A Smack in the Face
Written: May 15 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Probably the best wrestling game for the PS1
Cons: That is not saying a lot about the genre
The Bottom Line: WWF Smackdown, with its limited gameplay, will be gathering dust in the corner of my gaming library.
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| gorocco's Full Review: WWF Smackdown for PlayStation 1 |
“Finally, The Rock HAS COME BACK to the Playstation!”
But is that a good thing? After some poor wrestling games from Acclaim, the WWF has handed their license over to THQ. Their first outing WWF Smackdown! on the PS1 is an OK effort, not stellar by any means.
Gameplay
Smackdown uses a very simple interface. You have the D-pad to move and buttons for running, attacking (punching/kicking), grappling, reversals, taunting, switching opponents, and your wrestler’s trademark move.
Attacks are done by pressing a button or a direction and a button (the attack button or the grappling button). What these commands translate into depends on the situation. Is your character running or standing? Is he on the top turnbuckle? Is your opponent groggy after you laid the smackdown on him? Or is he on the mat asking for an additional beating?
Because of the simple interface, you have a choice of up to ten moves for a given situation (the button alone and the four directions plus a given direction). This makes it very easy to play, and very repetitive because you wind up using the same moves over and over again.
Just as in pro wrestling, most attacks really do little to your opponent. You can smack your foe as much as you want, but you will never get a pin unless you perform your finishing move. To do this, you need to (1) fill up your Smackdown meter and (2) get your opponent groggy enough for the computer to let you do your finisher. The Smackdown meter fills up very slowly, making for some long matches (even if you are completely dominating the match). When your opponent is in position for your special attack, the word “SMACK” will flash over your Smackdown meter, telling you that it is time to start jamming on the L1 button and to enjoy the theatrics.
Smackdown has its share of gimmick matches. You can choose from normal one-on-one (with or without managers), tag team, handicap (1 on 2 or 1 on 3), cage, hardcore, anywhere falls, special referee, battle royals, or royal rumble matches. While that is a long list, the basic gameplay and its limitations remains unchanged.
You can opt to play exhibition matches, play the season mode, or create your own PPV events. Exhibition matches are one time grudge matches you can set up against the computer or other players. Create a PPV allows you to make up a show, pitting your favorite wrestlers against each other in matches of your choosing.
The real meat and potatoes of Smackdown is the Season mode. Here, you pick a wrestler and wrestle in shows on your quest for heavyweight gold. A season year is made up of 12 shows, each show having 6 matches. Which match you wind up in is determined by your wrestler’s rating with a bit of randomness from the computer. You can choose to watch any match that you are not participating in. When your turn comes up, you can choose to play or to let the computer randomly determine the winner (not a good thing usually). Skipping through matches is quick and easy, unless a dreaded cut scene randomly shows up.
Smackdown does try to emulate the actual TV broadcasts in telling a continuous, never ending story. Using various cut scenes, the game tries to set up feuds between wrestlers and hint at some evil scheming in the locker rooms. While that is the intent, Smackdown does a terrible job pulling it off. In the world of sports entertainment, good feuds between wrestlers are stories that are developed slowly. The level of fan excitement for the feud is built up over time until it reaches a feverish pace at next pay-per-view event. Really good feuds in wrestling can last for months to years.
The feuds in Smackdown are thrown together with no attempt at developing a story. The cut scenes are randomly selected by the computer using randomly selected wrestlers. Hence, the “story” in the game is just a jumbled mess instead of the carefully crafted, man’s soap opera that is prefessional wrestling. To make matters worse, cut scenes take as long a time to load as actual matches, and you cannot skip them or turn them off! What a waste of time!
The game has three difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, or Hard. Easy is pathetic; the computer is literally stands there and does its best to get up quickly so that you can smack it down some more. Normal is also pretty easy; the computer fights back this time. Hard is a big leap over the other settings; the computer performs a LOT of reversals. You wind up finding a move that works and continuously repeating it until you can do your finisher.
Characters
Smackdown features a host of WWF wrestlers, including crowd favorites such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Chyna, and the Hardy Boyz. Each wrestler has his/her signature moves and finishers, but there is a lot of overlap as well.
Character balance is a problem here. Heavyweight, main event players such as Stone Cold and Triple H are tough SOBs and can easily manhandle anyone lower than them. Lightweights such as Edge and Christian are not on equal footing with the main eventers. This is not that big a deal against the computer (more on the AI later), but it is a big deal when taking on other players.
Different wrestlers have different finishers. Each finisher must be done from a certain position. Some are done behind the opponent. Some in front. Some are done from the top turnbuckle. If you are using a character that needs to be behind your opponent or on the top turnbuckle to perform the finisher, you could be in trouble. Your opponent might come to their senses before you can position yourself! This tips the game balance more for characters who perform their finishers while facing their opponent or with their foe on the mat.
Instead of dealing with some of the character balance problems, you can create your own wrestling personality. Unfortunately, the Create A Wrestler mode is VERY limited. When creating your look, you can select a head, torso, and legs from the different models used by the other wrestlers. There is very little flexibility here. The moves list is barely expanded from those already used by the in game wrestlers. In short, you are really just taking the parts you like best from other wrestlers (including their appearance) and putting it together.
On the up side, after you create your wrestler, you can take him through the Preseason. Here, the game plays like a mini role playing game. You performance and decisions can translate into character traits. Traits describe characteristics (powerful, wealthy) and relationships (being on good/bad terms with specific wrestlers). Relationship traits are supposed to affect a character when you take them through an actual season, but it rarely plays out that way. The Preseason mode, unfortunately, does not contain any random elements to it. The Preseason mode is a good idea, but some randomness would have made it a blast to play through.
Graphics and Sound
Smackdown does an admirable job in the graphics department. The arenas are nicely done, mimicking a sold out WWF show. Set designs for the various shows and PPV events (Raw is War, Smackdown, Wrestlemania, etc.) are recreated well.
The wrestler models overall look good and very similar to their real counterparts. The faces look accurate, down to the Rock’s People’s Eyebrow. Wrestlers are easily distinguished by their trademark costumes. The animations are well done overall. All of the moves look very convincing (some moreso than they do on TV) and equal time (and close-ups) given for showmanship with flashier moves such as the Rock’s People’s Elbow and the Big Show’s Showstopper.
The only real graphical letdown is in the cutscenes. Watching the wrestlers talk is just plain ugly. They could have used an extra two or three textures to mimic the characters speaking.
In the sound department, Smackdown is a mixed bag. The majority of the audio is underwhelming, quite the opposite of pro wrestling. There is no color commentary (for better or worse). Wrestlers do not actually speak or use any of their famous catchphrases. The crowd sounds muffled, although it is nice that the volume increases as they get into the match. Background music during matches and cutscenes is repetitious, uninspired, and easily forgettable.
The best audio comes from the wrestler’s theme music and video introductions. All are very accurately replicated from the live shows. The video introductions are very well done and give the game an “in-your-face” feeling. The videos play in the background as the polygonal characters strut their stuff on the way to the squared circle. Very nicely done.
Final Thoughts
While Smackdown is arguably the best wrestling game for the Playstation, it is still a very average game. The controls are too easy to master, and there is a lack of variety in each wrestler’s repertoire. This makes the game very repetitive after a few plays. This is one game that will be gathering dust in the corner of my gaming library.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
gorocco
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Location: Stony Brook, NY
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