The Near Perfect Wrestling Experience
Written: Dec 10 '00 (Updated Dec 10 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast, fun arcade-style game play; feels like wrestling
Cons: Lame music; no voices; few and repetitive cut scenes
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| SolidSnake316's Full Review: WWF Smackdown for PlayStation 1 |
After WWF Wrestlemania came out on Nintendo 64, Playstation gamers were stuck without a legitimate WWF wrestling game. Attitude wasn't cutting it; it was slow, sloppy, and dated. Enter SmackDown!.
What a way for THQ to use the WWF license. THQ and developer Yuke's let loose this beast and boy was it great! Awesome graphics, speedy game play, and true-to-life mannerisms ( especially The Rock) gave the game a great deal of polish. The game really felt like a WWF event. Entrances, moves, and taunts were all highly accurate. The crowd is great, but lacks any chants like in Warzone. Games are so captivating though, and full of life. Jumping in the ring with a friend is great fun.
The Season Mode is great as well, with interesting cards, and some backstage happenings. Created wrestlers, and the Pre-Season mode round out this awesome package, with standard match types, as well as Special Referee and Hardcore matches that let you go backstage and brawl.
The game does have some flaws, though. The Pre-Season Mode has lots of cut scenes (but is annoying to have to do if you want to get a created wrestler in the Season Mode), while the Season Mode has few, and repetitive, cut scenes.
The difficulty is off, too. On Easy, your opponent just stands there half the time, and on Normal, the computer performs counters way too much. Hard is a good challenge, but gets frustrating after a few matches.
Music is annoying, and without the music, the dull sound effects could put you to sleep. Also, the lack of any voices, except for a generic referee, is disappointing.
Don't get me wrong. Smackdown! is a really highly polished and fun game, but it has a few flaws that will leave hardcore video game and wrestling fans(i.e. myself) a little disappointed; that is after you play it for about six hours straight, however. Stick to normal playing hours, and you'll have lots of fun. Once Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and eye strain set in, you'll be a little negative too. Excellent job, Yuke's. Looking forward to the sequel.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
SolidSnake316
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Location: Providence, RI
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Long time video gamer since the SNES days. I try and judge games well.
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