GAME STUDIO DESCRIPTION: SHOWDOWN: legends of wrestling is the exclusive supercard of the immortals! Battle through the annals of time clashing with the greatest grapplers to set foot in the squared circle. Unlock classic feuds, create dream matches and travel down the path of pain in the first-ever era-based career mode. See if you have what it takes to beat the icons of professional wrestling – FINISH THE FEUD!
GRAPHICS: An improvement over past Legends games—but not a major increase. You don’t get the bloated cartoon styled characters but they are still ridiculously out of proportion. The arenas are well done and based after real arenas like Madison Square Garden.
The animation is terrible. Occasionally your characters will seemingly move from one place to another as the animation skips and they almost reappear somewhere else in the ring. There are many instances where the animation falls apart and its as if time stops and you aren’t where you were two seconds ago. This is unforgivable.
CONTROLS: Showdown features an impressive array of wrestlers—to bad that is the best we can say about it. You’ll get everyone from the Hulkster to Randy Savage and Sting—70 wrestlers in all. Each character shows off their patented moves and even their silly ring antics—Hulk holding his hand to his ear, etc.
Showdown is little more than a button masher. You have basic moves such as grapple, block, strike and your ‘ready move.’ There is a lag in moves and the odd delay which is beyond frustrating. There is a meter that tells you which way the momentum is going. How or why it was set up the way it is beyond me. Some of the weakest hits tend to move the meter up when big moves do little.
Showdown features fifteen classic matches such as Hogan vs. Andre the Giant. Boring. The cage matches and ladder matches aren’t much better. The AI is embarrassing—especially in tag teams where your partner might as well be a cardboard cut out.
SOUND: Basic commentary from Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, Larry Zbysko, and Tony Shiovane. The actual sound effects aren’t bad and sound like the real deal.
FRANKLY: Showdown is plagued by bad animations, graphics, and game play. We’ve been waiting for Acclaim to get it right but perhaps its time to just give it up or conceded the franchise to someone who can actually make it a good game.
+ Ralphie Wright
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