WWE SmackDown: Shut Your Mouth (PS2)

 

 

Create your own review

For the past 4 years THQ and Yukes have worked on producing the WWE licensed games. Each game that has been released has been an improvement on the previous game in the series. WWE Smackdown 4 Shut Your Mouth, takes the Smackdown series to new levels. WWE Smackdown 4 Shut Your Mouth is easily the game Just Bring It Should Have been. The roster itself consists of 65 wrestlers ranging from Stone Cold, Rock, Triple H, RVD, Brock Lesnar right down to the lower card wrestlers. Everyone currently on the WWE roster is set to be included in the game making it the largest roster in a WWE game yet.
The graphics have been improved greatly each wrestler is made up of 3000 polygons, most people might not know what this means but if you look at a character in this game and the previous one you'll see a remarkable improvement.
The game also includes new features to make the wrestling action for the first time in the Smackdown series you can do moves with weapons. I don't mean hit someone with a chair, I'm talking about doing moves like the Van Daminator, Taker's Chair to Throat and DDT's on the Chairs. Also the game features a much better reversal system which means you can now counter your opponents moves and even go as far as stealing your opponent's finishers to use against them.
What this game has is attention to detail. Every Wrestler has several outfits, their entrance movie and music are as you would find on WWE TV programs, the entrances are accuratly modelled for example RVD has his pyro and famous 'R-V-D' taunt, Triple H has his usually entrance but in this game you see the water being poured from the bottle and when he spits it out it is greatly improved. Wrestlers also have character specific title entrances, Austin drags his belt to the ring, Taker wears his round his neck as he rides to the ring. Plus in this game champions will wear the belt in any match, not just title matches, to add to the realism.
One of the things that I truly like about the game is how individual the characters are. Every wrestler is modelled exactly on their real life counterpart, even going as far as how they stand, walk and move has been re-created. The movesets each wrestler has is designed to be specific to each wrestler, for example RVD has a lot of high flying moves and his signature kicks and flips. Also the way counter and react to moves is specific, throw a punch or kick at RVD he'll catch the arm or leg step over it with his left leg and go into his trademark heel kick. The Undertaker will take the punch or kick but not react to it, instead he'll shrug his shoulders and return a shot of his own. Hogan will do the famous 'Hulk Up' routine.
This is incredible and it makes you wonder what the next game in the series will like. How can they top this?

I, like most WWE fans, was disappointed with the previous Smackdown game, Just Bring It. It didn't seem to have advanced the series a great deal since the excellent Know Your Role on PSOne. Because of this, I was unsure whether or not to buy the latest edition for fear that it may be yet more of the same, but boy was I wrong!
The leap from edition 3 to 4 of the series has been very big. As expected, graphics have improved, entrances look amazing and we have the chance to play as RVD, Booker T, Brock Lesnar etc. for the first time. However, what really makes this a must have for WWE fans is the season mode. The memory of Just Bring It's ridiculously short story mode has thankfully been erased with undoubtedly the best season mode seen on a wrestling game. After you pick your character and choose whether to be a Raw or Smackdown wrestler you are immediately thrown into a storyline which culminated in a big match at the first PPV, Backlash. The developers have clearly put a lot of time and thought into creating the storyline elements and it works beautifully. Real life stories such as Triple H's return from injury and the debut of the nWo come into it at the right times (prior to the Royal Rumble and No Way Our respectively) and the Raw vs Smackdown story incorporates lots of elements of 2001's Invasion storyline, even having an elimination match at Survivor Series to see which brand survives. You can choose to play a second year of stories too once you finish your first Wrestlemania, which will allow more hidden characters and elements to be revealed (some wrestlers aren't playable in season mode until you unlock them eg. Triple H, Shawn Michaels, nWo). It takes a lot of time to play through the mode, which is exactly how it should be.
A plea to all WWE fans being cautious about this game - buy it. You can't help but enjoy it.

Here is a review by somebody who has actually played the game (solidly for 4 days!) and as such I'll tell you what I would have liked to know. Firstly the roster, there are 60 wrestlers and Rey Mysterio is not one of them, neither is John Cena, Batista or Eric Bischoff. Basically this is the roster from around this summer because although the Vengeance arena from July is un-lockable in the game, the Vengeance arena from December is used in season mode in July, so they had time to create the arena, but not put it in the season mode. This is also probably why Stone Cold is in the game, they knew he was gone by June but as he is a big part of the season mode (he has to choose RAW or Smackdown! And posters of him appear backstage and outside the arena) they could not remove him from the game and still make the release date. The most up to date story line is Shawn Michaels versus Triple H in a street-fight at Summerslam. The much hyped season mode starts in April 2002, and goes up until Wrestlemania 2004! You wrestle 4 shows a month with your chosen wrestler (RAW, Smackdown! Or both if your the Champ, only ever 4 a month though, so if you're the champ that's 2 of each) and up to 14 Pay-Per-Views a year (Insurrextion & Rebellion are optional). By my maths that's up to 124 matches a year with your chosen wrestler! Last years Season mode was like 3 matches! That doesn't include the other matches, some of which you can play as another wrestler or interfere with your own. Each show, be it TV or PPV is made up of 3 matches, so that's 372 matches that take place over the course of the 2-year season mode. Title wise it's the same deal again, it's the same titles that were around in the early summer. So that's 1 set of tag champs, one world's champ (the undisputed, not WCW belt), Intercontinental, European, Hardcore, and Cruiserweight (although the Light-Heavyweight is pictured on the title screen, the champ wears the old WCW Cruiserweight belt to the ring). The champions at the start of game are Christian & Lance Storm, The Undertaker, RVD, Regal, Bradshaw, & The Hurricane, so you get an idea of when the programmers cut off point for changes were. From playing through the entire season the old WCW belt is not in the game at all despite some early screen shots. All of the wrestlers are unlocked but their different outfits aren't, so if you win at a PPV you have a choice of items to Unlock. For example, at the No Mercy PPV you could unlock Shawn Michaels other outfits if you completing year 2, or two other wrestlers outfits be it year 1 or 2, or moves sets, create parts, or the PPV arena you were just victorious in. Michaels has 2 outfits, jeans & nWo shirt or jeans, white t-shirt & cowboy hat, so no tights from 98 & before. So the game only allows recent outfits, so even though I have yet to unlock The Undertaker, I doubt he has his old black tights from 99 and before. Hogan has 2 red & yellow outfits (different bandana's) and 1 nWo black & white outfit like he'd have worn when he returned in February. Most wrestlers have 2 or 3 outfits, I've only found X-Pac so far that only has 1 and I'd guess that was because he was a late edition to the game. Most of the big stars have 3, The Rock has his tights, track suit & leather outfit, Austin has his all black tights, black tights with red knee brace and cut off jeans and What? T-shirt, Triple H has 1 set of tights, jeans & white Triple H T-shirt, and jeans, jean jacket over black leather jacket and T-shirt combo. Jericho has 3 outfits, 2 are variations of his pink & black tights, one with shirt, one without where he has a beard and his hair tied back, the other he has no beard and his hair down. Play ability wise this is the best yet, advances have been made to improve things without spoiling what was right in the 1st place. For example, you used to press grapple to pull up an opponent, you still do, but now if you press grapple twice your opponent will have his back to you, this makes it much easier to do special moves from behind, like the Angle-Slam. To reverse you press square for a punch or kick but square and a direction to reverse a grapple, instead of just square for everything like last year. This adds depth as you must consider you opponent, like Stone Cold throws alot of kicks and punches, whereas others grapple more. Weapons are more interactive than ever, grapple whilst holding a chair and you DDT your opponent on it, stun an opponent whilst holding one and you can do a Smackdown! Move with it. All in all, this game is better in every way compared to those that went before it. It looks the best yet, Booker T, RVD, Hogan, Shawn Michaels, all look identical to how they do in real life. It plays better than ever, the options season mode, and roster is the best yet. I mean when has there ever been a time when you have the top ECW stars (RVD, Rhyno, Tazz, The Dudley Boyz, etc) the top WCW stars (DDP, Booker T, Hogan, Flair, the nWo) and the top WWF stars (Rock, Austin, Triple H, Undertaker, Kane) all in the same game? I mean, each year we've come to expect better graphics, more options, enhanced game-play, and as such this game is the best yet, but if you consider that we'll probably never have a roster as good as this again, then this just might be the best ever!

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 44 customer reviews...

 

5.0 out of 5 stars present for a friend
This was given as a present for a friend. They were very pleased with it and have been playing with it ever since Christmas.

Published 1 month ago by bluebird

1.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not anymore
I brought this game to add to my collection of WWE/F stuff to find that it wasnt very good compared to wwe sd vs raw or here comes the pain. Read more

Published on 25 Mar 2006 by dontfeedphil

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT
Not bieng a fan of wrestling for some years (I can't believe I liked it) this game is still so much fun. Great graphics, 'career' mode and 'create a wrestler' mode. Read more

Published on 6 Jan 2006 by Yb_90

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST WRESTLING GAME SO FAR!
The best wrestling game so far basically because I think the storyline is cool the fight between Smackdown lead by Vince McMahon and Raw lead by Ric Flair is cool afterall I think... Read more

Published on 14 Sep 2004 by Sam W

4.0 out of 5 stars How far they have come...
So, it's got loads of characters, loads of match types, a FULL season mode, so what are you waiting for? Read more

Published on 25 Feb 2004 by fhjas

3.0 out of 5 stars Lays The Smacketh Down
Right, so this franchise has been going on for years now, and after 3 editions of Smackdown on the playstation and ps2, a fourth one is enough to make you pull your hair out in... Read more

Published on 11 Dec 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars SHUT YOUR MOUTH XBOX!!
When my friends were talking about it at school i became very anxious to play it.And when i did i thought wow!!.Although last years JUST BRING IT was very good this was better. Read more

Published on 22 Sep 2003 by MC Macardi

2.0 out of 5 stars WWE Smackdown ? or Letdown !
This is the first wrestling game that I own, and I have to say that it is simply brilliant in all respects bar 1 ! Read more

Published on 1 Aug 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great One
If you want a mixture of great moves, great graphics, great entraces, great superstars, such as Stone Cold, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, & sexy big chested divas such as Lita, Trish,... Read more

Published on 27 July 2003 by Mr. Matthew Gilchrist

2.0 out of 5 stars Good for a while, but..............
Being a bit of a saturday morning wrestling fan and recently purchasing the PS2 with this game at the same time, I couldn't help but think that it didn't live up to my... Read more

Published on 17 July 2003 by spanking_monkey9

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 44 customer reviews...

Search Listmania!