WWF Smackdown: Just Brings an Unfinished Product

THQ,

We the fans of the WWF Smackdown series understand that you all were very anxious to get WWF Smackdown; Just Bring It! on the shelves in time for the holiday season. Trust us, we all waited in eager anticipation for the release as we played countless hours of the game’s demo, hoping to ease the pre-release anxiety. So, as your loyal consumers, please accept our criticism when we say…

…finish it before you release it! WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It! is a decent sequel, but there was just so much left out. The lack of depth depleted the game’s substance dramatically. As advertised, there are many game modes to choose from, including the long-awaited eight-man battle royal, multiplayer TLC (tables, ladders, and chairs) matches, triple-threat tornado tag matches, the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, the high-caliber matches can only be played in exhibition mode, as the story mode in this game, although “enhanced”, fails to utilize these options to strengthen its replay value.

There are many positive notes for Just Bring It! The game’s create-a-wrestler option is by far the best ever. You still pick and choose from a vast selection of moves and taunts, only this time, the list of maneuvers has extended even farther. If you don’t want the hassle of creating a custom move set, then you can choose from the various preset moves you can unlock in story mode. They are named in code, so you will have to print out a list from the net so you can easily tell which set is who’s moves. There are more double-team moves, and new to the Smackdown series, triple-team moves. These moves can now be executed anywhere, not just from your tag corner. You created characters also get their own unique entrance and theme songs, but there are only the real wrestlers’ TitanTrons and the Raw is War and Smackdown intro videos to choose from. Finishing moves can now also be executed while opponents are leaning on the turnbuckles. The environments you can wrestle in are far more interactive then the previous titles. You can take the fight up and down flights of stairs, bash opponents through windows, and stack items on top of each other for an added effect (i.e. ladders on top of tables…hint, hint).

The gameplay is far more advanced than the previous releases. Your opponents are smarter, for the most part, and sometimes can get down-right annoying with their abilities. Case in point, jump in the ring with the like of Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle, two of the most incredible technical wrestlers we’ve ever seen, and you’ll get my drift. They will reverse and counter just about anything you unleash, and their abilities will demand a good defense from you. Watch out for speedy wrestlers like Jeff Hardy and Eddie Guerrero. Just when you think you’ve got the upper hand, he’ll roll you up before you know what hit you. Get in there with Kane or the Big Show and learn how to dodge and counter their powerful attacks, because if you don’t, you’ll be counting the arena lights.

The action can now spill into the crowd on the other side of the barriers. A smart idea, yes, but not quite as impressive to look at. The audience look and move like a bunch of two-frame, cardboard cut-outs, and you can only jump into the crowd from two sides of the ring, the left and the right. Nonetheless, it adds some needed depth to the game. Another halfway decent addition is the in-ring commentary done by Michael Cole and Tazz. For the most part, you can phase it out if you’re really into a match, but some of the phrases that are said are flat-out pointless. And you can tell that a lot of what is said is spliced and poorly put together.

With those goodies in mind, none is more impressive than the wrestlers’ entrances. THQ obviously put a lot of emphasis on this aspect of the game, as they are all very well duplicated, especially Triple H’s entrance. After seeing his and a few others, you’d swear you were watching the show and not playing a video game.

A lot of emphasis, indeed, but maybe too much emphasis. Entrances are a beautiful addition, but that effort could have and should have gone to other aspects of this title, as there were more bad points than good. One of the major drawbacks that bothered me about this sequel is the poor wrestler selection. Of course, the game does have all the top superstars of the WWF as automatically playable characters, but on the same roster, you have a lot of wasted space. For example, X-Pac isn’t a playable character, but on television, he still gets way more ring time than Jerry Lynn, whom of which you have to unlock to use. They give you X-Pac’s move set, but it’s up to the player to create him. To me, that should have been the other way around because X-Pac is just one of those characters you have to have in a WWF game...despite the fact that “X-Pac sucks”. Same goes for other wrestlers like Scotty 2 Hotty and Al Snow, and why is Steven Richards playable? Well, at least THQ left out the majority of the non-wrestlers out of the roster, as they’ve had the habit of adding Tori, Debra, and Paul Bearer (god only knows why). Speaking of off-the-wall roster additions…

THQ decided it would be cool to throw in Limp Bizkit’s front man Fred Durst as a hidden character.

What?

I said you can play as Fred Durst. OK, it may have been a pretty cool idea and all, but I think they went a little overboard with his game character. He has an awesome move set, no question, but his ring entrance is amazingly long and gaudy. You thought Triple H’s entrance was drawn out—you almost have to sit through a concert performance with Fred’s. Despite his loud appearance, Fred Durst turns out to be a fun character to use.

THQ advertised an “enhanced story mode” of SD3. If you haven’t purchased the game yet, don’t expect to be able to throw yourself into the WWF environment because the game’s story mode is flat-out lame and repetitive. Sure, there’s more interaction between you and the other superstars, but once you win a title, don’t think it gets better after that. Unlike in SD2, you have to defend the title over and over and over, match after match after match--- not to mention you can’t hold more than one title at a time. For example, if you’re the European champion, you can’t challenge anyone else for their belt until you voluntarily decide to drop yours to the computer. That’s another minus---you can’t put your title up in exhibition like you could in SD2. All title changes go through the computer. And once you drop your title, after defending it two jillion times, you start over in the story as if you never even had a title. No one feuds with each other like in the other SD games, just a bunch of repetitive trash-talk that’s not even cleverly written. The real “enhancement” is the fact that you can choose your path to a title, and you can roam around the arena looking for certain people to interact with…that’s it.

WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It! is a good game, just not as great as you’d expect from this series. SD2 was better in many ways, and it’s unfortunate the THQ didn’t build off its success and make this game as incredible as it could have been. To get the full gist of SD3, you have to unlock all there is to unlock in the lame story mode, then go wild in the exhibitions. Just Bring It! is a graphical masterpiece, but a lack of substance makes you want to pick up SD2 and relive the way a wrestling game should be.