KMGR of "WWE Legends"

Image via Wikipedia

The Xbox360 game got shrunk to mobile. Is it still any fun? Surprisingly, yes.

WWE Legends lets you customize your own wrestler in a variety of styles (technician, powerhouse, high-flyer, showman...) as well as in appearance (barechested? vest? t-shirt? shorts? knee-length? spandex pants? boots? shoes? barefoot? skin tone? face? hair-style?...) After that, you can set up a match between your avatar and any of the WWE Legends, from Andre the Giant to Bret "The Hitman" Hart, from Jake "The Snake" Roberts to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and so on. About a dozen opponents. (Nowhere as many as the console version, of course) There are a variety of rules, from regular to cage match to Wrestlemania to Survivor, and much more. Or you can play a full career as your avatar, win and lose the heavyweight champion belt multiple times against variety of opponents.

The game is in full 3D, and while the polygon count is a bit low, the actions are quite convincing. The two wrestlers face each other, do huge chest slaps at each other. You can also do the Irish whip to force the other into the rope and bounce off, and hopefully do a clothsline, but you can also do football charge and knock the other guy down as a "reversal". In fact, most of the moves can be "reversed", and one of your various ratings lets you get reversals more often.

Wrestlers can also "lock up", and from there one can transition to various slams (but those can be reversed too) from full supplex to pile driver to body slam to fireman's carry and toss/slam.

Once the opponent is down, you can go in and do foot stomps until they get back up. If the opponent is down for a while you can go in for a submission hold or a pin depending if they're face down or face up.

Those who prefer hi-flying moves can jump onto ring posts and do a big jump / slam. One can also exit the ring and pick up chairs and whatnot for beat-downs outside the ring OR even bring the weapon inside.

Each wrestler gets a health bar (red) and a morale bar (light blue). Making hits raises morale. Getting hit decreases health. When morale is topped off, one can perform the "signature move" of the character that does extra damage. When the health is dropped to zero or less, one is susceptible to pins and submissions.

To force a submission, get the other into submission hold, then you must stop the marker as close to the center as possible. If you are closer to the center than the other player, you get points on your "bar". Whoever fills their bar first wins the contest (if you're the holder, the pinned submits. If you are the one getting pinned, you break out of the hold).

Yes it sounds complicated, but once you're playing you will remember. There are FOUR difficulty levels if you find the EASY is indeed, too easy for you.

All in all, WWE Legends is a good wrestling game that emphasize real-time action and WWE superstars. While TNA wrestling is still the top of the heap, this one comes quite close.

Overall rating: 7.5 out of 10
Pros: WWE superstars, customization of avatar, lots of moves
Cons: can be hard on tougher levels, plot leaves a bit to be desired