PlayStation 2

WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth

Being a huge fan of the WWE and the Smackdown wrestling game series, I knew before I picked up WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth that I was going to be left with a choice. I could either go to the French Quarter here in New Orleans and party my work-free weekend away, or I could sit here on my beanbag chair and overindulge in this game until my brain leaked out of my ears.

Nearly every aspect of the SmackDown! series has been improved in its latest iteration, WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth. The revamped season mode lets you take an untested wrestler through the ranks of the WWE while reliving key events that have transpired over the past year, such as the co-ownership storyline between Vince McMahon and Ric Flair and the reintroduction of the NWO. Moreover, the series' gameplay has also been drastically improved for Shut Your Mouth, with a reversal system that requires precise timing and some guesswork and smoother overall wrestling mechanics that place more emphasis on grappling than any previous game in the series. To make the overall package even more enticing for wrestling fans, the game's developer, Yuke's, has added an incredibly robust create-a-wrestler mode that allows you to customize nearly every physical aspect of a created wrestler, on down to his or her animation.

WWE fans should not even give thought to buying this game. It’s a simple given. With astounding graphics, control, gameplay, story mode, character creation and more, I cannot convey how much this will please WWE fans. Then there are those who deem wrestling fans a breed that God forsook. Bite us, we are cool and we know it! This game will probably pass under their radars, but it just means more gaming goodness for us cool people. And they have no idea what they are missing.

Things have changed in the world of professional wrestling. For one thing, the World Wresting Federation franchise is now the World Wrestling Entertainment franchise and since then, champions have fallen and those wrestlers that have been stuck in the bottom have now been elevated to star status. In WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth, it’s an all-out war between wrestlers and the fans couldn’t be happier.

Perhaps it's only a coincidence that the Sony PlayStation was booming right around the same time that the phenomenon formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation was at its peak, but without a doubt, wrestling games have established themselves thanks to a fervent fan base, and a license filled with colorful characters that evolves more often than any true sport. In fact, with SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth, Yuke's has truly evolved the wrestling game as we know it from what is essentially a grappling-based fighting system to a simulation of sports entertainment; cheesy storylines and all.

Shut Your Mouth shows us something great in its genre. While wrestling is a very diverse, intricate, and always-changing program, which makes a video game rendition that much harder to create, Yuke's still delivered a very well-crafted wrestler thanks to the time and care they employed into it. The game's far from being spotless, but it's definitely the best choice you can make as far as next-generation wrestlers are concerned.

Shut Your Mouth comes out quite well overall, then. The problem which faces most wrestling games, that wrestling is an ever changing beast which rolls on steadily with the ever increasing demand, and is therefore very difficult to keep up-to-date. Yuke has still delivered a very well rounded game, which has obviously had a lot of time and care spent in its creation. Don't get me wrong this game isn't perfect, but it is without doubt the best next-generation wrestling game on the market at the moment.

The SmackDown! series has settled into its groove at this point. Yuke's has gradually been reducing its various aspects to a simple formula, which can then be refined and updated on a yearly basis. The goal, I think, is to wind up with something like the Madden NFL games, which don't change a great deal on a fundamental basis each year, but nevertheless sell through the roof on the strength of an updated roster and presentation.

The most electrifying wrestling series on the next-gen consoles is back. Just how good is The People’s Season Mode this year? They’re getting there, wrestling fans. While THQ and Yuke’s haven’t quite got the SmackDown formula perfect yet, Shut Your Mouth represents a definite step forward.

Shut Your Mouth easily bests all the other next-gen wrestling games released so far. Is that saying much? No, but better is better. The new SmackDown looks great. From a presentation standpoint, it’s tough to find a flaw. The crowd is much improved, the wrestlers – especially facially – are tremendously modeled, and the referee finally does more than count. Season mode easily surpasses Just Bring It by being longer and more captivating. There’s enough drama to keep you interested, and the commentary from Just Bring It is replaced with sporadic dialogue, which I also prefer.