Fifteen classic matches are featured in Showdown, ranging from the battle of the Hart brothers to the legendary bout between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant.
The classic match mode is a bit more interesting in that it allows you to take part in one of 15 different classic matchups so that you can effectively change history. Let's say you want to help Randy Savage actually defeat the Ultimate Warrior in their incredible Wrestlemania VII, career-ending match. Upon selecting the match, you'll be implanted into the contest at a key moment. From there, it's up to you to take the victory. These classic matches are certainly nice, conceptually, but really, they're only interesting once or twice. Furthermore, they're over so quickly that they don't stand up as anything more than a brief distraction from the rest of the game.
The last component to Showdown is a create-a-wrestler mode. The create-a-wrestler here isn't anything particularly special, but it's ample enough to create a decent representation of some of the classic wrestlers not featured in the game, as well as one of your own design. Basic facial, body, and attire details can be edited, in addition to every one of your wrestler's moves (either bunched together into specific move sets or individually). Particularly notable pieces of gear include Scott Hall's signature tights and the ever-popular Doink the Clown makeup. (Unfortunately, the body-type editor won't allow for anything short enough to make for a passable Dink the Clown). Overall, it certainly isn't the best create-a-wrestler ever made, but it's also far from the worst.
Graphically, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling is aesthetically a vast improvement over its predecessors, though some pretty blatant technical issues negate these improvements somewhat. The wrestler models have clearly seen the most amount of attention. No longer do they look like hammy, cartoonish caricatures of old. Sure, each wrestler still has a larger-than-life look to him, but in terms of overall design, each wrestler manages to capture his real-life, proper look and personality excellently. In terms of wrestling arenas, Acclaim has gone out and licensed several major real-life arenas that are known particularly well for hosting wrestling events, such as the Cow Palace in San Francisco and Madison Square Garden in New York. These arenas look quite good, both in terms of accuracy and stage design (though the crowd graphics throughout the game aren't pleasant to look at).
However, where the game falls off is in terms of animation. Basic move animations look good and seem appropriately brutal, where necessary. Unfortunately, oftentimes glitches will pop up that frequently break the action. Examples include initiating a move and suddenly having both your character and your opponent teleport halfway across the ring, with about half of the animation just skipped over. Sometimes you'll be brawling near the ring ropes, and suddenly one wrestler will be outside the ring while you're still engaged in an animation that should have you attached to the other wrestler. We've even encountered a couple of instances of both wrestlers performing completely different move animations at the same time--like one wrestler performing a double-underhook suplex while the other was being pile-drived. The game is also rife with clipping issues--and not just the usual wrestling-game-clipping problems either. Sometimes the ring ropes will just clip right through your wrestler rather than bouncing off of him. No one of these issues is frequent enough to pop up every time you play, but they all happen enough to be a real nuisance. Between the Xbox and PS2 versions of Legends of Wrestling, the two look practically identical. The Xbox version is a little brighter-looking and partakes in slightly more liberal usage of a motion-blurring effect during entrances and such, but otherwise, they're visually quite comparable.
Though the wrestler models are much improved in this year's game, Showdown suffers from a number of serious animation glitches that break up the game's action.
Audio is another category where Showdown doesn't especially excel. In-game commentary is provided by the classic WCW trio of Tony Schiovane, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, and Larry Zbysko. As with most wrestling game commentary, the actual topicality of their commentary is very general, so as to avoid too many gaffes. You'll get some repetitive history on the grapplers in the ring and occasional bouts of play-by-play, but all of it is so utterly uninteresting and halfheartedly delivered that it just doesn't matter. Aside from a few exceptions, wrestler entrances consist of mostly generic interpretations of classic theme songs, none of which are all that great. In the ring, the game does sound good, though. The slams to the mat, the sounds of fists hitting flesh, and the other noises akin to a professional wrestling match are nicely done and add to the authenticity of the whole experience. All told, however, the game just doesn't have much more than sound effects going for it audibly.
In the end, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling is a game that simply cannot shake off the problems of its predecessors. Everything positive that has been added to the game doesn't do anything to counteract the mechanical artificial intelligence and visual problems that plague much of it. Still, despite all of these problems, this is definitely the most cohesive game that the Legends of Wrestling series has ever managed to produce, and if you had any affection for the previous games, or even just the concept, the game is worth renting just to play a few classic bouts with some of wrestling's greatest names. Outside of a rental, however, Showdown just doesn't have enough going for it to compete with the big boys of the wrestling game genre.
Showdown: Legends of Wrestling (Xbox):
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