WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain

"A huge improvement over Shut your mouth!"

This game should get the award for the most anticipated game of the year. Every where I go, my friends ask me one question. 'Have you bought the lastest installment of Smackdown?'. When I said No, they started telling me that I was missing the best game of the year. Well now that I have the game, I can tell whether it's the game of the year or not.
Smackdown: Here come's the pain! is a huge improvement over Smackdown's last installment, 'Shut your mouth!'. It sure did live up to the hype that surrounded it when it was released. Yuke's, Smackdown's developer, has added some pretty amazing additions to the Smackdown series that were not present in the previous games. The gameplay has not changed much(why change it if it's already perfect? Right?) but the graphics have been massively reworked and many of the superstars look just like they do in real life. I will explain everything in depth in the next few paragraphs.
-------------
Graphics: 9
-------------
The graphics look superb and look a lot better than 'Shut your mouth's. All the wrestlers look and behave like the way they do in real life(Especially Goldberg). I was simply speech less after I saw Goldberg's entrance video. The sparks and gas that come out during his entrance look so realistic that when my dad came in, he asked me whether this was a game I was playing or a channel that I was watching. It's that real. The near-perfect animation of the superstars and their facial expressions makes this game the best looking WWE game ever(Yes, better than Raw 2). Each move, carried out, looks awesome and equally painful. The crowd now is a lot better and they will raise the chart paper(your name will be written on it) and wave it when you are giving a fair beating to your opponent. Overall, the graphics are the best of any wrestling game and there is very little flaws in them.
-------------
Sound:8
-------------
One major improvement they have made in the audio department is by removing the commentatory. In previous installments, the commentatory was poor at best and they always gave inaccurate comments and thus forcing me to turn the volume down. Now there is just the background music which, though good, sound somewhat repetitive. All your superstars' entrance music are present here with some exceptions and the bang and boom of your slams are all pretty good. Still, some improvements must be made and I hope that if they are to include commentatory in the next game, they should add some more lines to the script.
--------------
Controls:9
--------------
The controls are pretty much the same as that of Shut your mouth's except that the reversal buttons are now L2 and R2. R2 is for grapple moves and L2 is for punch and kick moves. To stop finishers, you have to press both the buttons at the same time. This takes time to get used to but eventually you will get the hang of it. I personally preferred the square button for reversals as you need full precision when using the L2 and R2 buttons because you never know whether the opponent will be trying to punch you or to grapple you.
--------------
Gameplay:10
--------------
Ah, gameplay! The heart of any game and the main reason why people buy a game. Not to see cute graphics and not to hear rock or metal music but to be able to play the game and at the same time have fun. Yuke's have made many changes but the most noticible is the location damage icon. This is the first game of the Smackdown series to use this kind of damage meter. If you slam some one on his back, the icon will flash and the torso part will eventually turn yellow, then orange and then red. This allows you to focus on the part that's taking more damage. This is especially useful when you are trying to make some one give up. Matches of all types are available in this game, ranging from the elimination chamber to the bra and panties match. You can play any type of match in the exhibition mode, where you can choose which type of match you want to play, which superstars should be in it, which arena to play in and you can also change the match rules here. Bra and panties matches are matches in which the objective of the player is to strip your opponent(A woman) down to her (Well you know what!). The elimination chamber is a match in which six superstars battle it out in a 20 ton steel cage. It begins with two wrestlers banging each other's heads (Wrestling, for those dungbrains) and after three minutes, another wrestler comes into the ring from the glass chamber. You can climb up to the chamber and dive attack someone from there or you can smash your opponent's screwed head in the glass and watch the it break to pieces.
Now if you hit someone enough with a chair or any other weapon, your enemy's head will start to bleed. Now that's really cool. You can even give someone a clothsline while riding a bike and even attach them to the bike and drag them around the ring.
Another new addition is the addition of the weight detection sysem. This incident must have happened with you in Shut your mouth. You chose Kane as your superstar and made Stacy your opponent in a single match. She beats your a$$ by slamming you and giving you her finisher every now and then. Now in this game it won't happen again. No longer will the little superstars(Trish) be able to powerbomb a 500 pounds wrestler like Big show.
Now you also have attributes for each superstar like strength,speed,technique, endurance and submission. These affect the your superstar in a big way. e.g. Stacy won't be able to wear down a monster like Kane even if she slaps and low blows Kane the whole day but Kane will be able to make Stacy's damage icon red just with one of this choke slams. This is a great addition and gets full marks from me.
------------
Season mode:9
------------
The season has been improved a lot from Shut your mouth. Now there's a shop zone where you can spend your Smackdown dollars in exchange for unlockables. You can earn dollars by winning matches. You start by choosing which show you want to go in to, RAW or Smackdown. Now you don't have to go here and there trying to find the show's manager or a superstar by roaming around the whole of the building. Now you can talk with a wrestler, start a match, spend your dollars and change your attributes all in the locker room! That too by a single press of the x button. It is like a command center for your superstar. The general manager's room is just for requesting title shots, show tranfers and the knowing the amount of superstar points you have. Superstar points are points used to identify your importance in the show. If your points are high, you get the chance for a heavy weight title shot.
--------------
Replay value:10
--------------
Smackdown: Here comes the pain! is purely a multiplayer game so there's no doubt that someone with a brother or two could play this game forever without ever getting bored with it or if someone's alone, he can play the awesome season mode. There's no shortage of replay value in this game.
-------------
Rent or buy?
-------------
There should be no hesitation in buying this game and it should appeal to any one who likes video games. For WWE fans, they don't need to read this review. They should just drop what ever they are doing and get a copy of this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/03