WWF SmackDown!

"Fun, but not really worth playing now."

WWF SmackDown was the first WWF game to be developed by Yuke's, and their first effort made specifically for a U.S. audience. SD debuted the special referee mode, something that has actually gotten worse as the series has progressed. It also was the first U.S. wrestling game to feature extensive, interactive backstage areas. While WCW Mayhem was the first to have backstage areas, but they were just square areas with minimal interaction, and you couldn't go from one to another. Here, you can get to any area from any area after going through one or more rooms. It's simple, and it works rather seamlessly. SD also debuted the quick pace that has become the norm for WWE games today.

This distinction works in its favor in some ways, and against it in others. The quick gameplay system keeps things from getting monotonous, which is most certainly a good thing, sadly, nothing seems to have much in the way of impact. Moves seem to do no damage, and the fine art of submission wrestling is all but thrown away here, as moves are held for under a second, no matter what.

The fast pace also fits the backstage areas well, as you can zip along and do tons of damage in the areas in relatively little time. These areas are pretty interactive, with some neat graphical stuff being done when you toss folks into things. The special ref mode is pretty fun to use, and is a great way to kill some time and get some feuds into motion. The season mode was the first one to incorporate more RPG-style aspects into it, allowing you to form friendship and rivalries based on your decisions. It's a quick and painless short-form RPG in some ways, and works well, especially since it makes great use of the modes in the game. The special ref mode, for example, can be used to decide your future friends and rivals in the mode. It's not the deepest mode ever, but it doesn't need to be. That tends to work well as a philosophy for everything in the game, as nothing seems as fleshed out as it could be, like the CAW mode, but things work out nicely despite it all.

Speaking of the CAW mode, it's among the worst ones I've ever seen. Even compared to CAW modes of the day, it's lacking immensely in pretty much every area. Moves are nearly non-existent, and appearance selection is far too limited to be of much use. Ironically though, the wrestlers blend in better with in-game folks than they do now, which is rather telling in a few ways. Given what could have been done with this mode, and what was done before, and even just six months later, when SD 2 was released, there's no excuse for this kind of crap.

Things don't fare much better visually, as there isn't any real transition between moves, killing some of the believability of the action. The actual moves do look pretty nice though, and given how few of them there are, they'd damn well better! .Taunting animation looks nice, although seeing the taunts done for entrances in front of just the Titantron video wall is bizarre, as it looks unrealistic, and just plain odd. Thankfully, THIS “innovation” was killed by the third game. The wrestler models look fantastic though, with no breaks between their arms and their bodies, a common problem with their rival, Aki's games at the time. The visuals might look fine in screens, but once you see them for yourself, in motion, the flaws just pop out at you.

The audio holds up far better than the visuals do, thankfully. The sound effects are realistic, with chops and punches sounding as they should. The theme music is also nice and clear. In-game music isn't great, but it doesn't take away from the action, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. The effects used for weapons are nice, although they aren't helped by the fact that it takes about a dozen or two shots with any weapon to get your opponent to fall down, this despite it sounding as if his head should be caved in by a chair shot. Just a WEE BIT unrealistic there…

WWF SmackDown succeeds in providing a fun game, but it fails at nearly everything else. The gameplay is too vapid to have any lasting appeal, and the supplemental modes don't help that. The move animations are crisp, and certainly look fantastic, but they don't justify playing this game now. The only thing that does is the stuff that never made it past this game, like being able to crotch your opponent on the ring post, and the backstage areas, which had great construction here, with lots to do in them. If you haven't played it yet, give it a shot for about $5 or so.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/26/04