The wrestlers involved may be rough round the edges but they still push on
Gameplay - 8.0
The gameplay in this game is fantastic. The heavy feel to it really gives you the power you are seeing infront of you. It all runs smoothly from move to move. A feature I love in the game is the chain struggles. This pops up when you or your opponent is grabbed while in a groggy state. This helps you peform chain moves by pressing buttons. If the opponent grabs you then you use it to reverse a powerful move from them. The bad side to this is when you go to perform your finisher this chain struggle pops up and makes you do stupid moves that have nothing to do with your finisher. For example for a chokeslam the wrestler will throw their opponent across the ring and big boot them to the floor, the next thing is the opponent is standing and lifted onto your shoulders for a back breaker. It is only then he will chokeslam. I think this makes finishers lose their edge and they don't look as good. The other criticism is that the gameplay is quite slow. When you do a strong grapple move you have to hold down x, but by the time you have the opponent has punched you to the ground. It also feels bad when imported characters (from SvR 09) like Rey Mysterio try to do high flying moves and quick moves, the slow gameplay lets it down and makes Rey feel like a useless, weak wrestler.
Graphics - 8.0
The graphics in the game are very good. I didn't see only fault. All the wrestlers look exactly how they used to in the costumes they were wearing at the time.
Controls - 7.5
The controls are a downfall as to how simple they are. If they had more controls the game may have had a better feel to it and made the game quicker. On the other hand this is only my opinion. For other people wanting to pick up and play the game, the controls are nice because you are only using the four buttons (x, square, circle, triangle) but each buttons does more than one thing. To run you must double tap circle but the wrestler will only run backwards into the ropes ready to spring onto their opponent. It will only run if the opponent is in the ring with you so fights outside the ring can be very slow due to the wrestlers walking around everywhere. It also means there aren't many running attacks and there aren't any outside the ring.
Durability - 7.0
There isn't much to do in this game but this is a good thing. The game only being linked to Wrestlemania you don't do any fights at any other PPVs, only hear about them in the videos. There are two modes, Wrestlemania mode (where you relive, rewrite and redefine history by doing matches from the past) and Legend Killer mode (do a 10 man gauntlet match with a created legend). Wrestlemania mode can be done quite fast as there are only 6 matches in each section but Legend Killer mode can last a while and it can be done over and over. The problem with this is it can get very boring after the first tier as each tier as no breaks and you have to fight all 10 one after each other until you defeat them all or get pinned yourself.
Overall - 7.5
Overall the game isn't a bad game, it's not the best but also not the worst. I would recommend this to any wrestling fan or anybody who was a fan of early WWE.