WWF SmackDown!

"(....................)"

Well first off let me say that this is my first PSX wrestling game. I really don't like Wrestling games beccause they are boring and get repetitive at times. However when I heard about this game, I had interest in it.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics in this game were pretty darn good for a PSX game. The thing I liked about this game was that there was the movie intro filling the entire background and the character would come out as their polygon form. However the intro will be explained later. Basically you could pretty much tell who was who. There were at times when there was clipping, but seldom.

Music/Sound: 5/10
The music for the intros and SD! were basically straight off the TV show. The only problem was the ''other'' music in the game. Like during the matches and menus, the music quality was good but the music wasn't exactly as catchy as the music from the intros. Probably if they gave you the option that would be nice. I would rather have more crowd noise than music, but you take what you can. Also there is basically no sound in this game, yeah you still get the Road Dogg's entrance but it stops off after a few seconds. You would just have text messages in place of the sound.

Replay Value: 6/10
Like I said, I'm not much of a wrestling game fan. The game did have VERY GOOD replay value, numerous modes with Surivival, I Quit, Tag Team, Hardcore, Falls Count Anywhere, 3 Way Dance, 4 Way Dance, Special Referee, Royal Rumble, King of the Ring, etc. The problem is that little strategy is needed to play this game, and every time you play the game it gets repetitive because barely any new strategy or tactic comes out.

Gameplay: 8/10
Gameplay in this game is very good for a wrestling game. I like the intros taken directly off the TV show, but they are merely shortened to just no more than 10-15 seconds. Take Y2J's intro, it starts off with the timer, no problem there, then it turns out the lights, but there are no fireworks explosion and it goes directly to CJ standing on the platform. There are no fireworks in the game, which is pretty disappointing because it adds a little bit to the intro. Like when you see Kane, you hear the fireworks explosion in his intro but no fireworks, and when he wins, he does that arm pose but no fireworks, and that makes him look rediculous. The roster in this game is as recent as after the 99 Survival Series, Jeff Jarrett was taken out of the game and you still have Mankind, The Rock, D-Von, and others. However the one roster they left out disappointed me, that was Too Cool and Rakishi Phatu, man I miss that dance already from the intro to their win pose. Also Tazz and Kurt Angle are not in the game, neither is Prince Albert, Kai en Tai, the Mean Street Posse, Crash Holly, Ivory, Jacquline, The Kat, Mideon, and Essa Rios. Its hard to play the game on the lack of roster, but its still fun. You can unlock body parts of Prince Albert, but you can't get his intro. However if your one of those people who miss Al Snow's and D'Lo Brown's old intros, then your in luck cause they are still here. The gameplay in this game is pretty good, however all it is, is just grab your opponent and press the button real fast and have a suplex come out. The controls took me a while to get use to, which is pretty natural. There are tons of moves for every character, and when you do a finish move at times, the match is over w/o pinfall, like the People's Elbow, which is pretty sweet to watch. You can set up PPV events of your own as well, make title holders put their belt on the line and such. The season mode is great, although there is little sound to go with it, you can pretty much tell what they are trying to say because of the message box. You can go backstage and pound the crap out of HHH and you can fight in the kitchen, parking lot, and up on the ramp. However the Royal Rumble match isn't the Royal Rumble exactly, only 4 people can be in the ring at the same time, once someone is eliminated a new wrestler comes in. There is slight load time between character entrances, probably like 1 second and it barely detracts from gameplay. And each time a new wrestler comes in their music plays, which is pretty cool. Also note that during season mode that interference usually comes out, like DX helping each other out or Mankind backing up The Rock. The create a wrestler thing is neat, I'm new to this CAW stuff so sorry if you think otherwise. You can't create your own intro but you can give your character one of the current 36 intros. But basically there is a lot to do in this game, but I wish the intros could've been better even though they are pretty good already.

Overall: 8/10
SD! is a pretty fun game, I like how you can interact with the game instead of just wrestling in it. Overall its a fun and good pick that should please mainly most wrestling fans.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/18/00, Updated 03/18/00