WWF SMACKDOWN - History of the WWE Wrestling Game That Changed Everything! 

The Fine Voiceover work provided to read out the IGN quotes was by the fine Tesseract! Subscribe to his channel now! ru-vid.com

Not only was wrestling itself better back then, even the video games were better too. The competition between cross platforms forced developers to make better games. I miss console exclusives.

I played SmackDown 2 before the first game, so randomly trying to play the original at a friend's house around 2001 or so it was already a massively dated experience when a superior sequel hit stores 8 months after. Playing SmackDown 1 felt like playing the demo disc of a game in comparison.

10:27 Chris Jericho pulling an Ultimate Warrior on Chyna 😂

Loved it. At least do more up untill Smackdown Here Comes the Pain. That one was the best and they only went downhill from there.

this game was the moment when i fall in love with wrestling games, and i have to say that the gameplay speed and simplicity was one of the key reasons for it. best part of it was to play the two player matches against your friends,largely because it was so fast phased and easy to play. however it never felt like it was too easy and talent did play a part on the smack down games too.

This was my favorite Wrestling game and I played the hell.out of it!! Thank you so much for the video PS Here comes the pain was epic to

Yuke's. I am familiar with the dev. They created tons of amazing games \ physics engine for various platforms. It gave a game more layers, realism, bounce, and movesets. It's fun to see games develop over time. I confess, my favorite game from their library, is Rumble Roses. It was a fun, and wild title. Hmm maybe a later game to cover?

Fantastic review. Looking forward to a SmackDown! 2 review?

I’d love to see more videos about the Smackdown series. You do great work.

Loved this game so much, it was such a huge step up from what we had previously. Would love to see another installment from you, great job man.

I think you've got to do Smackdown 2 at the least. Its fundamentally the same game, which I remember many at the time criticising it for.

Definitely do more Smackdown games all those games were so much fun to play back in the day.

I remember playing the demo of this game included in my monthly subscription of PlayStation Magazine....well, it was my friend's subscription. And he never knew I was taking them from his mail box. But don't tell him

At the time The Rock probably got the term ‘Smackdown’ from Dr Dre’s song ‘Nuthin but G thang’.

This game was class, it was actually my first bootleg game ever, I had just got a chip box that plugged into the accessory port on the back of the PlayStation. Hours wasted.

To be honest, I wasn't sold on the WWF Smackdown games until part 2 came out. One of the things I liked was being able to have a championship defended in a 2 on 1 or 3 on 1 match. None of the other games that followed allowed you to do that.

I for one would enjoy a Smackdown 2 Retrospective

I loved that game, it made me get the second one on PS1. I still remember my college friend had the games and we would play for hours, then just for fun we'd recreate the matches that would happen on PPV or earlier that week.

Man you playing the soundtrack in the background gets me all pumped up.

Excellent! Loving these early access! Haven’t played this in years! Keep up the good work fella (& LD) and stay safe!

This is what the new WWE games need to be. Fast paced, easy to pick up and play, a story/career mode that’s actually entertaining like HCTP, good CAW mode, etc, stuff people would want instead of what the company wants.

What cracked me up about the old smackdown games was that you could ddt someone ad they could hold their arm or knee. But what made the first one cool is that you can give your CAW an injury

Considering that I just ordered Smackdown 2 KYR to play again a few days ago this review came with perfect timing. I still own a copy but there's a literal crack on the outside layer that causes the game to skip during entrances.

This is the first wrestling game I have experience with. When I was 12, I used the play this for hours with my friends. I remember how lazy the create a wrestler was, just taking the heads legs and torsos of existing models in a mix and match thing.

i think having to pick the opponent up to do some finishers added to the hype... you knew it was coming if you were in bad shape and it gives you a chance to counter. think about it like a cat playing with it's food before it eats it... lol

BRING THE PAIN is prolly still my fav game of all time

It started getting good on the original PlayStation but by PlayStation 2 it was absolutely fantastic. Those are the ones that got the right blend of graphics and everything else to make it hold up much better even today.

I'm not into wrestling but I've certainly played the hell out of Smackdown 2 and Wrestlemania arcade! Great games!

The first game I ever bought with my own money was WWF Wrestlemania for the NES. That game was so bad, it made me cry. When this (and the N64 wrestling games) came out, it felt like we had finally arrived. Especially with Smackdown 2.

14:44 they didn’t have proper entrance attire either, for instance Austin walking to the ring without his trademark vest

i sincerely hope u feature the other smackdown games THEY WERE AMAZING.

It’s one of my most favourite WWF games I’ve ever played in my entire childhood. I’ve played it all the way to smack down vs raw 2009. That was the last wrestling game I’ve played. Brings back so much old memories when I see this game. My most favourite Smackdown game is definitely Here comes the pain.

Disagree re: season mode. As random as the skits were (which even that I thought was hilarious, as my season mainly featured Vince and Shane McMahon attacking everyone every show), I really enjoyed the sports like presentation and the ranking system. Between that, and the backstage brawls, I Quit matches, etc., you had a lot more freedom, and it was a lot of fun.

Oh yeah, gotta cover Smackdown 2, the deepest I ever delved into a wrestling game.

Those graphics still hold up to this today, very impressive. I played that game to death when it first came out in 2000. Smackdown was a gamechanger

Absolutely adored this game. I’m an ‘80’s child and had gone off Wrestling but the Smackdown (Attitude) era had me watching it again. This game came out and it was excellent. I don’t watch the trash anymore but still enjoy the games. But none of the really new ones.

I was purist N64 guy back in the day, but I remember playing this with my brother on his PlayStation a lot. I was genuinely jealous of the graphics (As opposed to the block fest with painted on faces that was the N64 titles) and the fact the Rock WOULD ACTUALLY REMOVE HIS ELBOW PAD when doing the People's Elbows. 16yo used to obsess over the little details like this in the wrestling games of the time and it all started *because* of this game. I still preferred the gameplay of the Aki games, but Yukes really did have a fantastic eye for detail which only improved as the games went on.... Weeeelllllllll... Mostly....... until recently.....

I never knew you wrestled. Good for you. Thank you for another wonderful video

I love the smackdown games. Hope the next 2k game goes back to the way smackdown games played. Great video

WWF No Mercy is STILL my favorite wrestling games of all time. I'd love to see him cover it one day.

Do WWF Attitude next!!! The games’ controls sucked (you had to do combos to execute a move like Left, Left, Down Triangle, Triangle to do a scoop slam). But anyways the game had a stacked roster and each person had 4 attires. Mankind had Mankind in the white button up shirt, Cactus Jack, Dude Love and lastly in his ref shirt (from Mania 99).

HELOOOOOOOO LADIES AND GENTLEMEEEEEN

@Top Hat Gaming Man Yup, great video! Will you be doing any further live-streams with LD? Been missing them on Saturday nights.

I played hell out this game until smackdowm 2 came out haha I loved the smackdowm games for the PlayStation

This game was so legend, my mind tells me that it can't be as good as I remember but it was one of the best games on the Playstation

I remember smack down 2 being the game that made me not care about wwf no mercy. I no longer was jealous because I preferred everything about it. Found the overall game more fun then no mercy. I got smackdown 2 a few months after no mercy released. Not saying its a superior wrestling sim when it comes to matches. I Just had a lot more fun all around.

Awesome job! The first wrestling game I fell in love with. I agree with your points, but you didn't mention Pre-Season mode for created wrestlers. I thought it was cool and innovative for the time and more fun than actual season mode.

I used to love playing this game for the action and my favorite wrestlers at the time. Never thought about what it didn’t offer

I would love to hear your review on raw and raw 2 on the original x-box you could make up entrance music I enjoyed that, maybe even do a review on Royal rumble on dreamcast it's that season you know

Haven’t even finished the video but this is INCREDIBLE

this game was really heading in the right direction, when i rented the ones existing prior to that on the N64, i brought them back and exchanged the rental since it was so bad, i could not stand more than 1 hour of it. Smackdown on the other hand, i brought 4 days late not worried about the inquired fees!

The main problem with smackdown when I played it was that it wasn't developed by AKI. It was leaps and bounds better than any wrestling game I played on the playstation though. Especially its the opposing Thunder. Which I remember having horrible tank controls. But as much as Smackdown revolutionized wrestling games, I wonder if it would be looked at with the same fondness if AKI kept developing WWF games and moved to the Playstation

Great review. I hope this video has peaked enough interest for you to do a series of reviews.

Me and my mate used to play the Smackdown games to death. So many wars on these games.

Im a massive wrestling fan and this was an excellent video. I've played every Smackdown game. Smackdown 2: Know Your Role was FAR better than this game and the series would go on to become even more legendary. Scottjay01 does an incredible job with modding these games too. Love the music too.

The best thing about this game was how fatigue could carry into the next match which could lead to some weird victories like Dlo Brown beating Stone Cold for the title and such. When they removed this feature I never bought a Smackdown game again.

This Game is OG I remember it Sold Out in shops in UK.When Game was called Electronic Bouquet in Blockbuster and Woolworths times

Oh my God, the background music!!!!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

The next installment was my favorite and woke this was revolutionary the next installment went miles above with a season mode that had a better feel to match the current show with cut scenes that went with what's going on and matched the rivalries at the time. Larger roster, several new match types (Ladder, TLC, Table, Hell In A Cell, Casket) but allowed for multiple superstar in various matches that in this title was only allowed 1 on 1 (hardcore, falls count anywhere, handicap and tag team matches). Tag team matches also got an overhaul showing for tag team moves. Only draw back was the loading times.

Would love to see more wrestling vids from you, brother!

Just found out your channel! Great job ! Gave me nostalgia vibe hard

Subbed so I can see the future smackdown episodes 😁

This sir reminds me of Ashens, The British gentleman who always reviewed those cheap chinese knockoff products. I was huge wrestling fan in the late 90s and early 2000s. I bought all smackdown games from the first one to SVR07. I hope you make more videos on the Smackdown games. Great Work!

In season the titles could change hands so many times and you're likely to lose them sometimes too that is the only thing I liked it could go almost forever the season could.

Awesome video man. I would like to see more!

I never thought about how stupid picking up a wrestler off the ground was until you said it and i absolutely agree with you

Loved smackdown 2 and here comes the pain. Many many hours played on both.

My first wrestling game was smackdown just bring it. It started a love of wrestling games that often over shadowed my love of wrestling shows. Then WWE2K 20 happened... Watching your video I realise that WWE games peaked years ago. 2K 20 was the last cough of blood, but the magic evaporated long ago. Wish I still had a PS2 I think I could have more fun today on any of the first 5 or 6 games than I have on any of the last 3

I remember when this game came out my friends loved it and I hated it for retry much all the reasons you mentioned of the games flaws. I remember the only 2 things I liked was the quick to earn finishers and throwing your opponent into the soda machine which had a soda can come out and you could throw that at them too. I was still playing WCW Revenge at this time and was convinced nothing would be a better game than that. That changed with here comes the pain. The first Smackdown game to give me hopes for this series was Smackdown 2. The commercial hooked me and I loved the gameplay but that game was even more flawed than this 1. I hope you cover that eventually.

Great content, as always! I can't remember if this was the SmackDown game I had or not, but this one looks just fun!

this video makes me wanna play the OG Smackdown

So many great memories with this series of games! I played the 64 version simply because I hated the loading times in the ps version. 20 years from now someone will be doing a similar video on an AEW wrestling game!

Still remember first time I played this game. I hired it from my local video store

Is it sad that I would sooner watch old gameplay footage of WWE games from the PS1/N64 era than watching the current state of WWE wrestling....Even before cov1d hit...

Great game. Great content. Great channel.

Smack Down! was very popular in Chile, I remember the first time I played it, just a few days before the sequel came out, "Smack Down! 2: Know Your Role" was just like the first game, only with some updated characters and improvements, specially with the CAW system, I loved it! I still play it on my phone to this day! Looking forward for your review of it! 👍

While you're right about picking people up, I doubt you got much sympathy from your opponents. There's plenty of picking up in modern wrestling. But heck, running the ropes doesn't make much sense in real life terms other. I think it's not nearly as obvious if you are doing a clear finisher, because in the reality of wrestling you're accomplishing something which will keep them from getting up again. Picking an opponent up to perform an average move like a dropkick only makes sense if you're in a squash and you're trying to demonstrate that you can keep beating up the guy.

I miss when SD games didn't really have a preset story/career mode. Now and days we follow our created character story going to point A to point B with no options of which path you want to take them on. I miss the bit of randomness that gave those modes replayability. Bring something like that back with something like meeting other players creations in those modes

I would absolutely love to hear your opinion on other games of this golden era of wrestling games.

THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER 90'S EVER AGAIN

You missed the fact that you could be Stone Cold and challenge for the Womens Championship.

Next 2 wrestling videos I hope to see are : Smackdown here comes the pain WWE Smackdown vs Raw

I would like to see you cover the other Smackdown games.

The game that filled up your PS2 memory card :)

SmackDown 2 evolved on what SmackDown did right and fixed what it did wrong.

Please do videos on the sequels!

I still think Smack Down: Here Comes The Pain is the nest wrestling game ever. I remember waiting on it to come out and it just fine tuned stuff the way it should be from past editions. Gameplay quality started going down the next year.

Please do more videos on mortal kombat & tekken.as well as videos on soul calibur 2,dead or alive,blazblue,bloody roar,snk's world heroes,street fighter 1,primal rage,sonic the fighters,pokken tournament,mighty morphin power rangers fighting edition on snes,& the fighting/beat em up hybrid pit fighter

Poor guy never discovered the downward directional kick button to not have to pick opponnents up to perform a finisher.

Yukes made WWF Royal Rumble after this, maybe a video about that someday?

I agree on deadlifting. I will suspend my disbelief to a point, but I don't want to see obvious cooperation between two people who are supposed to be trying to hurt each other.

Enjoyed playing this game, but the next sequel was better. Gameplay was pretty much the same, but story mode and match types got better.

2nd favorite wrestling game, next to WCW/NWO Revenge.

This game was HUGE here in Indonesia back then

You should do a video on the Ultimate Muscle game for the ps2.

Also: more shirtless THGM footage, please.

Hey, Top Hat Gaming Man! You should do a video on Rumble Roses!

Here Comes the Pain next?

My version of Wrestlemania 2000 kept resetting itself and deleting all progress...