WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth PS2 Review @ Gaming Target

Written by Adam Woolcott on December 18, 2002

Review: At least here you can make sure Triple H doesn't make all the shows revolve around him.

Despite the downturn in the wrestling business, with lower ratings and a lack of interesting characters, wrestling video games is still a big part of the industry. THQ and Yuke's continues this tradition with their yearly Smackdown update Ц this time, WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth. Last year's Smackdown, Just Bring It, was a large disappointment to many, with a lacking career mode and a lack of excitement (along with forcing a 4 MB save to the PS2 memory card). The incredibly deep Create-A-Wrestler was the only saving grace for what wound up being a decent, but not outstanding wrestling game.

Thankfully, Smackdown: SYM is done right. All the problems with the previous Smackdown have been fixed, and what was good about the game has been tweaked to probably the highest quality levels it will reach. While there's no argument that the Smackdown engine that's been used for 2 PSX and 2 PS2 games is starting to show its age, at least THQ and Yuke's managed what's possibly the best rendition of the franchise when the game still has its legs Ц but for next year (or whenever a new Smackdown game is created), there needs to be some major overhauling before this gets way too stale.

Naturally, Smackdown is loaded with multitudes of match types. Almost every kind of WWE match is here, from basic one on one bouts to 3 and 4-way fights, TLC (Tables, Ladders, & Chairs) matches, steel cage matches, and the new holy grail, the Hell in the Cell match, along with all the other match types in-between. If you're buying this for the multiplayer aspect, you'll be finding a lot to play here.

Shut Your Mouth has about 50 WWE superstars, and has one of the more accurate rosters in some time Ц the only real addition who's not in the WWE right now is Steve Austin. Besides him, you can play as the top WWE stars like The Rock, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, and Brock Lesnar (I wouldn't call Tripe-le H a star). There's also an assortment of the WWE Divas, so now you too can re-enact your favorite cat-fight, or create your own.

Of course, if one of your favorite stars isn't in the game, you can just create them. Smackdown's CAW mode is as sharp as ever, and gives you practically limitless possibilities. Many times, there's even clothes and parts that match old stars (like Bret Hart & his brother the late Owen Hart), so creating them is less painful. Also, there's, as usual, a bunch of УgenericФ movesets to use as an outline, but they're really accurate movesets of many wrestlers not in the game (but not as robust as last year, which had tons of WCW & ECW stars to work with). Unfortunately, the password system which would let you create a random password for the combinations that you used to create your wrestler, so you don't have to write everything down was scrapped for some reason. Thus, you'll just have to post your creations on the Internet for all to see.

Added to the mix are Create-A-Taunt, and the brand new Create-An-Animation. Each are pretty simple to describe, and offer quite a bit of leeway to create all new things within the game for your created wrestler. Still no Create-A-Move, and I doubt that will ever happen.

The biggest part of SYM isn't the CAW though. Instead, it's the Career mode. Remember last year, when you only had to wrestle a handful of matches and boom, it's WrestleMania and you're fighting for the title? Yeah, it sucked. Thankfully, this year is radically different. So different, it's actually the best career mode in any wrestling game ever Ц though that's admittedly not saying a whole lot.

The Career mode allows you to follow a combination of real WWE storylines, and the ones created by your own actions. At the beginning of the season, the actual WWE draft takes place. Whom you pick for depends on who you choose for a wrestler (some, like Michaels and Hogan, aren't selectable at first, they must be unlocked to play as in Career) and what brand you decide to wrestle in (Smackdown or Raw). From there you can select the top 10 wrestlers for your faction, and the rest are just divided by the computer.

From there, you start competing in your weekly program, and the pay-per-view events. Once this starts, the amount of options kick in. While not truly free-roaming in the sense, you can do almost anything you want. When it's time for feuds, you can either go into them, or not. For instance, in my own career with Austin, I'm at a point where I'm fighting the Big Show for my WWE Undisputed Champtionship. He won King of the Ring and thus earned a shot, so no arguments. However, I was given a chance to either pick a fight with Show, or form an УallianceФ of respect. I decided to go with the alliance, and wound up teaming with him for some matches before fighting for the title. Most likely if I didn't go that route I would be fighting tag matches against him. Other things are possible too Ц if you want to go down and interrupt other matches going on, you're free to do so.

Other than that, you can challenge for titles and see your rankings by seeing the owner of your brand. The more matches you win the higher your rankings get, and eventually you can challenge for a championship (if you aren't ready the owner will blow you off). It's really a solid way to do things, and it makes it feel like you're actually climbing the ranks of the WWE win by win, without political forces pushing you downwards like the real WWE.

And thankfully, if you win a title, it doesn't take all that long before you really get into the mix. The difficulty level ramps up a bit when you're the WWE champion, so holding on to the title really is harder than the climb to get it. The game doesn't end when you win the title, in a lot of ways it actually begins then.

Unlockables are also handled in Career mode. After each big PPV show, you're given the option to select one of the cards on the screen. You know what each one is, but it's a matter of which one you want more than the others. Most consist of unlocking the arena, unlocking a move list, unlocking CAW parts, and occasionally some unlock more characters. Naturally, WrestleMania unlockables are the most important.

If it wasn't for the career mode, however, this game wouldn't be quite as good. The gameplay of SYM is still very solid, though by now, it's a 3-year-old engine and many of the moves are the same. Nothing has really changed, though now you can finally use the analog stick to control movement. The engine has been sped up a bit, so the action is more frantic, but Smackdown veterans will get the gist of things in a matter of matches. Truly, without the vast amount of things to do, the gameplay engine wouldn't be enough to carry this game for one more year Ц instead the modes of play make the game remain as addictive and fun as ever Ц just with a tad of dщjр vu. The computer AI has been adjusted a bit and is quite a bit smarter, but once the pattern is figured out, it's the same old (but still good) Smackdown.

The graphics of Shut Your Mouth have been overhauled quite a bit, and no longer resemble Smackdown 2 with some pretty polish. The wrestlers look pretty realistic and have animations that resemble the real wrestlers. The created wrestlers carry a bit less of a look to them, but not as badly as recent years, when you could tell between a created wrestler and a programmed one in seconds.

The action is fast and arcade-ish, and the engine keeps up, with a good frame rate and minimal (if any) slowdown. The crowds are better detailed and match up pretty well to the rest of the game. The fully detailed arena concourse/consession areas too are designed well and look good in the first person perspective.

One of the weaknesses of last year was the awful sound Ц this year, it's much improved. While the good stuff like wrestler entrance music is great, the in-game music has been overhauled and comes off pretty good.

Smackdown's announcing has made a change for the better as well. Gone is the dreadful combination of last year, instead replaced by the WWE Raw team of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. Instead of the insanely repetitive and annoying commentary from last year, Ross and Lawler speak only when needed, and almost sound in the background the whole time. It resembles the announcing style of some of the old WCW wrestling games like WCW Mayhem, which is always a good thing.

Unfortunately, there's still no voice from the wrestlers themselves, and the crowd noise is kept at a minumum. Maybe next year.