The next entry into the Smackdown! series of WWE games is the rather stupid sounding “Shut Your Mouth”, I guess they’d already used “Know Your Role” on SD!2 and “Just Bring It!” in the last game so ran out of Rock catchphrases? (Well, baring in mind “Smackdown! If You Smell” sounds weird) Subtitle aside SYM and its sequel are the high point of PS2 WWE games and frankly among the best in the whole Yukes SD/SvR/2K run that only recently came to an end. So let’s take a look!
Background:
Let’s start with one of those promotional pictures that got used EVERYWHERE, just for the nostalgia.
WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth was released in the US on October 31st 2002 (cue spooky noises!) followed by a UK release on November 15th that year. It was eventually released in Japan as “Exciting Pro Wrestling 4” (naturally!) on February 6th 2003.
As for roster, well we’re just entering the first Brand Split of early 2002 so we get a fair few ex-WCW guys making their Smackdown! series debut. It features The Rock, Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Booker T, Edge, Kane, The Big Show, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Rob Van Dam, Tazz, William Regal, DDP (in his only WWE game appearance as an active roster member rather than a legend), Christian, X-Pac, Chris Benoit, Lance Storm, Rhyno, The Hurricane, Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, Spike Dudley, Al Snow, Rikishi, Albert, Billy (Gunn), Billy Kidman, Bradshaw, Faarooq, Goldust, Hardcore Holly, Trish Stratus, Lita, Ivory, Jazz, Mark Henry, Raven, Scotty 2 Hotty, Molly Holly, Stacey Keibler, Test, Tajiri, The Big Valbowski (remember when Val Venis changed his name to that?) Shawn Stasiak (oddly!) and Torrie Wilson. Plus Vince and Stephanie McMahon are also selectable.
It also features the game debuts of Brock Lesnar (never heard of him…), Randy Orton (also doesn’t ring a bell…) Chuck (Palumbo), Rico, and Maven, making his one and only game appearance. Overall it’s one of the more stacked rosters in gaming history really, especially before the period where loads of Legends started getting poured into them, anyway.
Gameplay:
Shawn Michaels was only selectable in jeans and an n.W.o. shirt, representing an era that lasted all of a few weeks…
The core gameplay of Shut Your Mouth remains the same as its predecessor: a single strike button that can unleash different moves with different directions, a dedicated grapple button that will also do different moves depending on what direction you press and whether or not your opponent is groggy. You have a single reversal button, you can hit and store finishers, plus running moves, ground strikes, ground submissions, top rope moves, all the usual. What they added was mainly in the “selling”, so the old super-fast arcade-y style that was reduced but still present in Just Bring It has been completely toned down now, with wrestlers staying on the floor if they’ve been hit by a move and staying down longer if they’ve been hit by a big move or one of the new more devastating weapon hits (and even weapon grapples!). This led to the perfect mix of simple arcade-y fun but a greater feeling of depth and actual consequence to hitting big moves. Admittedly the actual move animations still look very floaty and don’t have the impact like the N64 AKI games did, but that’s okay, doesn’t take away from things much, just gives it a different feeling.
Alongside new weapons / weapon hitting animations SYM was also the first game to introduce removing the turnbuckles, allowing you to whip someone into the exposed turnbuckle to do extra damage, and types of pin that illegally use the rope for leverage. Some of the gimmick matches saw improvements that would become staples of the series as well, like the Ladder / TLC Matches now have some great “tipping the ladder over” animations, they allow two people to climb the same ladder and attack each other, you can lean ladders and tables in the corners and throw opponents into them/through them, and the Hell in a Cell is … better, though still not exactly “to scale” it at least surrounds the ring rather than looking like a regular steel cage with a roof. Otherwise it has all the match types from the previous game, including the now retrospectively rare “I Quit” match, plus Hardcore, TLC, Last Man Standing, Battle Royal, Royal Rumble, all that good stuff. As mentioned in the previous Smackdown! game review the people in the ring limit has fallen down to six people, which is a shame for battle royal and Royal Rumble enthusiasts like myself, but understandable due to the limitations of the time.
During hardcore and other no-count-out match types you can fight backstage as per usual, but this time they went the extra mile and added lots of connected locations ranging from corridors and lobbies to parking lots and subway stations to even Time’s Square! They all have interactive parts as well, including jumping off tall buildings and rope ladders. It’s all very zany but in the “laughing out loud with your friends” kind of way. The season mode this time is good fun, they’ve taken the yearly calendar / working TV shows and PPVs aspect from SD!2, narrowed it down to just two years and added a bunch of full storylines you can follow over the course of a year. The original Draft kicks things off then you can do the whole reformation of the n.W.o story, or the Angle/Edge hair vs. hair story (if you pick one of those two superstars) and plenty more generic title-based feuds as you play as either a selectable star or a created wrestler. There is a surprising amount of replay value in it, so long as you enjoy the actual gameplay, obviously… Throw in your standard creation suites with improvements to the create-a-wrestler and a greater variety of moves for movesets and that’s your lot, and it’s a lot!
Out of all of these Yukes games I think the sheer amount of improvements between Just Bring It and Shut Your Mouth was the most significant, while plenty get added and the visuals are obviously improved everything from here on very much feels like smaller steps (forward or backwards…) where as this was a big leap forward.
Graphics and Sound:
The Rock applies a simple headlock… in the middle of a busy New York road! A risky strategy, definitely…
The graphics are greatly improved over its predecessor, with much more detail on the models (hence the only six people in the ring thing…) and a much better ring / arena. Obviously they’re still PS2 era visuals, so I’m not saying they particularly stand the test of time or anything, but they get the job done for the era.
Sound is good too, the audience sounds, impact sounds, entrance and menu music are all accounted for and are in good condition. The commentary is still bad, but given Just Bring It was frankly other-level awful it makes this feel great in comparison…
Thoughts Then:
Customary picture of a Royal Rumble, sadly blurry due to having to try and screengrab a video, but hey… (No I still can’t screen capture Gen six or seven games, sorry…)
Shut Your Mouth was the wrestling game that finally entertained me enough to put No Mercy to one side. Admittedly I would go back to the AKI games here and there still (forever, basically…), but this was played solidly throughout the year-long gap between it and the next PS2 Smackdown! game, which due to being very similar but improved in all areas meant this game rarely got played afterwards. Either way though, I still consider Shut Your Mouth to be when the PlayStation WWE games finally clicked and because of that it was played to death!
Thoughts Now:
I do miss the absolute chaos you could have in this game… we need more six way matches that spill backstage, damn it!
Funnily enough even now Shut Your Mouth is still a good laugh to play. It’s still got that arcade-y charm and the roster / career mode are of a time that I still have fond memories of. While if I wanted to go back and play an entry in the Smackdown! series I’d probably put on the next title, this game still has plenty of fun to offer, much to my surprise.
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