WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain

"Great game, still with quirks"

Here we are again, a new year a new smackdown. This is great, it delivers a great season mode, great graphics, great CAW, great new match addition. This game as a lot going for it, but is not without it's problems. Which I will go into further details below. Here we go.

Gameplay - 8/10 -

This year, the gameplay changed a bit and it's for the better. When you grapple, which is with the O button again this year, depending on the side you press, it enters into a grappling mode, which you have to choose a direction again plus press O again to do a move. This addition is great as it gives you 16 moves with front grappling only, a huge improvement over last year. The reversal have also being improved, instead of bashing the square button in hopes of reversing a move, you actually have to anticipate the move and react quickly, it gives a good amount of strategy to a match. Create a wrestler is still great this year, the downside is the entrance selection, each year, they give us the same original entrance and most of them are too bizarre to use. If you want an original entrance with pyros, you'll have to accept that your character will come to the ring performing karate moves. They are the only original with pyros. Or if you are looking for a long original entrance to make your CAW look like a real top superstar, you won't find one because they are all usually quick, you will have to take an entrance of an established star if you want a long entrance, hardly original. And the tag team entrance is really limited, they need to put more original tag/trio entrance and a way to preview them, when I first made a team and chose am entrance for them, imagine my surprise when they came out doing a ballerina number, there is only 3 tag team original and that is one of them, another one is a DX entrance, that leaves only 1, not really original, more entrance are needed, it's basically all the same as Shut Your Mouth. After 3 PS2 installment, you would think the collision problem would be fixed, it wasn't. When you execute the powerful facecrusher, you can clearly see your superstar isn't even close to grabbing the head of the opponent. When you do some move, you can see wrestlers legs going through the opponents body, etc... Those should have been fixed by now. The roster is great, but instead of having legend, I would've rather have recent superstar, like la resistance, Billy gunn, Gail Kim or the current woman's champion, molly holly. If the legend had their real theme, movie and entrance, then things would be different, I would've love to see the old undertaker walk to the ring, with his old theme and movie, they are all WWE's property so I don't know why they didn't put them in. But they should have there real entrance in there instead of having all legend come to the ring inside the mini ring. The addition of first blood, elimination chamber and Bra and panties makes a great addition to an already huge lineup of different matches.

Graphic - 8/10 - There is really nothing to say here more than they are good. You can see a difference from last year addition and some superstar are so well portrayed that it's unbelievable how real they look. Nothing sensational but good enough to enjoy yourself and enjoy the graphics.

Sounds - 7/10 - I had to put a lower score than I would like too because of one thing, wrestlers theme. Too much wrestlers are missing there theme song for my taste, the Dudley boyz, Kane, rob van dam, Stacy keibler, Victoria, they are all missing there theme and I think it shouldn't happen anymore. And the original theme are lacking in quality, they need to put better original theme in the smackdown series, a lot of them have been there since Just Bring It. And the legend have no theme either, a huge let down. Theme shouldn't be missing anymore. Let's hope they fix that in the next installment.

Story - 9/10 - The strong point of the game. In season mode, you have your basic story that happens during major PPV, but between those PPV, it's all random story. I'm at my 4th season and I still have a lot of new storyline appearing during my season. That is great, it makes you want to go through the season over and over because you want to see what story you'll have next. The only reason I didn't give it a 10 is sometime I feel your character can't play is role properly, you might be a heel, but for some reason, a storyline will appear that will force you to play it as the face, even if your character status clearly state heel. And sometime when you are a heel, a heel will come out to start a feud with you, which doesn't make any sense. It seems to me that even thought I’m a heel, I am the one always falling victim to beat downs. Which should be the other way around, as a heel, that is my position to play cheap on the faces, not the faces playing cheap on me.

Playtime/replayability - 10/10 - SO much storyline in season that you will keep coming back for more. This game doesn't get old fast as far as single player experience goes. And the unlockable are another things that makes you comeback to play season mode. There is a lot to unlock, but not too much that it will make you give up like it did to a lot of person in Shut Your Mouth. They've hit the right balance here and they deserve a 10.

Final recommendation - If you are a casual or hardcore wrestling gaming fan, I would say definitively a buy, the single player is awesome and the multiplayer is good when you have people over, for first timer, rent it to see if wrestling game are for you but this is the best you can get out there at the moment. It's good to see a company finally putting some effort in a wrestling game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/18/03