WWE SmackDown Here Comes The Pain Remaster: 10 Things It Must Have

by Jamie Kennedy

1. A Proper Season Mode

SmackDown Here Comes The Pain
THQ/Yukes

SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain had one of the finest story modes in wrestling game history.

It ran for one in-game year and featured several branching storylines players could experience that were penned by real WWE writers. Talk about a selling point, this was exciting stuff for those who loved the promotion's weekly television. On top of the angles, THQ let players roam around freely, speaking to other stars, setting up feuds and asking for title shots.

It was even possible to take a month off from storylines by turning down advances from authority-style characters like Jim Ross, Eric Bischoff, Jerry Lawler, Vince McMahon, Jonathan Coachman and Stephanie McMahon. Do that and your wrestler likely wouldn't be on the next pay-per-view.

It offered freedom of choice without being so open-ended that there wasn't the occasional linear narrative to pin things down and keep the action motoring along. Yukes' next game should take notes. Hopefully, Williams and crew spent the vast majority of their meeting playing HCTP's Season.

What else would you want to see from a modern remaster of SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain? Let us know down in the comments!

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.