Original Release: THQ, 2002, PlayStation 2
The first official “WWE” game acquitted itself well by making some improvements to the Smackdown gameplay formula and adding tons of fun stuff to play around with
WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth (PS2, THQ, 2002)
Where to Buy: Amazon
How to Emulate: PlayStation 2 Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Shut Your Mouth was a landmark as it was the first licensed title after The Fed was legally compelled to switch to The E, and the first to incorporate wrestlers from the newly-acquired WCW and ECW rosters, but it was also where the Smackdown series really started to find its footing. While submissions are still virtually useless unless they’re a special finisher, and it’s still on the “arcadey” side overall and some bits could have stood some more tweaking, it’s the first in the series to feel like a more complete wrestling game while expanding on all the little additional details and fun stuff that made the Yukes games so appealing.
The fundamental game engine is no different, and if you’re accustomed to the controls from any of the prior Smackdown games you can jump right in here with no trouble. But matches do feel a bit more technical and measured. The computer no longer keeps popping back up like The Terminator no matter what, with longer stretches of being dizzied or laying out to set up your bigger moves. And the counter system is less “mashy,” it’s still Square to counter but you need to press it without directional input to counter a strike, or with the right directional input to match your opponent to counter a grapple. It’s also less of a “race to be the first to do a finisher,” at least in multiplayer mode, as you can now counter finishers if you have a stock of your own specials built up.
Finishers also require a little more prep, at least for some types. For example, if your guy uses a cutter finisher (ex: DDP, Randy Orton) you can’t use it until the opponent’s neck is extended in the right position (usually by hitting a gut kick or punch first); no more just mashing L1 near the opponent to automatically do it, at least for a good deal of the roster of moves, you have to get the timing right (an indicator appears when it is possible). The guys who tend to have the best time with this new system are actually the top turnbuckle finishers, like RVD and Eddie Guerrero, as the opponent just has to be laid out within range and you can leap onto the turnbuckle with lightning speed.
The “season mode” is the best of the series yet and a very big selling point, combining some of the management elements of the PS1 games with some of the backstage “free roam” and “choose your own adventure” stuff that was introduced with the first PS2 title. Each new season begins with RAW and Smackdown conducting a post-WrestleMania draft, and you can either automate this, pick one side or take full control. The season will provide plenty of opportunities for the shows to cross over, however. You play through a cycle of full years of weekly shows leading up to each month’s PPV, and while you don’t book the cards in this one you can opt to play any match yourself in addition to the required ones for the “main character” you choose to control. While you have freedom to influence matches how you choose, your main character has to get on the card at PPVs and win those matches to unlock the game’s assortment of move sets, arenas, character outfits and bonus movies.
Your character can also roam the arena (and some select outside bits) between matches, where you may find other characters hanging about to have a chat with. These optional conversations can create mini-feuds, influence the direction of the main story or simply spark a friendly relationship that eventually gets you a manager/valet or tag team buddy. You’re always within the framework of the prior year of WWE’s real-world storylines (like Stone Cold and the NWO returning as well as the extended McMahon/Flair brand feud), but there is a ton of room for variation and seeing new things / getting enmeshed in new feuds and stories with each new iteration.
The “fun stuff” Yukes is known for is also expanded, most notably the possibilities for backstage/arena brawling. You can move through multiple screens that now have touches like destructible cars and water heaters, and nacho stands you can jump off. You can even brawl your way into the nearby subway station, where you can knock a dude onto a departing subway car to win a match. You can climb some of the giant ring entrance displays and jump off to what should be sure paralysis, you can throw snowballs outside during the winter months, there are a lot of nifty touches to find as you explore around.
Yukes was also known for very solid character creation, which continues here with a pretty detailed CAW system that is still remembered fondly as one of the better ones in wrestling game history. Though the character detail has been noticeably improved from the prior game, it’s still toward the more basic end of the PS2’s graphical library; this is still the wrong title if your main focus is making sexy lady wrestlers. But they did put tremendous effort into animation details and including each wrestler’s signature moves. They also cheekily snuck in about 50 “sample superstars” and unlockable move sets that just so coincidentally happen to be a couple small details off of looking and moving exactly like popular wrestlers that didn’t make this game’s roster. Getting to a certain point in Season Mode also unlocks a major points boost for all new created characters in perpetuity making it easier to customize them immediately and get them up to competence without tons of grinding. It’s flexible enough to allow for very good versions of most male wrestlers past and present with enough time put in (or other things). The big new feature here is a “Animation Creator” that lets you string together pieces of existing animations for stances, taunts and so on.
While it’s a great game overall and a significant step forward for the series, some of the ongoing problems continue here. While the commentary is a little less goofy and choppy, it’s still basic and kind of all over the place (poor JR seems to think you’re in Atlanta no matter what city you’re in). And the game continues to be basically a “white labeling” of Yukes’ Japan-only “Exciting Pro Wrestling” series, which means it once again appears the Japanese team wrote and translated most of the dialogue lines. That leads to a bunch of awkward and weird conversations when roaming the arenas, but that’s actually kind of the fun, every encounter has unpredictable results (like I think I wound up in a homoerotic relationship with Rob Van Dam somehow).
There are little hinky bits that are similarly fun, like the computer’s propensity to scurry up the cell in HIAC matches then immediately find a way to just walk off randomly and ragdoll off the ground. Some are not so cute, like how the Season mode challenge toward the end of the circuit increases simply by having CPU opponents cancel out of / ignore damage or stun animations in a way that isn’t normally possible, or just become Johnny Counter Wrestling all the sudden and counter/override everything you do. The “choose your own adventure” match booking can also get a little weird, like sometimes you’ll wind up in two different matches at a PPV because you accidentally triggered two storylines simultaneously or you’re holding/chasing multiple belts, or you’ll be told some sort of themed match with someone is coming up and then the game just jumps on to something else randomly and totally forgets about that.
But all that stuff is minor, and there’s so much to get lost in here between the simple but highly varied Season mode, the pile of highly customizable match types and the flexible options in character creation. It was the first really good wrestling title for the PS2, and while all the prior Smackdown games were at least at “pretty good” status I feel like this is the first one to rise to “classic” and “must play.”
Links
Paid mods by Scott Jay
Videos
Unlockable Divas Movie (hubba hubba)
Six-man Hell in a Cell is wild in this game