Legends of Wrestling II
Score: 60% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Acclaim Developer: Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City Media: GCD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Fighting
Graphics & Sound: There was a time when I was a wrestling fan. Of course, this was back when I was convinced wrestling was real and before the world had even heard the phrase 'sports entertainment'. I can still remember being at the Lakefront arena and watching The Ultimate Warrior slam Andre the Giant or the Rockers (best tag-team ever!) take on the Midnight Express. In part, that's why Legends of Wrestling appealed to me. I'm not up on today's wrestlers so I have no clue to pick and either gravitate to the older guys on the roster when I do play or create an older wrestler in the Create-A-Wrestler mode. Legends is wrestling for the older fans who remember guys like The Iron Sheik, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat. While you're more than likely to recognize the faces on the roster, you won't recognize a quality game. When taking part in a two-player match, Legends IIfeatures very impressive graphics. The wrestlers all look like their real-life counterparts and move with a smooth fluidity. Throw in any more than two, and the quality drops significantly. This is especially true during most specialty matches. The arenas are a joke. The game features various locales like Egypt and Russia, but your only clue that you're in one of these countries is the mat. If you're in Canada, there's a maple leaf on the mat. The sounds are bland and repetitive and not worth mentioning. One of the bigger disappointments is the lack of interviews with wrestlers, something the Xbox and PS2 both feature. This is a big loss since it is one of the more enjoyable aspects of the game.
Gameplay: It's not that Legends II doesn't try to be a good game - its just that is doesn't do a good job. In the game's favor, I was impressed with the massive line-up they were able to throw into the mix including The Legion of Doom, 'Dr. Death' Steve Williams, Owen Heart and Greg 'The Hammer' Valentine. The game even throws in some relatively unknown guys like Rocky Johnson, who is most likely to be remembered by fans as the father of The Rock. Unfortunately, this is all the game has going for it since it's bogged down by the same problems that killed the original. Regardless of the match they all feel exactly the same and the game tends to grow boring after a few matches. Even the character animations, most of which are reused for multiple characters, are exactly the same. In fact, the games are so similar that you could switch boxes and never know the difference. One of my more picky issues was that the game doesn't feel like the old days of wrestling. Certain characters have a middle-finger taunt move and do moves that weren't even around back then. I don't know about you, but I can't recall ever seeing Ricky Steamboat do the 'Pedigree' or anyone on the roster doing the 'Stone Cold Stunner'. If you're going to honor these guys with a game, don't cheapen it with crudeness that's rampant in today's wrestling culture. Legends II also features a gambling system that is about as laughable as Andre the Giant attempting a Moonsault. As you win matches, you earn green coins which can be turned into blue and red ones by gambling which is done by placing money on a grid and pressing a button when that bow is highlighted. After amassing a small fortune in red and blue coins, you can buy new wrestlers, cheats, and items for the Create-A-Wrestler mode. The only sticking point is that the unlockables are so expensive and money is so hard to earn that there's really no point to having the system at all.
Difficulty: The computer opponents pose very little challenge to any fairly seasoned gamer. Career mode boasts some of the hardest opponents near the end, but only very young children will find it too difficult to handle. After a few minutes of fighting, the computer begins to use the same set of moves repeatedly. Since you know exactly what the game is going to throw at you, you'll know how to counter every time and the fights quickly become trivial.
Game Mechanics: And now we come to the ISP, or Intermediate Start Position, grappling system. What this means, I have no clue because it's never defined - so let's all just nod our heads and act like we know what it means. Just as in the last Legends game, the system is a little daunting at first, but becomes manageable after a few matches (if you can make it that long). Basically, what this system means is that you can put someone in a position and depending on which button you press, a different variation on the move is performed. For example, after putting someone in a suplex position, you can press a button and either put them in a different style suplex such as a snap or German suplex. Each character has around 30 moves, most of which are reused on up to twenty different guys, leaving very little room for style differences. This also leads to disappointment since certain characters all have the same 'finisher', taking away from what should be one of the more climatic parts of the match. Another glaring problem is that in order to pin someone, they must be dazed. Even if you work your opponent to zero energy, the match isn't over until you find a way to daze him. Like many sports games, Legends of Wrestling II is simply last year's game with a roster change. However, unlike most sports game there were more than enough things that could have been fixed from last year's version that weren't. If you enjoyed last year's game, you'll like this one. Otherwise stick to something else.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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