WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It

"Good, old-school SmackDown!"

My personal opinion is that SmackDown! games jumped the shark right after this one, and that all THQ focused on since then was the graphics (except when they made the righteously awesome Here Comes The Pain)

But this? This is pure old-school SmackDown!, and if you've played the godly piece of ownage called "SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role" on the first PlayStation, you know how to play this. This just slightly falls short of KYR, but it's still a GREAT game.

GRAPHICS: 8/10

Today, you probably wouldn't agree. But when the game was released, you've got to admit they were on to something. It certainly looks better than the PS1 games. Every character looks realistic, in fact, I actually think they look more realistic in here than in the fourth SD! game "Shut Your Mouth". I now own both this and SYM, so I can tell.

SOUND: 9/10

When you first start the game, you are met by the sexiest synthetic voice I've ever heard. The music, like the games before it, are better than SYM's or any SD! after SYM. While subsequent games carried generic pop-metal fare, and the more recent games carry abysmal licensed soundtracks, this game is old-school SD!, so it's different. The menu music is the same techno fare that made the first two games so aesthetically pleasing. The fight music is a pop-metallic hip-hoppish kind of music, but at a better quality than that of the sequels. The theme songs come in crystal-clear, and the Right To Censor theme is in so you can annoy the living ish out of people. Oh yeah, and the old SmackDown! theme. The REALLY old SD! theme. When you hear this, you're gonna be taken back. Big time. ^_^

CONTROLS: 8/10

It's kind of hard to set up stuff in matches like a tornado tag TLC. Sometimes you wind up placing a ladder on top of a table, and then it falls off so you have to pick it up again, and you wind up getting clobbered by someone while you're trying to pick it up, and that can be a bit frustrating. Otherwise, the controls are decent. Striking and grappling, however, are the same difficulty to land as they were in WWF Warzone for the PS1, although this only really serves to add more strategy to the game.

PLAYABILITY: 9/10

The Story mode is repetitive, and the roaming sections are tedious, but title defenses are very arcade-like. You pick the champion, some random big shot is chosen to fight you at some random PPV, you kick his ass, you unlock something. Good luck on the "kicking his ass" part though, if you have it on Hard. This isn't SVR or SYM. This is Just Bring It. If you're playing it on Hard, expect a challenge. A rather fun challenge too.

Matches can go on for a long time. This game has awesome features that other games don't have. There's really cool reversals that give momentum, you can go into the crowd (proving it wasn't a new feature in SVR07), and Hell in a Cell matches operate by breakable walls in the cell as opposed to the "open the door" method from subsequent games. There's no Casket match like in KYR, but with the vast match types in this game, that's forgivable.

REPLAY VALUE: 10/10

Oh, hell yeah. You can unlock tons of stuff. Characters, music, CAW parts, videos...just goes on and on. This is also one of those rare games you can simply play for the hell of it and have fun. Make CAWs, make taunts, make stables, play whatever kind of match you like, it's all good.

Rent/Buy?: I don't think there's rental service for this anymore, but I found this being sold at a Blockbuster (IN GOOD CONDITION, no less) for $10. It's worth AT LEAST $10. BUY THE DAMN THING. You will not regret it. If you love old-school SmackDown! games, this is for you, my friend. Have fun with this one.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/17/07