If you dare show your face around here after reading this, I am going to take
you down. This is war. I am going to get you, your friends, and your family. You
started this, and I am going to finish it…oops, sorry, just got a little too
wrapped up in wrestle mode after playing Legends of Wrestling II on Game Cube.
The dimensions of LOW2 are impressive. You have numerous game modes available
to you. You can start a career and wrestle your way to the top. You can enter a
four, eight, or sixteen team tournament in either the standard, tag, or tag belt
modes. Or you can simply play exhibition matches in the one on one, three-way,
four-way, cage, ladder, or battle royal (where up to 16 wrestlers can enter the
ring at once) formats.
There is absolutely no shortage of famous wrestlers to choose from; hanging
around are Hulk Hogan, Bret “Hitman” Hart, Scott Steiner, Andre “The Giant”,
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and the whole Von Erich clan just to name a few. Each
wrestler comes standard with a selection of a few costumes too. You are also
free to create your own wrestler from scratch too.
As you wrestler, you will earn coins for your efforts, and the always open
shopping mall is a Shangri-la for any wrestler. You earn basic green coins while
wrestling, and you can enter the gambling section of the mall to upgrade your
greens into blue and red coins which are required for many of the purchases.
With your coins, you can unlock additional wrestlers and promoters, new arenas
(including Cairo, Rome, Moscow, and Tokyo), new textures/skins (including Gator,
Gladiator, Jolt, Claw Stud, and the ever popular rotting man), new abilities
(such as hardcore and sadist), original game concept art, and (what would
wrestling be without them) cheats (including Slow-mo, Speed-up, Anti-gravity,
Insane Damage, Full Reversal, and Full Momentum).
With such a vast and ambitious wrestling realm, this game could not possibly
miss, right? Well, maybe not.
First, the wrestlers appear to be far away (presumably to leave room for out
of ring action), and while you can tell who they are supposed to be, the quality
of the graphics look as if they are dated by at least a few years. If we were
able to see crisp characters, it might add something to the game. The special
moves of wrestlers are hard to control from a positioning standpoint (i.e. it is
hard to position your wrestler just so that he can complete the intended move),
and there seems to be little distinction between the abilities and moves of the
different characters. Even when you add in the occasional “illegal and totally
unexpected” foreign object (e.g. a folding chair or crutch), there is not much
more excitement to the game.
Bottom line is that the game is much more entertaining when you are shopping
or deciding which wrestler to use and how to dress him than it is when you are
actually wrestling. The game does get credit for the way it is laid out, it just
comes up short in executing the wrestling game play.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
40%. If you are a big fan of pro
wrestling, this game is a sure-fire hit. You have a great deal of freedom to
play with and customize your favorite stars. For the rest of us, this game is a
disappointment, but with a few upgrades, a “Legends of Wrestling III” might be
something to look forward to.
