WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth - Playstation 2

WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth by THQ This is the latest in THQ's seemingly never ending series of officially licenced WWE games, and their second outing for the PS2. Many felt that the previous WWE game was little more than an enhanced PS1 title in almost every aspect, but this time THQ have pulled out all the stops for the latest grappling game... The game offers a variety of modes to play ranging from the single match Exhibition mode to the extensive Season mode, with the ever-popular Create A Wrestler mode allowing you to create an unlimited range of wrestlers - real or fictional - or even try to recreate you and your friends to use in the game. The first thing that strikes you with Shut Your Mouth are the enhancements that have been made over the previous game. Most of the issues that were raised by fans about Just Bring It have been address and pretty much every aspect of the game has been revised, improved or redesigned from the ground up. For starters, there has been a massive expansion since the previous game and - not counting the create a wrestler mode - there are a staggering 60 playable WWE superstars to choose from - over 25% more than the last game - namely:- The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, The Undertaker, Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Kane, Booker T, Chris Benoit, Edge, Christian, Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Lita, Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, William Regal, Lance Storm, Diamond Dallas Page, Stephanie McMahon, Vince McMahon, Randy Orton, Faarooq, Bradshaw, Test, Big Show, Trish Stratus, Tajiri, Rikishi, Ric Flair, Stacy Keibler, Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, The Big Valbowski, Chuck, Billy, Albert, Shawn Stasiak, Tazz, The Hurricane, Molly Holly, Torrie Wilson, Spike Dudley, Brock Lesnar, Rhyno, Raven, Maven, X-Pac, Jazz, Eddie Guerrero, Billy Kidman, Hardcore Holly, Rico, Ivory, Al Snow, Mark Henry, Scotty 2 Hotty, Shawn Michaels and Goldust!! Unlike the last game, all of these are available from the start, although there are extra costumes that can be unlocked for many of these in the Season Mode, and some wrestlers that can only be used in the Exhibition Mode until they are unlocked as well. Naturally, there will be some characters who will be out of date, but this is only to be expected with the constantly evolving storylines in the WWE. What has been done is that the Season Mode is set around the time when the WWE was split into Raw and Smackdown and with the introduction of the nWo, and the line-up tries to reflect that as do the storylines in the game itself. Saying that, you are not just limited to the characters listed above. As before, there are some superstars hidden away in the Create A Wrestler mode that can only be fully created once you have unlocked the appropriate body parts and moves in the Season mode. I won't go into too much detail here, but from what I can tell this includes Rey Mysterio, Mick Foley (several incarnations!) and many more... but I'll come onto this later. Moving on to the game modes, and there is a bewildering choice available to the player. The main choice covers two game modes - Exhibition and Season. The Exhibition mode allows you to play a single match in a vast array of game modes on offer. These range from a traditional one-on-one match, to the 30-man Royal Rumble, with a lot more in between. Some of the highlights include: Ladder Match - where you can only win by climbing a ladder to retrieve the belt suspended from the arena ceiling; Slobber Knocker - where you have to defeat as many opponents as you can against the clock; Hardcore - beat your opponent senseless with a variety of weapons that are scattered around the arena in a no-holds-barred battle; Six Man Tag - two teams of three battle it out and, for the first time in a Smackdown game, you can have up to six people playing using the Multi-Tap. My personal favourite has to be the Hell In A Cell match. In this, the wrestlers are locked in a giant cage surrounding the ring and you use your normal attacking moves, weapons, and even the cage itself to inflict damage on your opponents. You can also unlock the cage door and climb on top of it and fight high above the ring. You can throw your opponent off, and if the cell is hit enough times, even throw your opponent on to the top of the cage and watch them crash through and onto the canvas below! Unlike the last WWE game, the cell really does look like the normal Hell In A Cell matches with a gap between the ring and the cell, and another improvement has been made (that is also in the similar Cage matches) where the cage itself becomes semi-transparent so it never obscures the action - something that was a major flaw last time. Those aren't the only matches on offer though, and it's pretty safe to say that you can recreate almost any match that you might see in the WWE on television, with pretty much any Superstar you want. There's not much better than watching Raw or Smackdown then loading this up and playing the same matches you have just been watching! One thing that struck me while playing this are all the small touches that have been added to the game to enhance the TV-style presentation, or to just improve the gameplay. In the Ladder Match, for example, when your wrestler grabs hold of the belt, he hangs suspended from the belt for a few seconds before dropping to the ground to claim the victory, in which time you are open to attack from your opponent. The main improvement to the game is the revised story mode. This time around, once you have selected your wrestler, you embark on a whirlwind epic game lasting a massive two seasons. At the start of the game, you take part in a draft where the Superstars are split between the Raw and Smackdown brands, and it's after this point that most of your matches will stick to the one show, although if you manage to become the WWE Undisputed Champion, you earn the right to fight on both shows. The game follows a massive array of storylines and plots, most inspired by or taken from the show itself, and between fights you will be able to engage in conversations with other wrestlers building alliances or making enemies, chat to non-playable characters such as Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler, and even to the co-owners of the WWE - Ric Flair and Vince McMahon. All of the decisions you make during the story elements affect the plot of the game, and the story mode has been tailored to each Superstar so no two games will be alike. Depending on who you choose at the start of the game, you will be entered at a different level of competition. If you start with The Rock, you will be entered at the highest level and will have to fight to maintain your status. Others will be in lower ranked leagues such as the European, Hardcore etc. and you will have to work your way up. If you enter your own created wrestler, they will start at the bottom and won't even get a proper title shot until their second season. You do this by earning points for winning matches out of a maximum of 99 points. The higher your status, the better matches you'll be able to take part in. As the story progresses there will be some matches you will not be able to enter unless you have enough points so you have to try to win as many matches as possible (although you DON'T need to win them all). The storylines themselves develop slowly during the game and the season runs week by week over the course of the game. Each month, starting in April 2002, you take place in four shows of either Raw or Smackdown, each consisting of three matches. Of these you can choose to watch the others, interfere, skip them and just get the results or even play them taking on the role of another Superstar in the middle of your game. At the end of each month, there is the major Pay Per View, and the season continues right up until Wrestlemania in March. Then, the new year starts for the second and final season. The ability to get involved in matches other than your own really adds a great deal of depth and variety to the gameplay. You never know what is coming up for each match, and beig able to play as other characters extends the lifespan of the game immensely. As you play, between matches and shows, there are cut scenes where characters go to the ring and make announcements and challenges, and conversations you can have with other characters outside the ring as well. This can be anything from The Hurricane talking about life as a superhero, or Kurt Angle challenging you to a Hair Match! As the game progresses, the rivalry between Raw and Smackdown develops and eventually, Vince McMahon introduces the nWo into the WWE including the return of Hulk Hogan, who immediately starts an ongoing battle with The Rock. This eventually culminates (if you are lucky) with a recreation of Wrestlemania X8 and finally sees Hogan joining forces with The Rock! Other Superstars join during the course of the game as well, and others switch allegiance between shows and form tag teams, friendships, and make enemies as well giving you a real sense of an ongoing evolving storyline. As well as all of the matches, there is another point to the Season Mode - unlocking the game's hidden features. Unlike the last game, you can only unlock items by winning matches in all of the Pay Per Views, and there are enough hidden items on offer that you will need to complete about six or seven seasons to unlock everything. However, as you win matches, you will be give a choice of what you unlock from hidden movies, to alternative costumes, parts and moves for the Create A Wrestler mode, and even unlocking characters for the Season Mode that are normally only available in Exhibition Mode (namely, the members of the nWo). So that's the basic game modes covered. But what else has been added to the game? To be frank, a vast amount! First, the special "Smackdown" moves that you can use on your opponents have been improved in several ways. As with the previous game, these are built up during attacks and taunts and once the Smackdown meter fills up, you gain an extra move you can use. Once you put one of these moves on your opponent, you can hold down the L1 button and the camera will change to provide some dramatic Matrix-style "bullet-time" effects. If that wasn't enough, you can now use your opponents finishing moves against them. This is achieved by waiting until you have two units on the Smackdown meter and using both for a single move. This is a great addition and can provide some hilarious moments - just imagine seeing The Rock against Scotty 2 Hotty and winning the match after using The Worm on Scotty!! In a big change to the story mode from last time, you can now hold multiple titles for your Superstar and it's often the case that you won't know what title you are defending from one Pay Per View to the next. Also, as I mentioned earlier, many of the wrestlers now have more than one costume that you can choose from and, in the case of Kurt Angle, more than one hairstyle! The Create A Wrestler mode has also been significantly enhanced. You now get thumbnail previews of all of the body parts and costumes available, there are more hidden moves stored away to create new characters, the animation and entrances have been improved visually, and you can even morph the physial structure of the wrestlers faces and even age them! With this and the range of parts on offer, you should be able to create almost any WWE wrestler new and old, and pretty much anyone else you can imagine as well. To go with them, there is a good selection of ring names for the commentators to use, many of Superstars not in the game, and if not, I'm sure you'll find something suitable to use. The controls generally use the same method as the previous game and are intuitive and easy to pick up and play. You'll soon find yourself mastering the basic controls, allowing you to concentrate on playing the game and learning the vast range of moves on offer for each wrestler. Also, for the first time, you can now play with up to six human players in a range of different matches. This is a great addition to the game, although it does come with one slight drawback - in this game, there can only be a maximum of six wrestlers on screen at once compared with eight last time. For most game modes, this isn't really a problem, but the Royal Rumble does lose something with fewer wrestlers. Saying that, the controls have been enhanced during the game and there is no longer a need to use the R2 button to select which opponent to attack as an auto-targetting system has been introduced so your Superstar will concentrate on the wrestler nearest to them. It's only a minor change but it does make for more fluid gameplay. There are a few other new features too. There are more weapons to choose from to use in the game, and you can now look underneath te ring to find extra weapons to use on your opponents. In addition, you can climb onto the announce tables and use various throws and physically put your opponents through them! If that wasn't enough, for the more vicious amongst you, you an remove the pads from the turnbuckles and even use weapons like chairs for enhanced Smackdown moves - all lethal stuff. This game is incredibly playable and it's one of the most addictive and compulsive games I have played on the PS2. What really makes Smackdown: SYM stand out is the incredible sense of satisfaction you get whenever you win a match. In Exhibition mode, you get the wrestlers usual animations and music playing, but in Season mode, there are often additional sequences including many superbly recreated from shows and Pay Per Views. One of my personal favourites is the climax to Wrestlemania X8 between The Rock and Hulk Hogan when Rock encourages Hogan to play up to the crowd after his defeat. After that, they become tag team partners but the cut scenes really do reward the player for sticking with the game. Okay, now onto the technical side. The graphics have been greatly improved over the last Smackdown game with all the wrestlers being created with twice the number of polygons as last time. They are better animated, are more detailed and really look like their on-screen counterparts. Even the arenas are stunning with plenty of variety, superb recreations of Raw and Smackdown, as well as all the Pay Per Views. One of the most impressive is Backlash with the large metal prongs being fully animated on stage by the Titantron. The other areas are just as impressive with WWE New York, parking lots, a subway station and many more (and you can even ride the subway if you like!). Then we have the entrances. All of them have been faithfully recreated for the game, but the most impressive aspect are the improved pyrotechnic effects. There are more realistic fireworks and smoke effects than before, and the flames have to be seen to be believed... the entrance for Booker T is absolutely stunning and the first time you see it your jaw will hit the floor. There are one or two minor problems with the graphics with the occasional instance where characters move through scenery or their heads seem to be embedded in the ring, but these are only minor and don't detract from the game in any way. Sound is just as good with some great sound effects, plenty of music and good commentary from Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. The commentary isn't as detailed as last time, but it is varied, has lots of personality and there is even commentary during the cut scenes in the Season mode. Some of the highlights are some of the remarks made by Jerry Lawler keeping in line with his commentary on Raw and in the Pay Per Views. As well as that, as the wrestlers approach the ring, they are introduced by resident WWE ring announcer Howard Finkel which adds a nice touch to the game. Another enhancement with sound is during the Season mode where we are now treated to some small bits of speech from some of the Superstars including Hulk Hogan, The Rock, and Booker T. However, there is one aspect of the sound that I am not happy with - the entrance music. For some of the wrestlers, for reasons unknown, the actual music hasn't been used and it does detract from the game slightly. Most are there, but there are a couple that have been changed and perhaps it might have been better to just include wrestlers whose music could be used. Saying that, some have more than one including Hogan (who has the classic "Real American" song hidden away), and Kurt Angle who has one version of his song with the words "You suck!" added to it! The crowd sounds are also better with more interaction. They respond to what is happening more with countdowns for the Royal Rumble, chants of "woooooo" when wrestlers are hit, and even chants for specific wrestlers. As with the other WWF titles before this, people who aren't wrestling fans won't get as much out of this game as a WWE fan would, but even so, it's still a great beat-em-up with plenty of variety and far more playable characters than any other game on the PS2. It's certainly a game you won't get bored of quickly. Overall, depsite it's flaws, this is still a great game and it is arguably the best representation of wrestling yet on any platform. If you are a WWE fan, this should be an essential purchase. Not got a PS2? Well, go and buy one so you can play this great game. There is so much on offer here you will never grow tired of playing this and you'll always find something new in the story mode, and if by some strange reason, you do grow tired of everything on offer, you can always extend the game's lifespan by creating your own wrestlers. What are you waiting for? Go get this now! Overall - 91% - Reviewer: Simon Plumbe