WWE Smackdown!: Shut Your Mouth
Reviewed by Paul Wooster

Remembering back to when I first bought a PS2, I was chuffed to hear of Smackdown arriving on it. Unfortunately, THAT Smackdown, ‘Just Bring It’, was pretty lousy compared to Smackdown 2 on PSOne. This wasn’t the Next-Gen Smackdown debut I wanted! And then a year later…..‘WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth’ body slammed it’s way onto PS2, totally redeeming THQ for the total poo that was Just Bring It! The gameplay was a huge improvement over its predecessor, which had next to no Season Mode; In fact, SYM has a large 2 year Season mode. While that doesn’t sound all that much, it seems to go on for ages when you’re playing it, and I’ve been missing it because all the Smackdown’s that followed only have the one year to fight through. The season for SYM is definitely one of my favourites, not just being 2 years long but the free roaming backstage between matches was also good. You could even pop on the underground and ride the train! Not knowing who you would bump into in the corridors as you went along, and you were often treated to some funny dialogue when you did. One of my favourites was Rikishi talking about always doing a huge dump before his matches, but you probably wouldn’t want to know that!). (I seem to recall a hilarious chat with Debra who between each part of the conversation seemed to jiggle her boobies at you!-Ed) You even had a big choice of wrestling partners, and if you didn’t like the ones on offer, you just reset the console and there’ll be a new selection waiting backstage. The roster was bigger for this one as well, with a whole selection of new superstars (including Rob Van Dam and Brock Lesnar and, more importantly then them, the return of Hulk Hogan!!!). It was also very up-to-date being the first Smackdown to feature the name change from WWF to WWE, with the company splitting into 2, with Smackdown and RAW both having their own roster of superstars. You start with choosing which show you want to fight for (Smackdown or RAW), and then you could then determine which wrestlers filled each roster for each show, or you could skip that and let the computer choose. Also having ‘Real American’ booming out as the credits rolled when you finally completed your Season was also a nice touch, a great end to a great Season! Yeehaw!

The graphics were a big improvement as well, with all the wrestlers looking more like pro wrestlers (big and muscularly instead of them all being skinny as with previous Smackdown releases! Although the skinny ones did give me less of an inferiority complex). Superstar faces were also much better, looking a lot more like who they’re supposed to be instead of looking like they‘ve been in a hideous car accident, the best being Shawn Michaels and the Hulkster. The arenas all looked better as well as the backstage areas. Animation was also a little better, wrestler’s moves and entrances being more smooth.

The sound was also an improvement; actually, everything was an improvement over Just Bring It! The in-ring commentary was much better with JR and The King calling the action, and talking less, proving that more isn’t always better (ANYTHING was better than the awful commentary of Just Bring It!!!). No Superstar voiceovers for this one, just text, which doesn’t limit the Season choices as much as the recent releases with voiceovers. The usual wrestling noises: thudding, slapping, groans etc., are better, and the crowd sounds much better too.

There are loads to unlock, & I think this was also the first Smackdown to feature WWE Shopzone to use the money you’ve earned competing in matches to unlock extras. Things unlockable include alternate wrestlers and videos, costumes, arenas, more things in Create-a-Wrestler.

There are a few tweaks to the controls giving you a few cool moves to pull off, but the controls are basically the same as past Smackdown’s: X is your punches, circle is your grapple movies, and square reverses moves while the L1 button is still to perform your superstars’ finisher. The nice, simple and easy to use control system are what I like about these Smackdown games.

After the disappointing ‘Just Bring It’, PS2 gets the WWE title it deserves with WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth, reminding us what we liked about wrestling games in the first place! With loads of match types, up-to-date, bigger/better roster and huge Season Mode makes this one of the most ‘complete’ Smackdown titles even to date. A champion!

9¾/10