Ranking The Best Wrestling Video Game For Each Major Console

11. PlayStation - WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role

mankind smackdown 2 know your role
THQ

PlayStation gamers had already got their own slice of wrestling brilliance with 2000's WWF SmackDown!, but it's WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role which stands out as the best wrestling release to hit the original PlayStation console.

That first WWF SmackDown! was fantastic, yet Know Your Role was just, well, better in every possible way. From little things, like giving wrestlers full entrances rather than just a video wall backdrop, to major changes in game mechanics, Know Your Role was a complete home run.

Delving deeper into an original story mode than its predecessor, WWF SmackDown! 2 also won favour with gamers by having a detailed Create-A-Superstar that allowed players to tinker with more than just pre-set heads, upper torsos, and lower torsos.

By the time all was said and done, WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role sold a ridiculous 3.2 million units across the globe - making it the best-selling combat sports game to be released solely on one system.

While PS gamers had their mind blown with that first SmackDown and its follow-up, sandwiched between these releases was a game that had N64 fans purring with delight...

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.