Tom Skidmore of TheKoalition writes:
Coming off the back of a rather disappointing WWE PPV, I thought I'd include probably the last really fun WWE game to hit the shelves, it's WWE Smackdown Here Comes The Pain!
The year is 2003, a simpler time where both wrestling and the games it spawned were at their absolute peak, and no wrestling game came as close to perfection as SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain did.
Ngl, that was the last good wrestling game and is still objectively the best one. The roster was missing almost no one and this game was one of the first to properly incorporate rpg-like stats back near the start of every game involving rpg elements. Oldschool undertaker (93) > brock lesnar (91) > goldberg (90).
The AEW Dynamite game is made by the creators of Here Comes The Pain, Yukes, with the head director of No Mercy. It's a return to both No Mercy and HCTP style gameplay. Google footage of the game. The graphics have a stylized look similar to the Def Jam games. I think it will be the game we've all been waiting for. With the best and biggest roster in all of professional wrestling.
I have a childhood soft spot for the earlier SvR games too but they're not wrong, HctP was the top of the PlayStation wrestling titles whilst No Mercy was right up there on N64.
I enjoy the Smackdown games a lot, and still play Smackdown 1 and 2 on my PSP and PS Vita often. its true that Here Comes the Pain was the last really good game in the series, I bought the first SvsR and I just couldn't get into it. The new grapple system wasn't what I was used to, and I shelved the game almost immediately.
That said, I love the N64 AKI games even more, and I've been playing No Mercy frequently. Last night I got 74 eliminations in Survival mode, a new record for me. Hoping that the new AEW game will actually be the first compelling wrestling game in almost 20 years.
Just like the WWE show has sunk to new lows, so has the WWE games sunk to new lows. What a shame.
My experience with wrestling growing up was mostly games since I didn't had cable tv until I was 16 to watch WWE. SmackDown 2 on the ps1 was such a big part of my childhood. Then my best friend got HctP for the ps2 and we were hooked. It had everything i loved from my game and more. Last one I've played was 2K14 so you can imagine how much I'm craving for a good new game (and hopefully AEW's game is it)
WWE Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain is a wrestling game exclusive to the PlayStation 2 which was released in 2003
Game needs to be remastered as a multiplatform title though I imagine gaining rights to the music and likeness of a lot of the older superstars is out of the question.
Update the roster with more wrestlers, add in trophies/achievements, give it an online mode, and update the graphics. Would be better than most of the Smackdown vs RAW and WWE 2K titles. It could also give 2K an extra year to figure out what they’re doing with new titles rather than the same copy and paste.
I miss the days of WWE games like this one having you mashing buttons to get out of holds, pins, & waking up in general. It felt much more competitive than the games that around today where you have to press a button at the right time to kickout (this becomes even worse if you decide to play online). Ever since they moved further away from the arcade style of gameplay it has gotten worse.
Just like the very wrestlers that ply their trade between the ropes, WWE video games have seen a range of champions and jobbers over the years. Trying to work out the best is often a practice of separating the gems from the sludge that surrounds it.
But we're feeling brave, so we gave it our all and emerged with the 5 best WWE games of all time.
