Given the variety of reunion exhibits, anniversaries, and visitor appearances on tv, trendy wrestling is steeped in nostalgia. But it surely’s not simply restricted to tv — followers who play video video games have skilled it, too. Just about each current WWE recreation of the previous a long time has featured a roster of legends and reversion content material, however followers might have forgotten there was a sequence of video games completely targeted on the basic opponents of yesteryear.
From 2001 to 2004, there have been three video games within the Legends of Wrestling sequence, that includes a great deal of content material for followers of a number of completely different eras of the game. Let’s check out what followers ought to learn about these video games.
10 Not Affiliated With WWE
The rosters of the Legends of Wrestling video games function myriad WWE legends together with icons like Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Andre The Big amongst numerous others. Provided that followers could also be shocked to search out out that the sequence isn’t affiliated with WWE however quite created by Acclaim Leisure, which put out WWE video games within the Nineteen Nineties. Actually, 5 years after the final installment of Legends of Wrestling, WWE got here out with its personal nostalgia primarily based grappling recreation in 2009’s Legends of WrestleMania, which featured lots of the similar wrestlers however with a deal with the historical past of ‘Mania.
9 Options Rosters From Throughout The World & Numerous Eras
The Legends of Wrestling video games actually depend on WWE stars like The Final Warrior and Bret Hart, however they’re not restricted to simply the Golden Period. Along with the wrestlers followers of Eighties and Nineteen Nineties WWE may hope for, the video games additionally function quite a few old style wrestlers like Ivan Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, and Abdullah the Butcher in addition to some later performers like Rob Van Dam, Sting, and Diamond Dallas Web page. The roster isn’t restricted to singles guys, nonetheless — there’s additionally a wholesome variety of tag groups together with The Highway Warriors, The Steiner Brothers, The Von Erichs, and The Rock ‘n’ Roll Specific.
8 The UK Model of Legends Of Wrestling 2 Options Unique Characters
The Legends of Wrestling video games have been launched in Europe in addition to in the US, and followers within the UK actually have their very own wrestlers they’re nostalgic for. In any case, England’s World of Sport was an establishment in lots of houses from 1965 to 1985, which Legends of Wrestling 2 acknowledged by that includes unique playable wrestlers for the European gamers.
Alongside British legends like Mick McManus and Kendo Nagasaki, European followers have been additionally capable of play as Big Haystacks and Massive Daddy, who had one of many definitive feuds in British wrestling.
Apart from additional incentive for the European market, Legends of Wrestling 2 delivered a few essential improvements for followers of old-school wrestling. Initially, this sequel launched managers that accompany the wrestlers to the ring, together with Jimmy Hart, Bobby Heenan, and forgotten Nineteen Seventies and Eighties WWE supervisor The Grand Wizard. Moreover, Legends 2 launched promoter characters that wrestlers work together with within the story mode — analogues of actual promoters like Jim Crockett, New Japan’s Hiro Matsuda, and Vince McMcMahon — who’re additionally unlockable as playable characters.
As established, followers of the WWE video games have for years been handled to particular content material along with the gameplay like archival footage and different options. Followers taking part in a nostalgic recreation like Legends of Wrestling 2 obtained the identical therapy, however it went past easy footage of outdated matches. For the sport, new interviews have been shot, with a few of the legends featured within the recreation speaking about their careers within the wrestling enterprise together with their favourite opponents.
5 Showdown: Legends of Wrestling Featured Actual Arenas
The Legends of Wrestling video games typically try for authenticity in service of most nostalgia, however one space the place the preliminary releases in the end faltered was in arenas. Each Legends of Wrestling and Legends of Wrestling 2 featured growing numbers of various arenas, however they have been all fictionalized places like “Iguana Lodge & On line casino” or generic ones like “Tokyo.” The third recreation within the franchise, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling rectified this with precise notable arenas in professional wrestling historical past together with the Madison Sq. Backyard, the Tokyo Dome, and the Cow Palace.
4 Jimmy Hart Did The Music For The Final Two Video games
One essential facet of any wrestling recreation is the music, particularly in video games that function entrance sequences earlier than the match. For the doorway music within the final two video games, Legends of Wrestling 2 and Showdown: Legends of Wrestling, the doorway music was composed by basic supervisor Jimmy Hart, who composed a lot of the doorway music for WCW within the Nineteen Nineties in addition to Hulk Hogan’s album, Hulk Guidelines.
Outdoors of entrance music, Legends of Wrestling 2 additionally featured some modern rock music — not not like the soundtracks of recent WWE video games — that includes tracks from bands like Saliva and The Used.
3 Options “Create-A-Legend” Modes
For over 20 years, professional wrestling followers have come to anticipate a sturdy character creation suite of their professional wrestling video games, and trendy video games like WWE 2K22 have actually delivered in that regard. Whereas clearly the attraction of the Legends of Wrestling video games is the flexibility to play with old style wrestlers, these video games additionally function Create-A-Wrestler modes, known as “Create-A Legend.” In fact, like with just about each Create-A-Wrestler mode price its salt, Legends of Wrestling additionally allowed gamers to customise their creations’ movesets.
2 Legends Of Wrestling 2 Launched Jobbers
One other facet of old style tv wrestling is the squash match, the place an essential wrestler demolishes some virtually anonymous jobber inside minutes. Whereas quite a few jobbers have ascended to legendary standing, Legends of Wrestling 2 recreated the expertise of watching a superb old school jobber squash because of the presence of generic jobber characters. Specifically created for the sport, these NPCs — with names like “Bubba Jones” and “Slick Reed” — are strictly enhancement expertise to the purpose the place they aren’t truly playable.
Because the days of WCW Mayhem for the Sony PlayStation, commentators in wrestling video games have more and more been a staple of professional wrestling video games. Whereas the primary two Legends of Wrestling video games didn’t have commentary, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling turned the primary installment of the sequence to function commentary offered by Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Larry Zbyszko, who famously known as WCW exhibits within the Nineteen Nineties. Regardless of the star energy, nonetheless, the commentary within the recreation wasn’t properly obtained, as gamers felt it was fairly repetitive.
