I'm stuck in the middle of class and can't escape. I'm being taught something I already know, HTML. However since I know HTML already I can whip up this review while switching between the lesson and surfing eBay. I know, I'm shameless.
It was stated on my review of the first Legends of Wrestling that "I hope Legends of Wrestling 2 can pick up the pieces left by this one." Well, in a short answer yes and in a long answer... Keep on reading!
This game has way more selection, over 65 total wrestlers, new match types, more options, excellent music and much more. There are a lot of positives that come from this game that are just brilliant. Others however fall into the realm of wrestling realism and the realistic aspects of the sports entertainment genre.
Wrestling realism? I'm not mad; it's more of how you look at wrestling as entertainment. Point in case is Andy Kaufman, who is in the game. I was playing against Andy Kaufman and Sid Vicious in the career mode. During the match I go and get a weapon from under the ring, of course that's where they always place them, and then Andy Kaufman starts beating the crap out of Sid Vicious. Andy just scoop slams him, puts him on the turnbuckle and just goes to town while Sid stands there stupefied. I have a problem accepting this fact, even though I did knock Andy out with my weapon and pinned Sid for the victory - Chris "The Cool Guy" steals the win again.
The realism is lost from this game. Andy Kaufman would never survive against Sid Vicious nor could I ever do a razor's edge on Abdullah the Butcher or even attempt to lift him… Or even throw Andre the Giant to the floor with a hip-toss. It doesn't look at weight as much of a factor or many of their ring characteristics. If this game was trying to imitate these characters then they would have Andy Kaufman running around the ring like a chicken with its head cut off and have Andy try to hurt you by doing the famous windmill with his arms.
With those aspects in mind, let me give you Kilokahn's famous all-natural slobber-knocker play-by-play:
The graphics are good. They did a better job at the character models and went for the gusto when adding the little extras. They did a great job in trying to recreate entrances for each character but some of the entrances seem a bit stiff at times. As well as some of the moves you perform, in rare cases will cause a glitch. It's a mix between the great and the mediocre in that department, case in point is the character creation; there is more to offer in character creation but removing layers of clothes and items is next to impossible. Overall graphics are better than the first but could've been better.
The sound is light-years better than the original and has no noticeable errors, skips, or other distortion. The music is fresh and even has new tracks to listen to, including one from "Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart. The downside is that Wrestlers can't use ring entrances that are owned by other franchises, like Hulk Hogan's "I'm a Real American". Still they use Hogan's "American Made" which I believe was used in the WCW. Also a few other entrances are missing because of franchise rights. Otherwise the music people did make some music that sounded close to correct. A few that did make it was Road Warriors, Rowdy Roddy Piper's and Jerry "The King" Lawler; just to name three. Though the music does get boring after awhile, you can always listen to your music collection on your Xbox like the original game. Some time and talent has been placed into this game for sound. Even the cage rattle and ladder sounds are realistic.
The controls are better in this game. Way better. They mapped out buttons for each cause and adequately used them. No double-using buttons for different purposes, each button has a special purpose; including the right analog joystick. Tagging your partner isn't much of a chore anymore and neither is getting on the turnbuckle for some frog splashes. Kudos to those people for fixing those errors! Also maneuvering through menus and choosing choices is a breeze if you read and understand how everything works.
Fresh factor to this title is that you can have more of those classic matches you've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to have a few matches against Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman… I wonder if they have the David Letterman set as a ring choice on here… Also with the Cage Match and Ladder Match options, you can now choose which way to beat your opponent. Also it adds to the fact that you can choose more about your created character and find out what you're really made of.
