WWF SmackDown!

"The first game to kick off a great series"

Throughout the 90's, the WWF developed into a colossal show full of entertainment, drama, action, and even some sensuality. The craze became so popular that a game company known as Yuke's decided to take that popularity and turn it into big bucks. Thus the first Smackdown! was born. They (Yuke's) wanted to improve of the 2D wrestling games from the SNES days and make a real life 3D wrestling game. Although they are a long way from that real life aspect, they succeeded in making one of the best wrestling games today and contributed to the numerous wrestling games that are out today.

The whole purpose of this game is to give you the feeling of being part of the action. Matches take place with you in control, you choose from a variety of matches that resemble matches shown on TV. These include matches like tag team battles (Two-on-Two), King of the Ring (Tournament), Special Guest referee (Choose a wrestler to be the ref), Hardcore (No DQ, weapons available) and a lot more unique matches. But before you can start the action, you need to choose what wrestler you are and who you will go against, as well as time limits, arena, difficulty and if available, if the title is on the line. This brings me to another point, wrestlers are ranked based on wins/losses. For each win they win, they will improve their ranking, this goes the same for losing. The game then registers the top ranked superstars and to be able to challenge a champion on for their title, they need to be above that ranked position. If you're wondering why this is, it's so a weak wrestler like X-Pac (a bad wrestler) can't challenge and defeat Stone Cold (One of the best wrestlers), that just wouldn't happen in real life. For wrestlers to keep up with each other, the CPU also does matches while you are playing and adds those wins to other characters, thus making the rankings switch often and different wrestlers challenge the champions for their titles.

Actual gameplay doesn't accurately as it does in real life. Each wrestler has all the moves available to him/her as he/she does in the actual federation. The only downside is that every wrestler has only one special and limited taunts. This works out fine for people like Ken Shamrock and Triple H who only do one special, but The Rock has to have his other special as a regular move. Other than that it all works out, X-Pac has his “Suck it” taunt, Kane has his “Chokeslam” taunt and the Diva's have their poses. At first, it may seem like there is limited moves but there are in fact, a lot more. You have turn-buckle moves, submissions that vary if you are standing by their head or their feet. The list is simply enormous. If the match is a normal One-on-One, then your purpose is to wear down your opponent all while building up a bar for your special. Once you have your special up, you need to get your opponent into the correct position (Standing up for “Rock Bottom”, on the ground for “Sharpshooter”, your guy on the turnbuckle and your opponent on the ground for “Elbow Drop” and your wrestler being behind your opponent for “Full Nelson”) and you execute your special with one press of the buttons and finish with a pin. Yuke's obviously wasn't thinking about realism for finishers, and they are just tapping the potential with the current Smackdown! games. If you start a match and do five “Stone Cold Stunners” your opponent will kick out after only a two count or get up within a matter of seconds. In real life, that attack that many times would knock them out for quite awhile.

If you think that the only thing you do in this game is wrestle for win/losses and the exchange of titles, you've got it all wrong. You have the ability to make your own wrestler, and then use him in the game. The series as a whole, has the best create-a-guy than every other game. Except this one, there's only about 70 different items for the head, body, and legs. Once you complete what he looks like, you select info on them such as names and what weapon they come out with as well as their entrance (music, moves, movie). With this wrestler, you can start a “Pre-Season” and work your wrestlers stats up. At the end of the “Pre-Season” you're created wrestler will have better attributes and now be eligible for “Season” mode. In this “Season” you can choose from a variety of all wrestlers and then compete on Smackdown and Raw, at the end of each month, you can participate in that month's PPV (Royal Rumble for January and Wrestlemania for March). It's not the same drama and action as you're used to watching, in fact the whole setup of matches make no sense what so ever. For example, you can be “The Rock” and out of nowhere, X-Pac will attack you, you then get stuck with him in a match for the title (which they completely ignore the rankings) and after the match, you never fight him again. They even go the length of having backstage ambushes to guys that have no point to your status, they again fight that night and never fight again. Although this “Season” has a bad story, it keeps things fresh and you get some variety in the matches.

The visuals in this game are outstanding for a PS1 game, character models look close to what they do in real life and it's only at times when you are using a common face (black hair and nothing else) that you can be confused with who you are. Symbols appear correct (WWF, Smackdown, Raw, Royal Rumble etc.) and everything else from the titan tron to the ring all look superb.

Another thing they did incredibly well is the sound of the game. Each wrestlers music plays exactly like it does in real life. While fighting in a match, you hear the roar of the crowd as the boo or cheer you on. If it's a hard slap, you'll hear that slap. If it's a hard fall, you'll hear the ring bounce and rumble like it would a hard fall. Noises are realistic and there are very few games that even come close to anything that Smackdown! has done.

Smackdown! controls and responses very good. Perhaps a little to good, a slight favor of the down button when you are suppose to do left and down will result in the down move, where as taunts respond well and you never curse the game for not doing what you pressed.

Buy?
Yes, if you are interested in WWE at all, take a step back in time and experience wrestlers who no longer wrestle as well as all of their moves and music. Or if you enjoy the new Smackdown! games, then you should definitely check out the first in the series and see how everything has evolved from the first. Most, if not all used game stores carry this. Slap down a couple of bucks and get this game now!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/05, Updated 08/10/05