Legends of Wrestling: SHOWDOWN

More evidence Jake the Snake needs to retire…

Tags: Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews

Posted by Andrew on Aug 25th, 2004

Title Players
Legends of Wrestling: SHOWDOWN (title page) 1 - 2
Developer Publisher Genre Online
Wrestling No

I grew up a fan of wrestling in the late 80’s. Jake the Snake, Hulk Hogan, Million Dollar Man, Macho Man – all were huge stars back then. Today’s stars are more athletic, and can perform more moves, but they lack the style and the atmosphere of those all time greats. Acclaim has been working on a way to recreate their greatest moments, and now with their 3rd attempt, it can finally be said. PLEASE STOP!!!


Showdown: Legends of Wrestling (S:LOW – you have to love that acronym) is the third part in the Legends of Wrestling series, and unfortunately, the problems that plague the first two, still hamper S:LOW as well. In concept, the game is a wrestling simulator where you can pit stars from different eras’, be it the 70‘s with Abdullah the Butcher, Harley Race, and Dusty Rhodes, going through the stars of the 80’s, Andre the Giant and the ones mentioned earlier, and a lot of the 90’s with the Hearts, and Sting, you have almost 80 characters and managers to select from. Each of these wrestlers have at least one signature move, and can compete in all the standard types of matches, from single, tag, cage, first blood, table and hardcore.


The control system is very basic, with a grapple button, a punch, a counter and an attack button. The control system, when it works, is decent, allows for quick gameplay, and despite the fact that each character has a very limited number of moves, it is easy to quickly pull of the moves when near an opponent (most of the time). players build up momentum, and after beating the opponent for a good amount of time, the ability to pull off a finisher by getting into position and moving the right analog stick happens. Sometimes the finishing moves didn’t quite make sense, like picking up a fallen opponent and hit him upside the head to knock him to the ground (Andre the Giant). Also moves that were in combo, like Ultimate Warrior’s slam, performed the press slam, and then forgot the second part. This was just the beginning of the “bugs” to come.


Right off the top it is immediately noticable that the graphics are sub-par for an Xbox game. On top of that, players are treated to a 25-second load time from the start screen to the menu page, not a good way to start. It takes two minutes for each match to start, and the between match screens of the career mode are annoying and repetitive. I usually wouldn’t even bring these things up in a review, but Showdown: Legends of Wrestling is the “buggiest” most flawed game I have ever played, from start to finish. Characters (and ring ropes) suddenly freeze in place. Two grapplers going for a tie-up, phase through each other and wind up back to back. You go in for a tag only to realize your partner is in the opposite corner, dutifully waiting next to your opponent on the apron (that will kill most of the strategy of a tag match). A combatant gets caught between a fallen opponent and the ropes and is unable to follow up on a move until the other guy recovers and stands up. Wrestlers from opposite teams crossing to their respective corners get caught arm in arm mid-ring and walk inanely in place while the referee repeatedly shouts, “Get to your corner!”. The AI of the opponent at times is not much better, as they will walk up to you and allow you to perform the same move, over and over, without putting up a fight.


The entrances, and the amount of individual music is limited to annoying. Most characters do not have their own entrance, own theatrics, and act all the same. The point of the game was to celebrate each character, meaning that they should be there with all their theatrics included. I want to see Sting come out of the ceiling in dark makeup, Hogan rip his shirt, and Jake the Snake dump his snake on an unconscious opponent at the end of a match, and while you see a few of these, for the most part, the game is just not true to the characters it espouses to be celebrating.

The music selection is awful also, as most of the music for the characters sounds like a poor midi file you would find on a bad web page. Even the characters that they do get right, like Dusty Rhodes, they over do to the point that every single time that he performs a move against you, he starts struting and dancing, for however long it takes for you to recover and start beating him again.


Showdown does offer some neat features that help redeem the game. The most entertaining feature is the new Create-A-Wrestler mode. This mode offers a good amount of customizable options. Players can make wrestlers of all sizes and colors, which can make for a good time. The selection can be a little over done with other wrestling titles, such as Smack Down, having a better create-a-character, but this is a strong improvement to the series. The career mode, known as the Showdown Challenge, is a little lacking, though. The concept is a strong one – the player’s character fights his way through three decades of wrestling action – but the execution is a little weak. Players wrestle five matches in each era, taking on a specific champion at the end of each before going after the Legendary Championship Belt. I’ve always thought, given the audience this game is trying to reach, that a territory breakdown career mode would be very cool, where your character moves from territory to territory, just like in the old days.


Wrestling games tend to be a hit or miss event. For the most part, Xbox owners have had to wade through an unlimited mess, with the Legends of Wrestling series, and the debacle that has been the RAW series. Acclaim has a concept that could produce a hit, but between the awful graphics, the bugs and the poor execution, there isn’t enough here to even warrant them looking at making another title. I guess we’ll see what happens next year, when you know the next LOW game will hit the shelves. We just hope that if they do decide to make another title, Acclaim spends a little but of time testing it out first.

What Works Score
+ 80+ characters and managers
+ Easy control system
+ Create a Wrestler 		3.2
What Doesn't
- Poor graphics
- Bugs
- Poor job on making the game true to the real life characters
- Making this franchise again, and getting it worse every time
Under the Shrink-wrap
I actually like a lot of wrestling games, as most of the Smack Down and Wrestlemania series are decent to great. WWE Raw is annoying, but this series, and this game particularly, is a miserable failure of the highest regards as far as wrestling is concerned. It's great for a 4 year old button masher, but offers little to nothing to a wrestling fan.
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