Legends of Wrestlemania - Part 1

This entry is going to be a two part entry on the upcoming game by THQ, Legends of Wrestlemania (Official Site: http://www.legendsofwrestlemania.com/). I've been a wrestling fan since the early 80's. I own the Royal Rumble collection, the Wrestlemania collection and numerous DVDs on various superstars, title belts, feuds within wrestling and wrestling organizations.

The upcoming game by THQ looks like one I've been jonesing for, for nearly ten years. Why? It returns wrestling games to a simpler time, but brings back all of the stars I grew up watching. Except for one, rumour has it. I'll go into that rumour later, but for now I just want to say that from the trailers and gameplay teasers it looks as though this game is designed and will transport people back into the Golden Age of wrestling. From the camera angles used, to the funky old solid steel ring barriers, to hearing Gorilla Monsoon (RIP) commentate in the clips that precede each Wrestlemania match it appears to be designed to be a flashback to that time in my memory.

At the heart of this game though, is the Re-Live, Re-Create, Re-Define mode for the various Wrestlemania matches. In Re-Live mode, you take the part of the superstar who won the match, and have to win the match again yourself, hitting the various memorable spots from the match on your way to earning a medal ranking. In Re-Create, you take the part of the superstar who lost the match, and attempt to win, earning your way to a medal ranking and in Re-Define you play either wrestler, attempting to win the match but with a new modern stipulation thrown in for good measure (Ladder Match, Cage Match, etc.). One more addition / change would have made this game *exactly* what I've wanted in a wrestling game for years though: Play The Loser. In every wrestling game made thus far, you always have to be the winner and how you get to be the winner doesn't matter. You can be as cheap and un-entertaining as you want so long as you get that win. Let's face it, wrestling is scripted and even the best wrestlers lose from time to time but every single one of them must do their best to make the match entertaining no matter what side of the win they are on. Why couldn't LoW have modified Re-Live mode so you could be either superstar, but if you pick the one that loses, you have to make the match as entertaining as possible by hitting various spots, but still lose the match (and/or title) in some way?

Now, granted this would be a very very difficult aspect of a game to pull off with balance, but like the Superstar mode in football and baseball games, it would add a whole new level of goals to wrestling games for a career mode. The question is, would the WWE or TNA or any other wrestling organization allow this? Everyone knows the matches are scripted, but so long as no organization out and out acknowledges it there is always the air of possibility that something might be real. Hopefully, for gamers who love wrestling everywhere, someday this will become a reality.

The rumour I alluded to earlier has to do with the roster for LoW (which I will talk about in depth in a post on Monday or Tuesday). The rumour is that Vince McMahon has told THQ they had to pull Randy "Macho Man" Savage and Mick Foley from the game. While Mick's loss is no big deal to me personally, the removal of Randy Savage if true (which I'll find out about on Monday) ruins at least eight classic Wrestlemanias. There can be no re-creating the Championship tournament at Wrestlemania IV won by Savage, nor can the classic match between Savage and Rick Steamboat be relived by fans. I don't know and can't pretend to know the reasons behind Savage not being in the game if it is true but for wrestling fans of this era, I hope the rumour is just to stir up trouble. After all, what good is Wrestlemania without a little Pomp & Circumstance? [non-wrestling fans: Pomp & Circumstance is the music Savage used to enter the ring during his WWF/WWE career.]

On Monday I'll look at the full roster once it is revealed and offer some thoughts on each of the superstars in the game.