7. "WWF Smackdown! Know Your Role" (PlayStation) 2000
Not long after came Smackdown's direct sequel, "Know Your Role," starting the trend of using the Rock's catchphrases as tag lines to the game series. Again, the game kicked off with a brilliant opening FMV, and gameplay was mostly retained from the original game. The biggest selling point of Know Your Role, was the addition of some major game modes that fans had been yearning to play for a while. For the first time, tables matches, ladder matches, casket matches and the infamous Hell in a Cell (complete with collapsible roof) debuted in a WWF game. In addition, new backstage areas, including WWF New York were included also. Graphics were a bit pixelated but for the most part still looked good. Wrestler models were mostly decent, with a few minor exceptions. Entrances were again just the videos and music, with the stars walking in front. The biggest change involved was the complete overhaul to season mode, and to be honest was a bit of a torture to navigate through. Not yet learning from the misstep of a season from the previous Smackdown game, Know Your Role was needlessly awkward. While the matches themselves were fun, players were forced to watch EVERYTHING that happened on the shows, not just the portions involving their own wrestler. It also included no option to skip, which resulted in a LOT of waiting around for loading screens just to watch a 12 second interview with a wrestler you have nothing to do with. You also had to watch the health bars of every match being simulated, making the game take forever to play. Inclusion of the backstage happenings and storylines were a great addition, but all the waiting and watching made it a tedious process. They could also be quite random and usually made no sense to of your own career. Playing as the Rock and facing Billy Gunn that night? Here's a video of Scotty Too Hotty destroying a badly animated limousine completely out of context. Though the game featured a large amount of stuff to unlock, the technique introduced to unlock them was another frustrating addition. The only way to unlock move lists and body parts was to defeat "Unknown" wrestlers at random points in the career. There were loads of these guys, who all looked alike, making unlocking all the pieces in the game another monotonous task. Smackdown 2 was fun to play once you actually stepped in the ring and the variety of customization options in the matches meant plenty of different ways to play the game. Unfortunately, career mode had become an important part of these games and this one let the game down hugely. Though tolerated at the time, going back to play it is not a very fun experience. That being said, if you preferred sticking to exhibition mode, Smackdown 2 was a decent game.