WWF SmackDown!

"The start of an era, and what a start"

The start of an era. The Smackdown! Series Era. This game is far advanced despite it being THQ's first try at a wrestling game for the Playstation. The Graphics look quite good despite the graphical limitations on the Playstation and the game plays really well.

This game features an impressive roster of 40+ superstars including Undertaker, Gangrel, Kane, DX and many more. It features a lot of stables. It features the ability to name moves. It features a whole lot of great options.

And you can create some others but not many. You are very, very limited in CAW mode. You get set options, and then you scroll through 42 different head parts (And Al Snow's head Mannequin is in this game by the way) including Paul Bearer, The Terminator, The Blue Meanie and many more. You then scroll through about 53 different body parts including the aforementioned ones but you can also choose Tori, Trish, Jacqueline and more. Then the legs, which there are 43 of. There is even a hooked leg if you wish to make a pirate. You then assign name and some traits or attributes. They are pretty much the same.

After doing all this, you name him or her and set him or her any music that is in the game. You then go to assign him or her moves. And this is where I wonder why it was not put into future WWE Smackdown Games. You could set all the moves, and then assign a special and a favorite move, then you could name those two. This added uniqueness. Death Valley Driver for Cena caw? Just rename it to the FU. Big Powerbomb for a Biker Taker caw? Rename it The Last Ride. There are to much possibilities to name and it is not limited to the ones I said either. You can name the moves anything. I personally called the best Samoan drop I found in the game, The Lambeau Leap and I called one of the powerbombs, KENNADY ASSASINATION…ASSASINATION. Only quirk I have with it is you cannot change the In Game Wrestlers movesets which sucks but you can get around it.

You can then go create a taunt for your wrestlers with limited options then assign it to your wrestler. I made one like The Road Dogg's taunt but I changed some aspects so as soon as the Hand (Could not find a microphone) went down, it stayed down for a second and went back up with his mouth moving for both times the mic was at him.

There is also quite a unique season mode that is not found in future Smackdown games. You get your normal season which goes on forever, but for your created characters, you get a preseason mode where you can unlock various stuff including more caw parts. During the preseason mode, you can get special cut scenes and there may be a bloodbath involved. What you do in preseason mode determines who you will face in Season mode. You also get points for winning matches in preseason which can go to build up certain aspects of your wrestlers like Strength etc. You also get attributes such as DX Friendly, or Table+ which, respectively, means that DX are friendly with you and you are great at Table's matches.

Speaking of which, there is quite an impressive variety of matches for the first game of the new era. Here is a brief selection. Of course, there is single and tag but there is also; Table, ladder, hell in a cell, cage, hardcore and I quit. There is also a Royal Rumble mode and three or four way dances, or triple threat or Fatal Four way matches respectively.

The I quit mode has some flaws as I was Chyna facing The Big Show once and I knocked him down in the first seconds and made him quit in the next three seconds, but overall, the modes are great. And this would never happen as The Big Show is much bigger than Chyna and he can last longer.

The wrestlers get up quite quickly but unlike some other games, they have in built stamina and they will eventually stay down after lots of moves. And another plus is that you get up quickly near the start as well so it is evenly balanced Matchups in this game unlike other games.

The entrances could have been done better. THQ said there was a problem with streaming the videos which I don't believe since they done it in Tony Hawk's Skateboarding. It is a full screen entrance in this game with the wrestlers appearing and walking and taunting in front of their movie with their music playing. This is quite cool because it adds more atmosphere to Undertaker's Entrance. But I really wanted to see Gangrel's fire entrance, but alas, you can't have everything in life. And we can get around that if you have tapes of the wrestlers.

There are also a nice variety of stables, or tag teams, in this game. The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boyz, Edge + Christian, The Brood including E+C, and many more. I mentioned lots of superstars before but there is one extra playable character who is not a superstar. Hell, some don't consider him a star. That is Al Snow who is in the game and even has EM PLEH written on his head, which, read backwards, spells HELP ME. I am assuming it means the head because it got him in a lot of trouble at various stores. And the fact that there are lots of superstars and stables leads to loads of matches and lots of replayablity.

I said this game was graphically advanced and I mean it. All the wrestlers look excellent in this game. They all have depth as well so the women have accurate sized breasts, the men have the right size of chest and Al Snow has a clear EM PLEH written on his head. And I did say, this is very advanced for a console with the graphically limitations it has. And it is true. It's damn true.

There is an innovative season mode in this game. You are given a match for the week, sometimes two matches. But you cannot be the same stamina for both of them because your stamina will be worn down in the first match so it will not be full for the second match. This also applies to backstage attacks on you.

Overall, this game is superb and it was a great way to start off the WWE Smackdown! Series of games. Everything is perfect about this game and if I could improve one thing, it would be the ability to control cutscenes, like causing a bloodbath or something similar but apart from the inability to control cutscenes, this game is perfect. It is going for cheap now as well so I recommend that you buy it if you find it. Trust me, you will not regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/13/05