Fighting games have always puzzled me. I’ve played a great deal of them throughout my life, and while the best are fun for a few hours, I’ve never had one sustain my interest for long. Of course, I am probably in the minority there, as games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II were all the rage back in elementary school. Though they laid dormant for the past generation, fighting games have again entered the spotlight, thanks in part to games like Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue, and the upcoming Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. Of course, the 1990s were plagued with cheap, innovation-less attempts to cash-in on the success of the genre, so it could stand to reason that once these types of games again resurface then the genre will truly be back.

Tournament of Legends may just be the sign of that revival.

High Voltage Software has been a sort of hero for Wii owners, striving to make the kinds of games that are missing from the system’s library. The team behind The Conduit, perhaps the best shooter on the Wii, decided that the system was in need of some fighting games that weren’t based on Dragon Ball or Naruto. While the intent is noble, releasing a stripped-down fighter featuring generic characters from Roman and Greek mythology isn’t going to turn any heads.

Tournament of Legends features a whopping 3 modes: Story, Versus, and Practice. Like all who came before it, the story mode of Tournament of Legends lets the player compete against each character in the game before finally confronting Thanatos, God of Death. Defeat him, and you’ll see a small comic book-style cutscene letting you know what your character did after inheriting Thanatos’ duties. I’ll warn you now: you won’t care. This mode feels so archaic and bland, I can’t see anyone actually playing through it with more than one character. Unfortunately, with local-only multiplayer, there isn’t going to be too much to do aside from the story mode.

The lack of things to do, coupled with the generic cast of characters, kills a somewhat enjoyable fighting system. Each fighter has a unique weapon and set of spells at his or her disposal, and each controls differently. Some are fast and strong magic users, others are slow and lumbering with devastating physical attacks. There is enough variety in the skill sets of each character to warrant some strategy and preference. Unfortunately, the actual design of these characters is just bland. With a few exceptions, the characters just appear as a hodgepodge of mythological and fantasy aesthetics. Browsing the list of characters before a fight, not one makes any sort of impression. This is a severe misstep considering the actual differences between each and every character.

Fights are broken up into three 90 second acts. The goal is to knock your opponent out three times in that time frame. In between acts, a small minigame is played, allowing you a quick opportunity to either regain health or repair your armor. The armor is a nice inclusion; each fighter starts with head, torso, and shoulder armor that degrades during battle before being knocked off completely. Lose your armor, and you’ll take more damage. So just as in games like the Fight Night series, surviving to the end of an act can change the outlook of the match, due to the repair of armor and replenishing of health. It opens the strategy up a bit more.

The game supports the Nunchuk/Wiimote combo as well as the Classic Controller. Though the Wiimote can be a little unresponsive at times (the game requires you to flail the Wiimote and Nunchuk to attack), I actually preferred this setup to the Classic Controller. It was simple and surprisingly effective, so kudos to High Voltage for that.

Tournament of Legends adopts a very Warcraft-esque style, with bright colors and exaggerated shapes. It’s an appropriate choice, given the limitations of the hardware, but is disjointing with the overall theme of the game. Here, mortals and demons are fighting tooth and nail in order to claim the role of Death, yet fighters are simply knocked out, and there isn’t an ounce of blood to be found in the cartoony action. I don’t need a game to be violent to be enjoyable, but it seems like a weird omission. Oh, and speaking of disjointed, don’t forget the atrocious one-liners. While it’s great that there is unique dialog, depending on who is fighting who, I don’t want to hear my character defeat Narcia (Medusa), and proclaim “nice fight for a snake in the grass,” or defeat Jupiter (who is made of stone) and quip “I think he’s now hit rock bottom.” Just plain bad.

Tournament of Legends feels like a missed opportunity. While it is true that the Wii hasn’t had a stand-out fighting game yet, one shouldn’t expect to slap together a game reminiscent of something from 1994 and find instant success. I like what is underneath the generic mythological hood, the unique character skill sets and the actual combat/minigames that go on during each fight, but it isn’t enough to mask the overall cheesiness of the product. Besides, with little to do, what good is an adequate fighting system anyhow?

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Things We Liked: Fun fight mechanics and minigames. Good amount of variety between each character.

Things We Disliked: Bland characters, visually. Not enough to do. Lack of online multiplayer. So, so cheesy.

Target Audience: Those who really, really need a fighting game fix. Perhaps those with a group of friends who would actually devote time to the local multiplayer.

(Tournament of Legends – Developer: High Voltage Software. Publisher: Sega. Available for Wii. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. Unfamiliar with CFD!’s review system? Read our newly revised explanation here.)