Game designers deserve bodyslam

Legends of Wrestling\nRating: T for Teen\nFor: Playstation 2\nBy: Acclaim\nWhen I saw "Legends of Wrestling" on the shelf, I immediately became excited. The Hulkster graced the cover, and I started to feel nostalgic for the golden days of wrestling. Memories of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Jake "the Snake" Roberts, The Ultimate Warrior and Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake started replaying themselves in my head. \nAfter about five minutes of play, those memories were slammed back in my head by the "Legends of Wrestling" roster of boring wrestlers. The game does boast some good wrestlers: the aforementioned Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, the Iron Sheik, Ted DiBiase, the Road Warriors, Tito Santana, Bret Hart and George "the Animal" Steele. Jimmy Hart and Lou Albano are available as managers. But most of these wrestlers are generic WCW/ WWF crossovers. Though these wrestlers were important players back in the day, none, besides Hogan and later Hart, were ever superstars.\nThe graphics are a little above average, but nothing to get to excited over. Gameplay is almost too easy and repetitive. But "Legends of Wrestling" does offer a variety of matches, from one-on-one to four-man tag teams. An array of moves is available for each wrestler, and the variety is better than any wrestling game known to date.\n"Legends of Wrestling" also lets you create your own wrestler and lets you shape every aspect of your grappler from the size of the wrestler's pecs to the type of armband he or she wears. Gamers are given many choices when creating their masterpiece. You can even draw your own face paint and tattoos.\nThough "Legends of Wrestling" offers a good variety of options, it seems to have forgotten about Sting, The Ultimate Warrior, Demolition, Andre the Giant and the Macho Man, the real legends. Maybe someone else will make a real "Legends of Wrestling" game someday where the wrestlers aren't has-beens.\n

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