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- Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain is the most unique wrestling game ever.
- It has a perfect mix of arcade and simulation-style gameplay.
- The game’s environmental freedom, such as roaming and fighting backstage, riding vehicles, and performing moves off of helicopters, made it memorable.
- The season mode with freedom of decision also adds much to the game.
Wrestling games have been around for over two decades. During this time, we saw some great games that wrestling and non-wrestling fans enjoyed playing. Some games declined towards realism, while others focused on the fun element.
While other wrestling companies like TNA and WCW occasionally tried to deliver some playworthy wrestling video games, WWE had the most dominance in this niche—their games from Smackdown Vs. Raw, WWF Smackdown, and the early WWE 2K series gave fans some of the most memorable games.
Of all the great work WWE did in the gaming world, Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain! has been one of their best.
Various Match Types
The game was released in the early 2000s and took the gaming world by storm. It had everything a wrestling game should have, including many match types, lumberjack matches, slobber knockers, elimination chambers, etc.
These many match types had never been seen before in a wrestling video game, and how they were designed also made each match type feel unique. My favorite is the three stages of hell, as you can play three different types of matches in a best-of-three contest. You can choose each of the three match types to suit your playing style.
Smooth And Fun Gameplay
The gameplay itself was one of a kind. Each move felt special when executing, making you feel like you just killed your opponent. The animations were done well and would mimic real-life wrestling moves correctly. The moves would simultaneously feel arcadey and yet realistic as the animation had the correct mixture.
The freedom in this game was also over the top. There are so many crazy things you could do in this game, even for wrestling fans. In the arena, you could pick and throw weapons at your opponents, climb on announce tables and jump from there, break them by performing moves on top of them, set your opponent on wooden and diving tables, and more.
When you leave the arena, you have several backstage locations in the stadium where you can roam and use the environmental objects to cause destruction. You could perform moves on your opponents on top of cars, which causes them to break.
Vehicles like forklifts and motorcycles can also be driven, and you can crash your opponent with those. When on the bike, you could even grab and choke your opponent by the neck and drag them around.
There’s also a shopping cart in a backstage area where you could throw your opponent and crash them onto a wall or piles of boxes. And the craziest of all, outside on the streets, you could climb a helicopter, fly up to a certain height, and perform a dive on your opponent.
Even the sky isn’t the limit in this game. They went nuts with it and included all kinds of crazy stuff that the technology of that time would allow them to do. This out-of-this-world gameplay made Here Comes The Pain what it is today.
Replayable Season Mode
The game also had a season mode where you could choose your favorite superstar and play a career simulation. This season mode gives you the freedom of choice, allowing you to make career decisions like going for a championship, forming alliances, or switching brands.
This freedom of choice gives the players a different experience whenever they play the season mode again. Season mode also features cutscenes and a choice of dialogues that add twists and turns in your career, introducing story elements to the journey.
While playing the season mode, you could earn cash and unlock stuff in the game, like loading screens, clothing parts, and even more superstars, which you could use in the exhibition mode. You can also use the unlockable stars to start a career with them.
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Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain! is one of the most well-aged and renowned wrestling games on PS2 and rightfully deserves the attention it gets from fans today. Other wrestling games have come closer to it, but it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain! is above all.
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Moiz Banoori, with a decade of experience in gaming and tech journalism and a degree in journalism, is a notable figure in the industry. He has contributed to various esteemed platforms, showcasing his expertise in both reporting and opinion writing.
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