Legends of Wrestlemania

X360/PS3

THQ

"When you tore that shirt off, you tore the heart out of all the little Hulksters!"

Ripped and raging, the immortal Hulk Hogan barks the words with all the strength in his ludicrous body. His receding blonde locks quiver with emotions as his skin, already tanned the colour of an angry hazelnut, flushes red with the intensity of it all. This man is a hero, and he is out for revenge against his former friend, French behemoth Andre the Giant. When Andre spurned Hogan, he didn't just betray him. He betrayed all the Hulkamaniacs. Nobody could let that stand.

If that tiny excerpt from the hilarious, homoerotic soap opera that is WWE wrestling does nothing for you, nor will this game. Because it's barely even a game. It's a nostalgic highlights reel punctuated by a something that looks like game but gives you nothing of substance to actually play. Wrestling titles can be brilliant - WWF No Mercy on the N64, Fire Pro Wrestling back in the SNES era - but only when they are built around a solid fighting engine. Yukes, the developer which has handled most of the WWE's digital output since 2000, prefers to offer slick, fast-paced and slippery gameplay, and the result has traditionally felt like licking a laminated ice cream.

Legends of Wrestlemania sticks to the formula. So instead of the tangible thwack of contact essential to any good brawler, you get a curious experience based less around ability or skill and more around standing in the right place and pressing the right button quickly enough. There are basic blows and throws, but all the good stuff involves hitting buttons in time to on-screen prompts to start and sustain a special move cutscene. It's not exactly satisfying.

This is where the review should end. But for once, Yukes' design philosophy of "never let gameplay get in the way of a good game" has paid off. The level of nostalgia churned up by this grease-coated game actually compensates for its shortcomings. Few people with a childhood fondness for "sports entertainment" can fail to be stirred by the frequent video clips of great moments in Wrestlemania history, not just Andre and Hulk, but Ultimate Warrior, the Undertaker, the Rock, Sgt Slaughter, Bret Hart, Shaun Michaels, the list goes on.

If - and only if - wrestling has a happy place in your childhood memories, this is the perfect title to rent for a drunken night in or to buy and eBay the following week. Legends of Wrestlemania has generated enough goodwill to be scored on that basis. But really it deserves much lower - when a game's primary appeal lies in its its window dressing, there's little reason to own it.

7/10

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