An Ode To The Worst In-Game Shop I’ve Ever Used

One of the most amazing things about video games is that a small change can transform how the game feels, turning an otherwise great mechanic into a terrible one in the blink of an eye. Nothing embodies this idea more for me than the shop and unlock system in Legends Of Wrestling 2. Because Acclaim made their entire game feel infinitely worse by making one small change to the unlock system.

Released on PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox in 2002, the best way to encapsulate Legends Of Wrestling 2 is “interesting ideas executed poorly.” 

For example:

Interesting Idea	Poor Execution
A wrestling game featuring wrestlers from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, most of whom had not been included in a videogame before due to them never working for the WWE, the only wrestling promotion releasing games at the time	Acclaim ‘updated’ all of the wrestler’s movesets, giving all wrestlers moves that were not invented when the wrestlers were performing. So the characters don’t wrestle like they should, meaning players couldn’t recreate most of the rosters’ iconic matches.
A timing-based combo system that allowed you to chain moves together	The combo system meant matches moved at a glacial pace, and you would spend most of the game staring at the combo bar at the top of the screen.
A career mode that emulates the old-school ‘territory system’ with you traveling from region to region, trying to win each region’s title. Additionally, each area has a different owner, with many referencing famous wrestling promotors from the era.	The heads of the region are cartoony stereotypes and overly sanitized, meaning it fails to capture the grit that made the territory era so fascinating.
In career mode, you gain popularity based on how exciting your match is, forcing you to use varied moves.	Matches quickly become a chore as you must go through the same checklist every time to get all the excitement points.

How The Shop Works

But the game’s shop is where the game’s knack for ruining otherwise good things shines brightest. 

Older wrestling games usually use one of two unlock methods. The first is a classic goal-based unlock system where the player completes a task (e.g. complete the career mode with a specific wrestler) and is given a reward. The second option is a store system where players earn money for playing matches, which can then be used to buy whatever unlockable the player wants. Some games combine the two, with players having to complete missions before certain things become available for purchase. 

At first, Legends Of Wrestling 2’s shop looks like the latter form. When the player goes to the shop, they are presented with several categories of unlockables: Wrestlers, Textures, Arenas, Abilities, Cheats, and Concept Art, each containing several differently priced items. While many of these items are available from the start, others are marked as unavailable, meaning the item must be unlocked in career mode before being bought from the shop. 

However, the first hint of the weirdness comes when the player looks at the top or bottom of the screen. As there, the player will notice that this game has three currencies, Green Coins, Blue Coins, and Red Coins. This doesn’t seem like a deal-breaker initially, but after the player has played a few matches, they’ll realize they’re only being given Green coins. This is because gambling is the only way to get the Blue and Red coins. 

To gamble, the player must press a button on the shop screen to open the gambling mini-game. In this game, the player spends Green coins to buy squares on a four-by-four grid. 

When the player has brought all the squares they want, they press another button to start the game. The squares then begin to randomly illuminate one at a time. If the player stops the game when a square they’ve bought is illuminated, they get a Blue or Red coin, depending on how many Green coins they paid for that square.

The Issues With Legends Of Wrestling 2’s Shop

The problems with this mechanic quickly become evident after a few plays. The biggest issue is that the squares illuminate totally randomly. So, while it isn’t that difficult to stop the light when it is on your square, you might have to wait a few minutes for it to happen. 

This is exasperated by the fact that each successful gamble only nets you a single Red or Blue coin, meaning you’ll need to play this game hundreds of times to get enough cash to unlock everything. But, thanks to the visually dull grid and the nearly non-existent audio design, this process feels painfully long, making even a handful of gambles feel like an utter chore. Plus, this presumes you win every bet. If you fail to stop on the right square, your Green Coin is lost, meaning that a few wrong button presses can set the player massively back, leading to complete frustration. 

But the most fascinating thing about this mechanic is how, by introducing an extra stage to the process, Legends Of Wrestling 2 strips the excitement out of unlocking things and makes the entire game feel like a grind. In other wrestling games, playing random matches to earn cash isn’t painful simply because you know you’re always making progress and can estimate how many matches you need to play to get the necessary money. But while gambling in Legends Of Wrestling 2, you can lose coins, meaning you’re never sure how many more matches you need to play before the next unlock, removing the sense of progression. Plus, the several minutes of gambling proceeding the unlock makes this whole sequence feel disconnected from the main game, meaning the unlocks don’t feel like something you’re earning via your in-ring skill, making the process even more soul-sucking. 

This is only intensified by how thematically off the mechanic feels. While gambling and old-school wrestling go hand in hand, this gambling mini-game lacks a theme or visual identity. A big reason for this odd feeling is that the coins are not themed, giving them no real grounding or sense of value. Even more oddly, the developers went with Red, Blue, and Green rather than the usual gold, silver, and bronze, further adding to the thematic weirdness of this mode. 

The store in Legends Of Wrestling 2 is a fantastic example of how small changes can have massive effects on a game’s feel. By adding one tiny extra mechanic, Acclaim turned the usually thrilling experience of getting new content into a painful, monotonous experience that only brought into focus the game’s other flaws and intensified the game’s overall strange feel. So, while it isn’t the most well-remembered game today, it remains a fascinating case study for how not to do shop systems.