Music Reviews of Videogames, PS2, XBox, Gamecube

Music Reviews of Videogames, PS2, XBox, Gamecube, Dreamcast

WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It — PS2 Buy it at Amazon

Buy it from InSound

I love wrestling games, well ok, I love WWF wrestling games. I used to watch WWF all the time and while I haven’t had much time to watch it recently I still could easily get right back into it (give me a couple weeks to figure out the storylines and I’m there). I used to get all the pay-per-views and I’d love to predict the outcomes of matches based on my theories of where things were going. Now I don’t have as much time for it but I still have time to play some games so I figured hey I could easily get back into the WWF (or WWE nowadays I suppose) by picking up this game. So I did but I didn’t. I haven’t gotten back into wrestling mostly because a lot of stuff about this game for lack of a better word SUCKS. It all starts with the manual, which doesn’t give instructions on the most basic of moves (like how to tag your partner in a tag team match) and doesn’t really explain the whole Create-a-Superstar mode. Arguably wrestling games are so much better against a human opponent anyway which is fine but not fine for a person who wants to win all the belts and beat all the computer matches. The story-mode is good and a great step in the right direction but it’s not really random (other than the characters you can play) and a lot of the power of the PS2 wasn’t harnessed here. I get frustrated having to read the same stupid lines said over and over again and often the characters up close look so bleakly static instead of animated moving people. The sound is pretty good other than the commentating, which is just ignorant of what’s going on and who it’s going on with. The scope of the matches is huge but again those matches are hard to come by in story-mode unless you look up the exact way to get to them and follow each step precisely which kind of kills replayability. Also there is no real way to make it easier for you to win (or vice-versa) there’s no “easy mode” which can be a blessing and a curse all at once. The Create-a-Superstar mode is pretty cool and it’s neat to be able to tweak your wrestler’s every move from his or her entrance to their submission holds. Unfortunately I was never able to get very far with a created wrestler and that’s why this game really needs some major tweaking before Smackdown 4 comes out. All in all Just Bring It is a great game to play with others but a horrible game to play by yourself. Come on THQ make me a WWF fan again!

- J-Sin

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