Tournament of Legends
Score: 72% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Sega Developer: High Voltage Software Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 -2 Genre: Fighting
Graphics & Sound: So, Tournament of Legends isn't a bad looking game, but it's the kind of game that makes you wish that one character you like looked just a little bit cooler, a little less stiff. Of course, it also comes down to a matter of taste. You see, the game pulls from mythology and legend, from gods and people who were practically as famous as one. We've seen countless versions of said gods and people in movies, comics, and games. Perhaps because of this, it's easy to be disappointed. Or perhaps it's because one of your favorite cat goddesses of Egypt is turned into something that would be self conscious walking down through the French Quarter during Mardi Gras. Seriously, it's a cat wearing an ill-fitting cat mask - why did this have to happen? During the opening stories, you'll get a bit of American style comic art to illustrate the story. This part would be great, except it looks so inconsistent, even within the same scene. It would be surprising if it were all done by the same artist. Someone was swapped out, whether it be colorist, inker or artist, someone was swapped out at some point. Personal taste in art aside, the characters are pretty nicely made. The models push a level of detail that's pretty surprising on the Wii, and the backgrounds are fairly nice as well (of course, not pushing the kind of detail and movement you'd see in Street Fighter or the like). They do seem a bit stiff in animation, but still, rather well done. Voices are another bit of disappointment. Everyone seems to have the same personality, the same corny sense of humor. Maybe this is just me wanting my gods and goddesses to be a bit more impressive, a bit more dignified. Or perhaps I just can't take my myths and legends telling me, "The man couldn't keep me down!"
Gameplay: The stories here are about as deep as any typical fighter. Bast is jealous of the attention that the "new" gods have gotten, and wants to win back the worshipping eyes of her followers. Bravehoof wants to win the power of death so he can force people to go back to nature. Fair enough for a story, but let's remember those voices again. One of the god Jupiter's lines is, "Jupiter says be afraid, be very afraid. Are you afraid yet?" Oh yeah, there's deep stuff there. Tournament of Legends starts off with settings that seem to be designed to draw the game out far longer than it needs to be. You've got Acts, and then Rounds, and playing through several of these is pretty agonizing. Luckily, these settings can be tweaked down to get fights that are as short as one round. Each character has a special Enchantment and a weapon set that can be obtained by defeating that character. Enchantments can do things like drain life from your opponent or make your basic attacks unblockable. This doesn't mean you can build a "super" character, as you can still only have one set of these active at a time. As is the custom now, this is a multiplayer game, but you're not going to touch that dangerous creature called "online play" here. You can fight a friend in the same room, but that's about it. The multiplayer playing is limited to a simple Versus mode.
Difficulty: Tournament of Legends is about as difficult as you make it. If you turn down the number of matches and acts, of course, you'll be spending that much less time in the ring, and have a better chance of winning. But overall, even the highest difficulty isn't that much of a challenge, especially if you have the option of using the classic controller. Perhaps it's because of the waggle controls, but it seems the game is pretty forgiving of the button-mashing strategy. Another thing that could potentially make the game easier for you is the option to use abilities and weapons that you've obtained from your fallen opponents. It could, potentially, but often what happens is you'll find that a weapon is too slow for your character, or doesn't really give you much of an edge. Enchantments, which offer options from paralyzing your opponents to giving your character extra strentgh, could be a little more useful. Since you're pretty much only using the weapons and enchantments that you've obtained from your opponents, perhaps that's the reason it seems that no one really has the upper hand in this game.
Game Mechanics: You know by now with the Wii that you've got a good chance of being forced to waggle those controllers like a goofball with every new game that comes out. You don't beat the odds in Tournament of Legends. Shake the Wii-mote up and down for a chop attack, shake left and right for a Slash Right attack. You get the idea. The option for using the Classic controller is available here, and you'd better believe you'll want to be using it. Tournament of Legends is responsive enough. Again, this is perhaps because someone realized that they were forcing people to waggle their way through it and didn't want to overcomplicate things. In every stage, there's a large beast or mythical creature such as a dragon or a centaur that might interfere with your fight. This is pretty much the "quicktime event" of the game, since you'll have to quickly move your controllers left or right, or something similar to avoid the giant beast. In the end, Tournament of Legends is a decent enough fighter, but it lacks that something that makes you want to keep coming back. Combos are simple, 3 move chains. Special attacks are simple directions tied to a button press. The simplicity of it all makes it pretty easy to pick up this fighter, but unfortunately, it's a little too easy to put down.
-Fights with Fire, GameVortex Communications AKA Christin Deville
Related Links: Tournament Of Legends Official Website
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