WWE Legends of WrestleMania

While Legends of WrestleMania has plenty of fun matches to participate in and a worthy roster to choose from, the streamlined controls and all-together easier difficulty make recommending this to veteran fans a hard task.

If you were a fan, even if you haven’t been in a decade, this should provide enough smiling moments to make it worth a look and then a trade in. It’s worth the investment is you know the origins of the WWE franchise. On the other hand, if you’re a stalwart of the wrestling genre on consoles then there are other, more rewarding, games to invest your time and piledrivers on.

Okay, it's a lighter package than the annual Smackdown update, but with the inclusion of a huge hunk of videos and a pitch-perfect retro flair, this return to the golden age of wrestling is well worth a look.

The glory days of '80s/'90s wrestling is an appropriately arcade style affair and all the better for it.

Thanks to a bunch of different game modes, multiplayer action and the possibility to create your own unique wrestler, WWE Legends of Wrestlemania turns out to be a very complete and over the top wrestling game. And if you add up the tons of content that you can unlock by throwing your opponent through the ring, it only gets better. The game is far from perfect, but if you dig sweaty men in spandex than you will dig WWE Legends of Wrestlemania.

It's a real shame that Legends of WrestleMania turns out to be such a slight affair as otherwise it's quite possibly the best wrestling game that developer Yuke's has made in a long time. The control system is a genuine improvement over previous efforts and the strong roster of legends is highly appealing. Had Yuke's fleshed out the WrestleMania Tour portion of the game into a fully-fledged story mode, this could have been something pretty special. As it stands however, Legends simply feels like an incomplete experience, which is a real shame and a major missed opportunity.

We were put off by Legends’ quick-time event-heavy controls. Yet at the same time, we felt driven to replay matches and earn unlockables. Yes, we had fun but we griped a bunch too. Maybe the next Legends game can return to the right-analog stick action we’re so used to. Or maybe it’s we who are blinded by nostalgia.

This is a fun game, and for wrestling fans of old, it will surely unearth some long forgotten memories. There is some lasting appeal in terms of different gameplay modes and multiplayer options, but I do expect the appeal to fade as the nostalgia wears off.

Overall it is hard to recommend for Smackdown! Vs. Raw fans under the age of 27; short of The Rock, HHH, Shaun Michaels, Stone Cold, and Hulk Hogan, most of these wrestlers have been dead or out of the spotlight for years. For anyone with a taste for some classic WWF you can't get any better than this – game wise, anyway.

A somewhat nostalgic wrestling title that fails to hit the standards set by the Smackdown vs. Raw franchise. Good fun though, even with the simplified controls.

For those people craving a wrestling game with all of their classic heroes then they should look no further, but with a less than comprehensive career mode and a seemingly tacked on online feature, it will fail to grip you long term.

Fans of the WWE series will really enjoy playing this game. For newcomers, the fine controls will provide you a way to become a WWE fan.

Still, I'm not really in love with the actual game, and after finishing everything (the achievements/trophies are really easy to get by the way), I find myself more interested in the concept than the actual execution.

In the end, Legends of WrestleMania fails to completely live up to its potential, but does provide a fun experience for a short time.

The historic videos are great, Road to WrestleMania is an interesting idea and who doesn't love seeing the Ultimate Warrior back in the ring? Still, the actual gameplay falls short in this one. The matches aren't that exciting, the controls are lacking, little nuances (such as proper titles) are missing and this just doesn't feel like a solid WWE offering.

That simple control style makes the multiplayer feel flat.

Justifying the enthusiasm by reviving fights, characters and many exciting moments swallowed by the sports books, this game is able to generate some sympathy from the fans. Don’t expect much more than that.

Unlike its glistening, preening stars, Legends of WrestleMania is weak and insubstantial.

Legends of Wrestlemania sustains itself mostly on nostalgia and on a simple an accessible gameplay concept. The nostalgia part is not so detailed like many passionate fans may demand, but at least it has succeeded in being accessible.

Those of you who do know your Ric Flairs from your Rick Rudes, this is a decent jaunt through the history of the biggest wrestling company on the planet, but the lack of depth means it just falls short of an essential purchase.

WWE Legends of Wrestlemania is what I like to call casual core game, easy to learn hard to master, and excels at giving fans nostalgia for the past glory days of wrestling with the Relive, Rewrite, and Recreate modes.

The needless addition of QTEs to the formula and a relatively short single-player experience keep it from becoming a legend in its own right.

The gameplay can be fun for a little while, but it soon becomes an exercise in repetition and boredom.

But if you like your games with a challenge, if you want more depth, and want a multiplayer experience that doesn’t degenerate into strike attacks, then unfortunately Legends of WrestleMania is unlikely to be for you.

The premise is good -- a game for wrestling fans who can quote every moment of past Wrestlemanias who want nothing to do with a newfangled control system. If the action was consistent and engaging Legends could have been a major success.