We're still not sure where gamers lie with High Voltage Software, afterall, at times they have promised so much yet delivered very little. In an ironic way we can't help but think that's why they are SEGA's new best friends.
But one thing that HVS seem to know is how to spectacularly unveil their titles to unsuspecting Wii gamers. In such a fast-paced industry the reveal of a game can make or break sales before it has even hit the shelves, and with their 'hooks' HVS products seem to appeal to those hardcore-starved Wii owners. So if you are reading this review I wouldn't be surprised if you remember when Tournament of Legends was revealed...

The hook? Well it looked bloody, gritty and interesting coming off as a love child of Mortal Kombat and Frank Miller's 300. On the back of The Conduit things certainly seemed good for HVS, but a little deeper the seeds of doubt were becoming apparent to gamers. The Grinder, their other gritty title was announced for other platforms and gamers started to realise that The Conduit was easily bettered by lazy Call of Duty ports. And then they drove a nail in Tournament of Legends coffin. They took away its unique identity

The original Tournament and the subsequent redesign.

Yet upon booting up Tournament of Legends, you can't help but think that HVS 'chickened out' when they went back to the drawing board with the visual design. Gone is that individual, gritty style which made ToL stand out from every other fighter out there and in it's place is a (still, decent-looking), colourful yet confused design. You see, for those long term gamers who have seen a fair few fighters, ToL is nothing new at all. The art style is all over the place, misguided and generic, few characters look interesting or even 'hard' and the ones which do seem interesting (ala Marcus/Bravehoof) grate with their lack of real identity and their egotistic soundbites, (which repeat more than episodes of Friends.)

I'm sure gamers would have loved to have played a realistic gladiatorial combat game and in the light that ToL is a 'defeat the evil God Thanatos' mythical brawler, it is hard to stomach. But within the fighting genre we've been here before with Eternal Champions, War Gods, Bio Freaks (and so on) so, ignoring the 'ifs and buts' what truly stops ToL from being a champ?

Well, to put it bluntly: I've seen toddlers with more balance than ToL. In typical form you have the fast, strong and weak brawlers with the added opportunity to 'earn' skills from other, defeated brawlers. Shamefully this has little to no effect on the field of battle. There are also weapon modifiers and stronger, special attacks yet ToL doesn't rely on skill or memorisation. Instead it is all about jumping in and thrashing through a fight. Although this certainly fits in with a 'tongue in cheek' setup the whole thing just feels soulless. Without the classic controller, controls are primarily based around motion and you know where that brings us? Towards another Wii Sports boxing clone. Sadly games fast decline into button-mashing / waggle-off's either way with the winner usually being the one who picked the classic middle of the road characters.

I wouldn't mind the instantly forgettable settings and characters if the gameplay was there but taken as a whole package, ToL has very little to enjoy if you take fighting games seriously. We could also wax lyrical about the added environmental effects which can turn a match for you or the wealth of characters from Gorgons to Gods, but the crux of this game, the core fighting mechanics, are so poorly implemented that the game plays as a stuttering mess. And so HVS produce a fighter that feels like a self parody, a fighter that seems like it's laughing at you for owning it and one that serves as a humorous reminder as to the fighters of yesteryear. On the N64 or PS1 this would fit right in. But it's 2010, and so ToL looks and plays like a title that time forgot.

Unfortunately, thats exactly what will happen to ToL. With the infinitely more enjoyable (and humorous) TvC, SSBB and even Virtual Console fighters on Wii, don't waste your hard-earned here.