Legends of WrestleMania First Look

[ALL STAR]

Written by Marc Middleton

WWE Legends of WrestleMania First Look

July 15, 2008

E3 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center-Los Angeles, California

I am proud to say I was the first, and to this point possibly only journalist to see WWE Legends of WrestleMania. Therefore, this preview will be short to be first.

First the numbers. The game is going to be exclusive to the XBOX 360 and PS3. It has a firm release date of in the period right before WrestleMania XXV. The game is going to have a roster of around 40 Superstars. Anyone who is under a WWE Legends contract is eligible to be placed in the game. The game will feature 4 player online multi-player. Today they announced 1 venue, the Pontiac Silverdome. The developers are still in discussions about adding the cart thing that drove the wrestlers to the ring during WrestleMania III.

The game was playable today, just not for the press. The match was, of course, Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant with Bobby "the Brain" Heenan. Those were the only Superstars announced for the game, so far. However, there was the strong suggestion that Mr.Fuji may appear in the game. Managers are going to play a major role in this game, hearkening back to the old days when managers played a major role in matches. THQ was unable to comment at this time if Divas would be included in the game. They were unprepared to announce who would be calling these classic matches. They were unable to announce who the ring announcer would be, however it is a safe guess that Howard Finkel will get the call for that job.

There will be a create-a-legend mode, similar to the create-a-superstar mode in SmackDown! vs. Raw. However, it will be much more limited. Since it is a Legends game they are trying to keep it somewhat authentic to the times, which means not even the created legend will be able to break out the 630 splash. The older Superstar's move package has been beefed up, though. The designers felt Hogan and Andre needed more then 4 moves to have a match that would be enjoyable for players to recreate. The game will feature a classic arcade style game play. That means only the left analog stick and 4 face buttons will be used. The shoulder buttons, triggers, and right analog stick will serve as decoration for this game. Players will even have the option of using the D-pad and foregoing the left analog stick for an even more retro feel. The wrestlers have been made larger then life, as they are designed to have been remembered when players were children. In this game Andre is 10 feet tall and has the body of a Greek god. Hogan looks like the next Mr. Universe. There is still some tweaking with the graphics to be done, though. The giant yellow Hogan number 1 fingers the crowd was waving were bigger then 2 people in the crowd.

There is going to be a tour mode. There players can re-enact great matches from history and change the outcomes or add wacky stipulations. For example Hogan vs. Andre can now be in a cage and Andre would win. The most exciting feature of the game for me is that they announced real footage from the WWE vault will be used in the game. They were unable to announce how they are going to use the footage, but there are a lot of interesting possibilities open for them to explore. There was also talk of a possible special edition game featuring some of the matches that are recreated in the game. That is very speculative, though. Email me any questions you guys have. I will answer every one about this game or anything else I see at E3. My contact info is at the bottom.

I like the simpler control scheme they are using should offer something different to the svr series. The idea of having the wreslters not portrayed in a totally realistic manner aswell having it more like how we saw them as kids.

Will be intressing to see how it actually plays but i think it has a chance of being good as its good just to have an arcade wreslting game as there is really isnt any now.

End of the day got to give them credit for trying something different as they could of just repackaged svr.