Ask 100 people on the streets to name a professional wrestler, and the chances are that most of those who are able to give you answer will list the likes of Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, and Stone Cold Steve Austin rather than today's current crop of stars. Legends of Wrestlemania takes you back to the 80s and 90s, where mullets were all the rage and Dwayne Johnson was still happy to be known as The Rock.
While the idea of a game exclusively starring old-school wrestlers isn't a new idea (Acclaim released three Legends of Wrestling games during the previous console generation), this is the first time that one has had the full backing of World Wrestling Entertainment, with the developer and publisher of the Smackdown vs Raw series (Yukes and THQ respectively) on board as well.
The HITC Tech team write about what they're playing this weekend, including XCOM: Enemy Unknow, Banished, and L.A. Noire.
Christopher Buffa (Prima Games): News of Ultimate Warrior Jim Hellwig’s death left millions of wrestling fans, including myself, in shock. I never knew the man, but I loved the character. His electric entrance, running to the ring full blast and shaking the ropes, was adrenaline personified, while the outfit (multicolored face paint, neon tassels, different colored straps for his title belts) embodied the 90s. Critics often remark that his promos were illogical, but to kids, they made perfect sense. Fill the spaceship with rocket fuel? Trampled by elephants? Might as well be Shakespeare to a nine-year-old.
Despite what Wee Jimmy Krankie and the agony aunt section of men’s magazines might say to the contrary, size matters loads. Just ask any of these hulking goliaths. While some giants in popular culture are more concerned with shilling you canned sweetcorn than grinding your bones to make a wholemeal loaf, PlayStation’s gargantuan folk just want to trample, scoff or suplex you. Regardless of whether it’s a fallen god scrapping with his football field-sized granddad or a Skyrim beanpole who can mess you up more than any lag, none of these brutes exactly scream BFG.
