WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It

"Just Bring It? Just Lost It"

This game did not live up to the hype I expected from playing the Demo I got with my PS2. I played the demo and it looked awesome. I remember clearly. Triple H versus Kane. I did not know how to play but somehow I had a lot of fun and Hit the Pedigree for the 1-2-3. But after going out to get this game, I found out just how wrong demo's can be. I am not saying all demos are wrong but this is one of the times when a demo is very, very misleading. And while it does have quite a lot of wrestlers, it lacks in actual gameplay. I do not think that this is acceptable at all. Quality over quantity after all, not the other way round

Sure, it was THQ's first try at a PS2 wrestling game but that does not excuse it. I may add that it is now called WWE Smackdown: Just Bring IT! for legal reasons. The caw mode is quite frankly lacking in a lot and it is very hard to make the CAW's you want to make as there is not that much options. You can make a good Doink the Clown though. But the graphics are quite bad and choppy in this game so he does not look good in the ring. If other early PS2 games can be done well, why was this game not don ewell?

This game has 36 wrestlers unlocked from the start with a further 7 wrestlers and one popular singer to unlock. You also get some cool match types such as Ironman mode that goes for 60 minutes (See Bret versus Shawn), ultimate submissions which run off the same system as Ironman but instead of Pin's, submissions and countouts; you just get submissions and Last Man Standing. Last Man Standing is a new mode to the Smackdown series and a welcome one at that. Beat your opponent down until he cannot stand up for a 10 count and you have won the match.

This game also has an awesome Roster including the Radicalz (Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko), The Dudley Boyz (Bubba, D-Von and Spike) and much more. They have Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz as well so you can have TLC matches with the 3 teams. You are also able to have up to 5 people in a faction and up to 8 people in a match at one time.

Another problem I have with the game is how quickly the opponent gets up after a big move and how slowly you get up after a not so big move. I was Big Show, I chokeslammed Tajiri at the start of the match. He got up straight away, knocked me down, hit The Buzzsaw kick and pinned me. Grand time for match, 20 seconds with change. I do not see why it is like this but something must have gone wrong when they produced the game because it should not be like this at all. This really lets the game down but it is not the only letdown for the game.

The back of the box advertises a great career mode. Sadly, this is a lie. The career mode, quite frankly, sucks big time. No voice overs and it gets very repetitive, very quickly. You just pretty much pick options to decide what to do. You get a grand total of 3 matches per play, and that is if you choose the options correctly. But you do get to defend loads of times by picking a title holder and defending or winning titles is crucial to unlock the cards. Some people on the cards include “The Hardcore Legend” Mick Foley, “The Billion Dollar Princess” Stephanie McMahon, “I leap off of 40 ft objects for fun” Shane McMahon and Limp Bizket's own, Fred Durst. You heard me right, Fred Durst. I do not see why he is in a wrestling game but he is in anyway. And since he is in, Taker's Rolling music and bike is in and Fred comes out to Rolling as well. You can only challenge for titles if you win every single match as well and that is not realistic because you have to lose sometime.

Some music is lacking though, such as a bad cut of Triple H's motorhead theme and Kane's music starts way too early. But you get great music such as Malenko's and The Hardy Boyz. As well as The Dudley Boyz. And despite them not being in the game, The Popular Faction, D-Generation X's music and titantron are in the game so if you create Shawn Michaels, you can team him with Triple H and make them come out to that set.

There are some good entrances though. Triple H's looks like he done it himself and they really pushed the border with the colours in the entrance because they have all of the colours in it. Red, Green, Purple, Aquamarine and loads more. The Undertaker also comes out on his bike, Kane has his Fire entrance and if you put Kane and Taker in a tag match on the same team, Kane will come out and signal for the Pyro and Rolling will start and Taker will drive out. This is the Brothers of Destruction entrance which is a nice addition to the game. And whereas in previous games you got the full screen titantron with the wrestlers walking in front of it, in this game, you get to see them going down the ramp and into the ring.

There is also quite a selection of moves in this game. You can pick loads of moves, but sadly, no Indy moves. Moves such as The Last Ride, The Pedigree, The Stone Cold Stunner, The Tombstone Piledriver, The Chokeslam and many more moves are in.

There is also a very limited Create a Taunt in this game. It is so limited, you cannot create very much taunts for wrestlers that you have barely been able to make in the bad Create a Wrestler mode. You only get about 18 slots in both modes, and a grand total of 87 different bases for the Taunt mode and 275 bases for the Create a wrestler mode which is quite bad.

There is also a theater mode, but not the kind from the Xbox series. This one has commercials for past games and some other games that have been produced by THQ. There are also different kinds of colours in this game. Tajiri's mist has at least 4 different which adds a realistic tone to this game and I quite like it. The colours, by the way, are red, green, blue and yellow and all have different effects on the person you spit it at.

While it is their first attempt at a Playstation 2 wrestling game they could have tried better at this. There is quite a lot lacking for the create and season modes. There is a lot of wrestlers though but that does not nearly make up for just how limited we are in the other areas. I got this and play it sometimes but I never save. You want to know why? It takes up at least 1235 kb on the memory card and that is just when you originally save when you pop in the new disc. The other 3 in the PS2 series don't take up that much space, and that is when they are combined. Quite frankly, I would advise you to buy one of the other wrestling games for the Playstation 2 and just leave this one where it is most happy, on the shelf in the game store.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/05, Updated 11/21/05