Developer
Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City

Released: November 25, 2002
Genre: Sports
Players: 4
ESRB: Teen

6
6
6
8
6.4

Supported Features:

But this game is different than many of those other wrestling titles. It deals with the “legends” of wrestling dating way back to a time when PPV didn’t exist and guys like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and Roddy Piper came into my living room every Saturday (after cartoons) for free. Those guys were cool; they had style; they put on a show. Of course that was before anyone knew the entire sport was fixed.

Legends of Wrestling 2 removes the agents, the producers, the sponsors, and the rigged fights and offers you some good ole wholesome wrestling action featuring more than 65 legendary wrestlers and even a few notorious ones – how in the hell did Andy Kaufman get in here? These guys were superstars, some achieving greater fame than big-time Hollywood stars. It was a time of spectacle over sport where the drama that unfolded outside the ring took precedent to the simulated ass whooping in the ring.

Legends of Wrestling 2 features:

• Over 65 of the greatest ring warriors ever including the icon Hulk Hogan, Andre "The Giant", Rowdy Roddy Piper, Bruno Sammartino, Bret "Hitman" Hart, Sid Vicious, "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner, Jerry "The King" Lawler, and many more!
• Cranium-crushing match types, such as 6- and 8-man Elimination Bouts, Cage, Battle Royal, Ladder, Table and 3- and 4-way dances.
• Never-before-seen $15,000 Body Slam Challenge with Big John Studd.
• All-new storyline and career modes, allowing players to battle throughout the United States and the world for the respect of promoters and fans while fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world.
• Fierce tag-team tournaments with great teams such as The Road Warriors, Steiner Brothers, British Bulldogs, Nasty Boys, Rock-n-Roll Express and more.
• Leverage the experience of some of the greatest managers in the business, including Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, The Grand Wizard, Captain Lou Albano, "Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart and Mr. Fuji.
• Signature entrances and taunts for each legendary wrestler, including all new licensed music composed by "Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart.
• All-new DVD bonus footage, including interviews with many of the legends talking about their famed careers, favorite opponents and more.
• Advanced ISP system delivering even more bone-breaking one-button combos and reversals for outstanding game play.
• Create-A-Legend returns bigger and better, allowing players to make their ultimate grappler.
• All-new dynamic cloth and hair technology enhancing the realism of the wrestlers' movements.

It’s a sophisticated system to learn, but once you master it you will be wrestling like a pro. Of course this ultimately translates into a steep learning curve that may scare off the more casual wrestler. When you have finally figured out the timing the IPS system almost seems to work itself; perhaps it simply becomes second nature. Between equally matched human opponents a game can often become boring and when you play the flawlessly accurate computer you will find yourself at impossible odds. The computer nails almost every combo and reversal putting you in your place in record time.

Combos are fun to pull off when you can do them but the combo system falls victim to the animation and refuses to accept a new command until you have viewed the animated sequence for the move previously entered. After months of perfecting my timing in games like Mortal Kombat and Guilty Gear I now find myself tapping my foot while I wait for my character to “do his thing” before I can do mine.

There are also some inconsistencies with the movement on a few of the wrestlers. Some of the larger guys move at incredible and unrealistic speeds, much like a Steven Segal movie sped up to make him look tougher than he really is. My match of Roddy Piper vs. Andre the Giant found me (Roddy) getting pummeled by Andre who was moving more like a cheetah than an elephant.

You have all the traditional event modes including a new style of story mode that allows you to take a wrestler down a lengthy career path towards the coveted Heavy Weight Champion of the World title. Unlike a traditional career mode, this one tosses you random bits of story from time to time as an incentive for various fights. You also have elimination bouts, battle royal, ladder and cage matches to round out a very comprehensive wrestling package.

While the game is primarily designed around the “legends” of wrestling you are still able to use the Create-a-Wrestler mode to create your own contender. There is a surprisingly large library of graphical and sound options available to flesh out your custom fighter.

As far as gameplay is considered, there are probably better wrestling games out there but none that feature this diverse and arguably historic line-up of legendary wrestlers.

The characters are all modeled and textured so they are larger than life. As if some of these guys aren’t big enough already, they now feature superhero-like bodies with carefully defined muscles, bulging chests, and washboard abs that people who play video games can only dream of. The facial textures are excellent and you can easily recognize all of your favorite stars. There are some excellent lighting effects to add to the glitz and even blood and real-time facial damage much like the Rocky game.

The players are all animated quite well and everyone’s’ moves all look authentic right down to their signature moves. There is a noticeable lack of transitional animation to blend individual moves together emphasizing the aforementioned timing problem of chaining moves into combos. The characters also seem to glide across the floor when you move them about the ring, especially when you are moving sideways or circling an opponent.

These legendary wrestlers were all showman in their day and each match is prefaced with the characters signature entrance and theme music when appropriate. This grandstanding is what wrestling is all about and fans of the sport will love the attention to detail that was put into this part of the presentation. I did find it odd that when you picked established tag team wrestlers they are still introduced separately.

The game takes a steep dive into mediocrity when you start focusing on things other than the wrestlers. The rings are unimpressive, the video monitors may show TV angles of the match but often just show simple animated textures. The crowd is horrible, obviously created from highly repetitive 2D cardboard cutouts; an effect made very obvious when you view the action from a long camera angle and can see the backs of the crowd, which also happen to be their fronts.

Camera work is fairly good although I did find a few of the angles hampered my ability to fight effectively. The camera was a bit slow in following me when I jumped over the ropes to get my chair hidden under the ring. I was impressed that the camera never did falter during the cage matches.

The rest of the audio is pretty decent. I was floored when I realized that the huge library of names and nicknames I could pick for my custom wrestler had all been accounted for in the announcer’s speech library. No matter what combination you choose, you will hear your fighter announced “by name” as you enter the ring.

The roar of the crowd is accurately tied into the onscreen action and will swell as you perform your signature and crowd-pleasing favorite moves. This is one of the few games where the crowd noise is a good indicator of how well or how poorly you are doing. The Dolby Digital mix does a decent job of localizing the sounds and putting you in the middle of an enthusiastic mob of fans.

Legends of Wrestling 2 relies on its cast of characters to carry the game so those looking for a more robust wrestling experience will find the RAW franchise more to their liking, but anyone who wants to relive the golden era of wrestling will certainly find something to like in this game.