Every SmackDown! Video Game Ranked From Worst To Best

The Good: The addition of actual commentary made for a much better gaming experience than ever before. The main menu was much faster, given the lack of opening animations, which had been a cause of extensive loading in previous games.

A roster size of 43 playable characters was quite decent at the time, especially considering the consequences of putting too much content on a game appearing on a specific console for the first time (looking at you, WWE 2K15). This game also introduced the notion of wrestlers having two finishers, adding another level of surprise and drama to gameplay, considering that finishers.

The Bad: Only a few things. The opening video was a perfect example of trolling in action, as those graphics weren’t reflective of the actual in-game graphics whatsoever. When I said that the commentary made for a better experience, that’s actually a half-truth: while it’s more reflective of WWE programming, Michael Cole and Tazz do a poor job of sounding realistic or genuine as commentators for this game.

Finally, the targeting system in this game was poor, as it was extremely hard to change targets in a multi-man match. The whole system was designed around a color in the players HUD matching up with the color of another character, and the R1 feature to change target wasn’t available at all.

That said, this game was still good in terms of actual wrestling gameplay; the only real issues were with non-wrestling-related matters like commentary and wrestler graphics.