Wrestling games are pretty formulaic: place two popular pro-wrestling stars and watch them pummel each other senseless until someone falls over. Admittedly, that’s probably why I haven’t really played a new wrestling game since WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth. (Also, I liked the title.)

However, when I realized that this year marked the 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania, my curiosity got the better of me. Naturally, when I heard of WWE Legends of Wrestlemania, I felt an obligation to check it out. I was very excited to see classic wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and Bret “The Hit Man” Hart, along with Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and The Rock to round out the roster. However, I ended up being slightly disappointed by the game.

First off, the graphics weren’t half bad. While the character models are pretty well-animated, there are some characters (here’s looking at you, Hulk Hogan) that look a bit deformed. I also find it hard to believe that after so many years, the crowd still looks like pieces of cardboard. You’d think that after massive improvements in graphics technology, we’d get something a bit more realistic and a bit less stiff and wooden. Last I checked, this wasn’t a George Lucas film.

The gameplay is where the game’s flaws really become apparent. Unlike THQ and YUKE’s WWE SmackDown! series, Legends of Wrestlemania takes a more simplistic approach. It attempts to differentiate itself from SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 and earlier entries in the SmackDown! series by introducing a new move system. The button layout only makes use of four total buttons, not counting the D-Pad or Joystick. Additionally, each player is equipped with a “Chain Meter,” a gauge that increases with every successive attack.

So where’s the button variation? Where’s the fun in stringing together attacks if they all look the same? Here’s an inside scoop. I’ve found a move set that will guarantee a win every match: punch, punch, punch, punch, knock-down, pick up, grapple, pick up, strong grapple, punch, punch, punch, grapple, pin. It may seem like a shallow reason to not like a game, but the fun of a wrestling game comes from being able to execute your favorite character’s signature moves. A few chain attacks mix things up a bit, forcing you to input a specific sequence of buttons at just the right in order to execute certain moves. However, that is not enough to spice up gameplay.

However, it seems the game’s true intent lies less in gameplay innovation and more along the lines of wrestling nostalgia. The appeal is not the length but the matches themselves. The game takes important Wrestlemania events and recreates them. ReLive mode, quite simply, places you in the middle of an important match, letting you be part of history. ReWrite mode, on the other hand, allows the player to change the outcome of a match, changing Wrestlemania. Ever wish that Jake “The Snake” Roberts had won the Intercontinental title from the Honky Tonk Man at Wrestlemania III? Go for it. ReDefine changes the match itself, changing the match type as well as letting you choose who will win. For example, the Intercontinental Title match between Brett Hart and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper at Wrestlemania VIII is now a submission match. However, changing the type of match is not as exciting as one would think, so ReDefine falls a little flat in comparison to the first two.

In addition, each Wrestlemania Tour match has specific objectives that you can choose to complete in order to receive medals, awarding you with new costumes and game modes. However, they’re not mandatory to the game experience, except in ReLive, where the objectives are based on things that actually happened in the real life match ups.

Finally, like any sports games these days, you have your Create-a-Wrestler mode (Create-a-Legend in this case). However, with the arbitrary move set, the only thing that really matters is appearance, given that powerful moves don’t really matter here. Once you’ve created your Legend, you can play through “Legend Killer,” which pits your legend against a group of 10 legends in typical fighting game-survival mode style. Battling through Legend Killer allows you to unlock more tier-lists to battle through, as well as giving you more items to improve your legend. However, with the limited move sets, it tends to get old really quick.

WWE Legends of Wrestlemania doesn’t really bring anything new to the table in terms of wrestling games. Aside from the nostalgic aspect of the game, it doesn’t really offer much to players, especially those who know very little about wrestling history. As it focuses on Wrestlemania matches before the year 2000, I can only really recommend this to you hardcore wrestling fans out there, eager to relive the glory days. Unless you’re a hardcore fan that knows everything about Wrestlemania since 1985, you’d be better off playing something more along the lines of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009.