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For the typical wrestling fan, turning to WWE’s video games is a safer approach to stay out your sports activities leisure fantasies than, say, leaping off the roof of your storage by way of a flaming desk. Because the late 80s there’ve been nicely over 50 such video games which have averted numerous such ill-advised* makes an attempt to be a professional wrestler at residence, all sporting the WWF/E banner. And whereas it’s as troublesome to parse out the incremental enhancements from one yr to the subsequent as it’s to kick out of a Tombstone, right here’s an try at narrowing down the ten finest WWE video games of all time.**
To start out with, we didn’t ebook this record all by ourselves with out consulting our roster. The IGN viewers participated in a Face-off, giving us a capability crowd’s value of information to work with. There are a handful of surprises and no small dose of nostalgia for the Perspective Period that confirmed up within the outcomes, however with out additional ado or wrestling wordplay,*** let’s ring the bell.
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Each IGN WWE Sport Overview Ever
At quantity 10 with a win share of 65% in our Face-off, we discover ourselves within the heady days of the mid-aughts with 2004’s WWE SmackDown! Vs. Uncooked. The sport represents a reasonably main shift for WWE as nicely. The Perspective Period was coming to an finish and the foolish Invasion storyline was getting smaller within the rearview mirror. In the meantime, the model break up between Uncooked and SmackDown that occurred only a few years prior was in style sufficient to gamble on rebranding the SmackDown sequence of video games.
The Clear and Soiled mechanic was a bizarre little blast as nicely, giving even the kayfabe-iest followers an opportunity to lean right into a gimmick and be rewarded for it. In the meantime, the stare down and take a look at of energy type mini-games, together with a bra and panties match spanking mechanic that snuck in on the tail finish of the Perspective Period’s affect, supplied a bit extra of what the stay wrestling occasions featured on TV. You possibly can additionally create your individual belt in a Create-a-Championship mode for when creating your self in a wrestling recreation simply isn’t sufficient.
The Royal Rumble of WWE video games, SmackDown! Vs. Uncooked at quantity 10 appears like the brand new man within the promotion that lasts for a decent run within the ring, however finally you overlook he was there by the subsequent pay-per-view.
Counting all the way down to quantity 9, we return to Y2K and the beginnings of what turned the WWE 2K sequence, with WWF SmackDown! It was a welcome change from earlier entries on the PlayStation that went again to the extra arcade type motion we knew from the N64 video games which, to not give an excessive amount of away, may do a run in and assault this record with a chair right here in just a few spots.
SmackDown! can also be a bit infamous for the issues it removed. With no commentary, you needed to wrestle to a weird mixture of inventory house-adjacent music and a gradual hum of fan noise (it was actually a bit traumatic…) whereas the weird non-entrances for the wrestlers in entrance of matches felt like a wonky corner-cutting measure greater than a inventive alternative.
On a private be aware, nonetheless, the hardcore and metal cage match had been an absolute should of an inclusion. What are we even doing if, on the peak of the Perspective Period, we don’t have unimpeded violence on the menu. I believe I bought injured simply watching the TLC matches with The Dudley Boyz, The Hardyz and Edge and Christian.
All that to say, it’s a strong sufficient approach to kick off a brand new sequence. This can be a recreation that will’ve had 2 memorable spots throughout a Royal Rumble earlier than getting dumped over the ropes by the fifteenth entrant instantly, so touchdown at quantity 9 on our record feels proper.
For our eighth decide with a 65.8% win fee that’s not even a full share level larger than our quantity 10, we bounce forward to the 2007 version of WWE SmackDown! Vs. Uncooked. Touchdown on the Xbox 360, it’s the primary WWE recreation for a seventh era console, and instantly took benefit of these candy, candy joysticks. The analog management system launched within the recreation made the motion extra real looking the place vital grappleman techniques like throwing a man into the viewers are involved.
Maybe essentially the most real looking a part of the sport although is how moist Triple H is on the quilt. This can be my very own bias, however nothing says “2007 within the WWE” fairly like a soaking moist Triple H screaming on the apron, child oil from his hair streaking down both facet of his chest, having undoubtedly simply spit half a bottle of Crystal Geyser onto the entrance row. It was a sticky, greasy time for the WWE in these days and “soggy Triple H” as the quilt picture for this recreation makes essentially the most sense. In reality, the sport may’ve gotten bonus factors in our Face-Off for being an even bigger spotlight for wrestling followers than the precise wrestling occurring in 2007.
That 2007’s SmackDown! Vs. Uncooked made this record appears like extra of a testomony to one thing being the primary. On reflection it isn’t spectacular for something extra notable than being our first likelihood to play WWE video games on seventh gen consoles. It looks as if that nostalgia may’ve been the tie-breaker between this recreation and the video games that completed eleventh or twelfth, only a share level or two behind it.
So to sum up, Moist Hunter 2007 within the quantity eight spot is just like the time Diamond Dallas Web page entered the Rumble to advertise his yoga program. It’s good to see a man whose higher days you bear in mind.
7-6-5: A Triple Menace Match of The Rock’s Catchphrases
Earlier than we transfer on to the subsequent few picks, I wish to bear in mind how stupidly in style The Rock was within the Perspective Period. That in all probability goes with out saying, however don’t overlook that in the actual world of Decided End result Grappling, SmackDown as a model was mainly The Rock’s spinoff present. Like if The Rock went to be a radio psychiatrist in Seattle whereas Stone Chilly stored working the bar in Boston.**** Having popularized “laying the smack down on sweet asses,” the sport sequence moved on to borrow extra of Dwayne’s fully over verbiage for the subsequent three video games within the sequence, which additionally occur to be the subsequent three spots on our record. As a result of I’m, frankly, a bit confused as to how that occurred, I’m going to speak about them in a single outsized section. So for our numbers seven by way of 5, we’ve bought Know Your Function, Simply Carry It and Shut Your Mouth.
7: WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Function (2000) – 67.7%
So going again to when the WWE was coasting by way of the height of its recognition, at quantity seven, successful 67.7% of its match-ups in our Face-Off, is WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Function. Dropping simply months after its predecessor WWF SmackDown! in 2000, the sport had choices galore. Whereas earlier wrestling video games featured them, Know Your Function had the primary correctly superior Create-a-Celebrity mode. Crafting your individual gimmick full with individualized taunts actually will get what being a wrestling fan is all about: telling your self “I may do this with out critical harm” and believing it.***** Know Your Function, which now that I give it some thought is a thematically excellent subtitle for a recreation with the primary correct Create-a-Celebrity mode, supplied you the possibility to show you perceive how one can be a wrestler.
6: WWF SmackDown! Simply Carry It (2001) – 67.8%
A yr later in 2001, WWF SmackDown! Simply Carry It dropped one other of The Rock’s mic gems to herald the return of commentary to the motion. However whereas it was the primary SmackDown recreation to characteristic Michael Cole and Tazz speaking you thru the matches, it was the final to characteristic the WWF branding earlier than the World Wildlife Fund landed a frog splash from the highest rope of a courtroom. Whereas Simply Carry It additionally contains six- and eight-man match codecs, these had been subsequently ditched for over a decade and a half, and the sport is the meat of a SmackDown sandwich. It’s a midcard gimmick match within the forgettable stretch of a pay-per-view destined to be outshined by the primary occasion. Or, to proceed my thread of Royal Rumble allegories, a Mark Henry/Massive Present confrontation close to the midway level of the Rumble the place they someway get rid of one another as a result of no person else is powerful sufficient to get them over the ropes.
5: WWF SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth (2002) – 70.3%
Two years after Know Your Function, the SmackDown! Sequence lastly completed The Rock’s signature catch phrases with Shut Your Mouth in 2003. It’s one other incrementally higher recreation within the sequence, with a bump within the graphics so the wrestlers seemed extra just like the wrestlers and, whereas I personally love having the ability to climb and bounce off the jumbo tron, it’s fascinating to search out this recreation together with its two predecessors occupying all three spots in the midst of our record. Maybe it’s a nostalgia factor and these years had been the primary nearly all of IGN’s viewers bought into wrestling video games. It may be that this stretch of the sequence will get blended up with each other so all of them sort of break up the vote. Regardless, SmackDown’s early 2000s entries generated some fond reminiscences. Like how possibly you’ll be able to’t bear in mind which Rumble it was that Kane eradicated himself when the orderlies tried to take him again to the insane asylum, however you’ll be able to slim it all the way down to a few years window.
Arguably the primary formally nice WWF recreation, dropping in 1999 (a yr that may very well be thought of the excessive watermark for professional wrestling’s recognition), Wrestlemania 2000 gained over 70% of its matchups in our Face-Off. It’s additionally a recreation that makes me really feel protected saying that N64 stuff was all unimpeachably nice whereas additionally taking no follow-up questions on the matter.
Whereas it was the primary time you might edit the Superstars, and the thought of placing Chris Jericho in Shane McMahon’s tracksuit can be definitely worth the value of the cartridge simply in case it was doable, the actually unimaginable factor about this recreation is how the event of it mirrored the enterprise of the time. The Monday Evening Wars weren’t actually a contest anymore, with the WWF lapping the WCW in recognition by 1999. It could be one other two years earlier than the McMahons straight-up purchased the competitors, however the rivalry between the 2 corporations prolonged into the online game area within the late ’90s.
WCW/nWo Revenge from developer AKI and writer THQ was a really beloved wrestling recreation from 1998, so the one pure response can be for WWF to ditch Acclaim and swoop in to companion with AKI and THQ. The outcome is kind of the identical recreation as the favored WCW/nWO Revenge, simply with wildly extra in style Superstars from the WWF roster. The large database of transfer units and customizable choices within the create-a-wrestler space that already existed within the recreation’s engine from the WCW title truly made it doable to imitate the WCW wrestlers that bought left behind, which is such an on-brand center finger from the WWF to their on-the-verge-of-vanquished competitor. It was a pile on after the bell had already rung.
So far as the precise recreation goes although, it laid a sturdy groundwork for subsequent titles, together with the one which landed at primary on our record. Form of just like the man that’s already feuding with the champ coming into the Rumble within the twenties someplace. You simply know he’s going to finish up successful to allow them to sq. off at Wrestlemania.
WWE 2K24 gained 71% of it’s match-ups in our Face-Off, incomes it a spot on the rostrum on this Prime 10 record, which is wild contemplating the place the sequence was only a few years in the past. WWE 2K20 was such a trainwreck that they simply mentioned “nevermind” in 2021 and began from scratch for 2k22. So, if 2K20 was the tip of a heel flip angle earlier than a wrestler takes a bit break day, 2K22 was his return to the energetic roster constructing as much as his title run in 2K24.
With a extra dependable basis constructed with the yr off, 2K24 was the third yr in a row that has been about layering the bells and whistles again into the gameplay, and consequently 2K24 feels full in a method that WWE video games simply haven’t in a really very long time.
WWE 2K24 constructed on the strong basis of its predecessor by not solely sprucing and bettering each characteristic throughout the board, however including far more than maybe anybody anticipated for an iterative WWE recreation. Ambulance and Casket matches had been a welcome change to the grappling motion, and the return of particular visitor referee mode – the primary time we’d seen it in over 10 years – was as stunning as Shane McMahon flipping Austin twin birds when he placed on the black and white stripes himself.
There’s recency bias with this one, positive, however WWE 2K24 does really feel like a feature-complete wrestling package deal, an accolade beforehand reserved nearly solely for our high two on this record.
We’ve got to leap again to the run of profitable WWE SmackDown! Video games for our quantity two spot with 2003’s follow-up to Shut Your Mouth, the equally threatening Right here Comes the Ache. Successful over three-quarters of its Face-Off match-ups, it might need been the very best of the SmackDown! bunch earlier than the sequence modified to 2K.
The Elimination Chamber confirmed up in a recreation for the primary time, as did the Bra and Panties match (though the aforementioned spanking mechanic that unlocked a lower scene of the 2 feminine wrestlers kissing must wait one other yr). The sport additionally featured Legends for the primary time, with all-timers exhibiting up like Rowdy Roddy Piper, Sgt. Slaughter and The Iron Shiek. That you simply couldn’t pit The Undertaker’s Useless Man gimmick in opposition to George The Animal Steele in a Bra and Panties match feels each not stunning and like a missed alternative, nonetheless.
The factor that provides this recreation an enduring legacy although must be its profession mode. It had an RPG really feel to the locker room maneuvering. Gamers had been free to speak to extra folks backstage and chart a course on your Celebrity that felt a bit extra off the rails. This recreation is the face that takes future by way of the Rumble, the one you wish to win the entire thing, however comes up quick in the long run by slightly below three share factors.******
So right here comes the payoff to my TLC match remark from method again in quantity 9. On the record of issues that tug on my wrestling nostalgia strings like a determined Bubba Ray Dudley making an attempt to free a tag crew belt 20 toes above the ring, the highest two are grimacing by way of ladder matches and huddling in entrance of a really small tube TV with three mates, Swanton bombing from the highest of a ladder on an N64.
WWF No Mercy has been a benchmark for wrestling video games for greater than 20 years now and at only a tick over an 80% win share, we’ve bought the proof that it continues to be everybody’s favourite (or extra precisely, at the least 4 out of 5 folks’s favourite). As a part of the category of the N64 period (on which I’ve already made my emotions clear), additions just like the ladder match and backstage brawls introduced extra of what was in style in-ring on the time, whereas the create-a-wrestler perform continued to increase and a profession mode that branched in every kind of instructions was an apparent improve over Wrestlemania 2000.
There’s one thing about that mixture, catching every little thing that was wild concerning the peak of the Perspective Period and channeling it by way of simple to get grappling mechanics, that has made this recreation extra enduring than each different one on this record. Modders are nonetheless actively including new wrestlers to the playable roster and even AEW Battle Endlessly was an try at recreating No Mercy’s magic.
The sport wasn’t excellent (it chugged as quickly as 4 gamers confirmed up) but it surely nailed a very powerful factor: capturing the essence of a wildly in style time in wrestling historical past, which is why we expect it’s among the best WWE video video games ever made.
What do you assume? Agree with this record? It’s sort of yours truly, on account of you guys voted within the Face-Off, however be at liberty to disagree with it down within the feedback anyway!
*significantly, don’t fucking yard wrestle
**on this case “all time” refers back to the final 40-ish years, which continues to be some time, however within the grand scheme of issues it’s solely 4 many years and “of all time” is generally simply right here for a budget warmth
***needed to sneak another in and didn’t really feel like deleting this promise
****yep, it’s 100% precisely like that
*****my gimmick was named “Boastful” Dandy Blaine, and he was a vicious and muscly heel, similar to me
******I’m conscious Royal Rumbles aren’t scored on a share level foundation
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