the addition of four British wrestlers - Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Mick McManus, and Kendo Nagasaki. I can't see these being too popular with today's wrestling fans, but it's a nice touch to see them in there.
The game also offers a create a wrestler mode, although this seems to be expected nowadays from wrestling games. However, it doesn't offer the finesse or flexiblity offered by Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth and it seems a pointless addition. Saying that, there are plenty of wrestlers to choose from anyway to keep you happy.
One thing I found rather innovative during the game was the way you unlock many of the hidden extras. As you win fights in the exhibition mode, or in the season mode, you earn cash that you can use to buy the hidden extras. The cash is awarded in three different types of coins each with their own value with each extra requiring specific coin combinations. If you find that you don't have enough of a particular coin, you can then use some of your smaller green coins to game and try to get some of the more valuable blue and red coins.
I've never been too impressed with Acclaim's wrestling titles when it comes to the controls and sadly this is no exception. When I play a game, I expect the controls to be intuitive and to become second nature within a matter of minutes so I can concentrate on just playing the game. That's not the case here, though.
It takes a while to get used to the controls but they are not as fluid as in the Smackdown series. You can manage a few basic moves fairly easily, but you never really feel as if your wrestler is under your complete control. Its not too bad once you get used to it, but that will take you a while and it's not as comfortable to get used to as it should be. Winning matches isn't too difficult and the stamina meter used to get out of holds is fairly innovative, so that does add something to the gameplay.
I'm not too sure about the graphics in Legends Of Wrestling II. While they do look good, I'm not sure that the pseudo-cartoon style really works that well in a game like this. Some of the wrestlers bear little or no resemblance to the stars themselves, and while the character 3D is impressive with an obviously high polygon count, they seem a little stilted and lifeless.
Adding to the artificial feel of the graphics is the fact that during the game, NONE of the wrestlers cast shadows on the ground. This often makes it look as if the fighters are floating on air rather than walking around the ring and it does spoil the look of the game. There might be shadows on some of the screenshots here, but I can assure you that none appear in the game itself.
Sound is generally good with a thumping rock soundtrack, but there is no in-match commentary and speech is limited to the ring announcer as the wrestlers approach the ring. Also, the entrance music for most of the wrestlers has been changed - no doubt due to copyright reasons - but it does put a dampener on the atmosphere when your favourite themes aren't present.
Where Legends Of Wrestling scores highly are the extras. One the disc are a number of behind-the-scenes illustrations from the making of the game, plus a massive selection of superb video interviews with many of the wrestlers featured in the game including Hulk Hogan, Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Snuka, and Rocky Johnson to name but a few. Most of these last for quite a while, and it's almost worth buying the game for these interviews alone! I'm sure everyone watching them will find out something new that they didn't know before about their favourite wrestlers.
Probably the highlights here include Hogan talking about the origins of his name, Rocky Johnson talking about his son, Jimmy Snuka's wonderful memories, and Eddie Guerrero talking in his REAL accent (just a regular American accent!).
Sounds promising so far? Well, there are things about the game that let it down dramatically. The entrances are rather basic and rather than having any video footage on the screen, it's a quite crude display using a few stills of in-game graphics and text. The controls never really make you feel a part of the action and many of the default moves seem to be the same no matter what wrestler you choose. I played a few games with different characters and every single one of them had the Pedigree as a standard readily available move.
Then there were other quirks. Apart from the create-a-wrestler mode, there are no women characters in the game - any WWE fan would be able to list more than a few top women stars, so it seems a strange omission here. The biggest problem with Legends Of Wrestling II however, is that we already have a stunning wrestling game for the PS2 in the shape of Smackdown! and other than the interviews and the range of characters exclusive to this game, it's going to find it hard to appeal to fans.
Overall, while this is a reasonably entertaining game, it's certainly no Smackdown. The video interviews and the massive range of wrestlers do help to keep the game more interesting, but at the end of the day, if you are looking for a great wrestling game that's as fast and fluid as the shows on TV, then Smackdown's the one you want.
Overall - 75% - Reviewer: Simon Plumbe
