Every SmackDown! Video Game Ranked From Worst To Best

The Good: The emphasis on tag teams made the game ideal for multiplayer and cooperative play. The hot tag and blind tag systems made the game more true to actual WWE programming, further promoting the ‘realism’ aspect of the games.

This fame also featured the first instance of create-a-finisher, which gave players more freedom on how they created their own wrestlers. Finally, ‘Road to WrestleMania’ mode made its debut in this game. This was a very exciting feature at the time, and made in-game stories more reflective of real-life wrestling storylines and experiences.

The Bad: This is also the game that really changed the gameplay from quick and exciting to slow and prodding, making the wrestlers’ movements were more realistic and less like a video game. As good as that is, the ‘unrealistic arcade experience’ is always more fun than realism.

This game removed the HUD that showed how much damage the player’s opponent has taken, which is arguably the worst decision for a combat-based video game. Does WWE really expect fans to know just how badly injured an enemy is by how much they hold their head or limp around?

Finally, this game began the trend of adding DLC packs to WWE games. This was a terrible idea, as it would eventually lead to the virtual elimination of in-game unlockables, in favor of having players pay more for content they already paid a lot of money to enjoy.