i know next to nothing about wrestling, it's just not my thing, i know it exists, some memes like john cena and uh, theres a cult guy? he seemed cool, but that's kind of all i know, but what i do know is that legends of wrestlemania for the ps3 owns and is a perfect example of the fact a game doesnt need to be "good" to be good. this game is barely functional as a game, i will admit, it's basically just a series of bad quicktime events and even worse animations but that's also why it's great, it's just not good but in all the ways that make it a blast to play, from the silly designs and weird mechanics it's hard to not fall in love with it as a perfect kusoge.

the gameplay as mentioned is basically just dressed up QTE's, you latch onto your enemy and uh, hit him i guess, you can also run off to the side and hit the enemy coach if you want and i always did that because punchin some rando off the ring was just funny, but you have a basic hit combo and then specials that are all just QTE's, the depth isn't there at all but i think that kind of works well for it since like, you're not here for a deep time, you're here to play a kusoge and have a good time and the gameplay just works better for that this way, there's no real learning curve, you just jump in and watch dumb happen. one of my favourite things to do was load up the royal rumble mode (which is like every single character in one match) and just watch the ai flail at it and watch the chaos, it was a fun time just making bets on whatever dumb wrestler would win, my money was always on the barber guy because his gimmick seemed silly, but some of the other wrestlers felt oddly, tone deaf? and maybe possibly racist? but thats not really my call to make. there is a lot of modes and content here, there's like 10 modes and around 30 or so characters, with more you can add from a save file from the 2009 wrestling game, but we didn't own it so i couldn't test that. either way i think it works great as a party game, it's something you can have some friends over and make fun of, like the rogue warrior of wresting games.

the visuals are one of the funnier parts, the game is peak UE3 and it looks so, strange. the models seemingly represent the people well but they're very stiff and awkward looking, it's funny to see in motion, with the weirdly animated attacks and accidental homoeroticism, but sadly speaking as a fujoshi the men are all too masculine for that to do anything for me, sad. it has a real jank low budget charm, which is strange because this was almost definately not a budget affair, the amount of clips and music here must have cost a lot, though maybe it cost most of the games actual budget! the history stuff was cool seeming though, but as someone not into wrestling at all it just did nothing for me beyond seeing some of the funny gimmicks, like the barber and the absurdly rich guy, plus some people i did recognise like dwayne "southland tales" johnson, there's great variety, there's even actual gameplay variety because the characters with larger builds will play differently, but i found the smaller characters were easier to stunlock people with, which made the game a ton easier to platnum, which we did over the course of a single night!.

it's an easy game to reccomend, it's funny and not particularly well made, but to me that is what makes it a good game, regardless of weather you're laughing with it or at it, you're having a fun time, none of this "so bad its good" stuff, a term i don't believe is even real as well, if you're having a good time then its a good game, it just feels like you're trying to cover up genuine effection with irony at that point, it's dumb! enjoy things! and i do enjoy this, it's a good time and ergo, with no caviats do i call it a good game, give it a try if you want a very cheap, very fun night with some friends, it's my partners favourite kusoge and i think i'd agree with that! (though kusoge is an endearing term for me, non-derogatory) worth mentioning also is that the game was made by yukes, who mostly make games like this, but i think it's worth mentioning that they also did some really cool games like EDF: iron rain and eve of extinction, play those, they own!