Dare to Compare- WWE SmackDown vs. Toukon Retsuden.
I'm working on this bad-boy as my first-ever feature article, and I'd l ike some feedback onto how good this is, quality wise. From what I've noticed so far, it's a bit dry, and could use some more detail. I'd like to know if anyone else shares that opinion on it so I can edit the piece better and make it the best that it can be.
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This will be a comparison of the two Yukes wrestling game series‘: Toukon Retsuden: New Japan Pro Wrestling, and their WWF/E SmackDown. Now I’m sure most, if not all of you have heard of Yukes’ Toukon Retsuden games, but how many of you have actually played them? For those who haven’t played them, this feature is here to educate you on the points of the series and how it compares to Yukes’ current SmackDown series.
Toukon Retsuden: New Japan Pro Wrestling
This pioneering wrestling game series began in 1995 when the first game was released by Tomy on September 29th of that year. As you can probably tell, it carried the New Japan Pro Wrestling license and featured an assortment of that company’s stars for its’ games. The first game was the first 3D wrestling game ever made, and it showed. The game’s roster was about as bare-bones as you could get, as was the mode selection. With only 12 wrestlers in it (not including the four hidden characters.) The mode selection featured a variety of one-on-one match styles, but the ability to wrestle with more than two people in the ring at once wasn’t seen in this series until the second game. As time went on, the roster and mode selection increased by leaps and bounds. Thankfully, the realistic, and addictive nature of the gameplay kept players of the first game hooked without the need for the extra modes. Very few people at the time noticed the lack of game modes and wrestlers, we were all too busy having fun with the gameplay. If you haven’t played Toukon Retsuden (or its’ successors) the gameplay revolved around a rock/paper/scissors principle for grapping, striking, and standing submissions. If one person does a strike, it can be negated with a standing submission; if another player goes for a grappling move, then it can be countered with a strike, and if someone goes for a standing submission, it can be nullified with a grappling move. This play system helped keep the gameplay balanced.
The submission system for the game had its’ roots deeply rooted in realism since moves couldn’t be broken unless the player chose to release them. If you went for a submission early on in the match, the move wouldn’t be on for too long since your opponent would escape the move since he was fresh. As time went on in a match, submissions could be applied for longer lengths of time since you’ve worn your foe down, and he’s more prone to attack. The series’ submission system is also notable for its’ enforcing of the rules in pro wrestling. If you don’t break a submission hold when your opponent is in the ropes, the referee (Tiger Hattori) will begin his five count, if the submission hold is not broken by the end of the five count, you will be disqualified, although you can still hold he move on the opponent after the match to really rub salt in the wounds. The use of rules in pro wrestling doesn’t stop there though. The five count rule for top turnbuckle moves is also enforced in this game. In the Toukon Retsuden games, the competitors have five seconds from the time they climb to the top turnbuckle to attack their opponent. If they fail to execute their move within that five seconds, they will be disqualified. The enforcement of the rules is one of the small things that makes the Toukon Retsuden series unique, after all, no wrestling game since this series has actually enforced the rules to this level. The gameplay of the Toukon Retsuden games tends to be a bit more methodical, to better enable the recreation of classic New Japan Pro Wrestling heavyweight matches. Although the engine is versatile enough to enable you to have some great NJPW junior matches as well. The Toukon Retsuden system’s submission system wouldn’t be nearly as great as it is if it wasn’t for the body damage system that Yukes implemented in the series to help compliment the submission system. The body damage system worked like this, you do damage to one part of the body, like the legs, and that part of the body that you have attacked has become weaker and the attacks using it will do less damage as more damage is done to it. Once the leg gets damaged enough, the wrestler who has had their legs damaged will have their movements slowed down immensely. This visual damage system is fantastic since it works much the same way as in-ring psychology does in pro wrestling. The player has to believe that there is damage done to a limb, and what better what to showcase that damage than to have it reflected in the actions of the damaged character? You can opt to focus on one part of the body, and immobilize it, or work on multiple parts of the body and wear your foe down limb-by-limb until he’s just waiting for you to slap a submission hold on him and have him submit. By the way, the Toukon Retsuden games enabled you to keep attacking your foes after the match, which enabled you to inflict even more damage on them, and rub salt in their wounds, so to speak. Another hallmark of the Toukon Retsuden games was their bloodletting system. The bleeding system in the Toukon Retsuden games is the best one yet, and here’s why. Say you spend time doing strikes to the right side of a wrestler’s forehead, as time goes on, a cut will open up, and as more and more damage is done to the wound, more blood will come pouring out of it. If you open up another cut on the other side of the face, or in the middle of the forehead, the trend continues and more and more blood will pour out of the wound until the amount of blood your in-game wrestler can bleed has been maxed out and his face is covered in blood. As the series progressed, so did the bleeding system. The amount of blood that could be shed got just a little bit more excessive, and towards the end of the series, the blood looked even more realistic, and less like a grouping of dots put together to make a blood effect. Despite the high amount of blood loss that could be achieved in the game, it never got to an unrealistic level since the bloodshed was done in a realistic, and logical fashion.
The minute roster of the first game was eclipsed by the massive roster of the second game (released on the 12th of December in 1996) which included Chris Benoit (as the Wild Pegasus) and the legendary Antonio Inoki. The scant modes featured in the first Toukon Retsuden game were eclipsed by the multitude of new modes added to the second game. Chief among the added modes were a tag team match mode and a four man battle royal match (which was just a four-man elimination match.) Each of these modes enabled you to do some double team moves to your opponent, which is quite notable since Toukon Retsuden 2 was the first wrestling game to prominently feature double team attacks. A version of the second game in the series was released for the N64. It refined the graphics of Toukon Retsuden 2 a little bit, and added some wrestlers to the mix. The biggest gameplay addition in Toukon Retsuden 2, other than the double team moves, were the running grapples featured in the game. Toukon Retsuden 2 was the first wrestling game to ever feature them.
The third game saw another huge increase in the roster, which now included Eddie Guerrero, Rick Steiner, and Scott Steiner, as well as the addition of a create-a-wrestler mode. Toukon Retsuden 3 was the final game in the series to see a PlayStation release. As far as gameplay additions are concerned, combination moves were added to the mix and a nice amount of moves were added to the game.
The fourth game was brought to the Dreamcast in September of 1999 amid much fanfare from the long-time fans of the series. This game added some new wrestlers to the mix, but it didn’t feature the same quantum leaps as the previous sequels did. As such, it is considered by many to be the most disappointing game in the series. The only Toukon Retsuden game that saw a U.S. release was the first one, which was heavily altered from the original game and released as Power Move Pro Wrestling by Activision. Power Move was the first 3D wrestling game to ever be released in the U.S. All of the characters from the first Toukon Retsuden game are in, except Jushin Lyger. In order to off-set the exclusion of Lyger, the redone version of Power Warrior (who was a hidden character in the first Toukon Retsuden) was made a regular character in the game. Every wrestler from the first game in the series (except Lyger) was given a visual overhaul. Some of the wrestlers are barely recognizable, although Hiroshi Hase looks nearly identical in both games. Keiji Mutoh wears a dog collar in Power Move, and Scott Norton looks like some kind of freakshow attraction with his redone costume. As a side note, the first run of the game had box art that had to be redone since it showed pictures of the original Japanese game in place of the American characters on the back of the box. Oddly enough, the front of the box still has a picture of the original Japanese game, only it has been altered heavily to make the game‘s graphics look better than some PS2 wrestling games. The Toukon Retsuden series brought in many innovations to wrestling games, the use of 3D graphics and gameplay stylings is only the most noticeable of them.
The series brought about an under-appreciated feature- the ability to save your best matches to your memory card. This feature is, in my opinion, one of the best options ever in a wrestling game. It really added an extra layer to the replay value of the game. I hope that Yukes puts this feature into the SmackDown series since I feel it added quite a bit to the Toukon games, and it didn’t even take up too much memory since an entire match (up to 30 in-game minutes) could be saved on one block of memory. Also, the Toukon Retsuden games featured some of the most realistic ring introductions ever. The first and second games just had the competitors in the ring, while Kero-Chan (the ring announcer) rattled off the information about the competitors and the wrestlers did a little taunt after their information was called out. The third and fourth games added tons of glitz and glamour to the ring introductions. They were revamped to show the wrestlers coming to the ring amid a flurry of lights, flashbulbs from cameras (an effect added to the series in the second game) and hard rock music that helped set the tempo for the matches.
The Toukon Retsuden games also featured some small innovations that, much like the ability to save matches to memory, go un-noticed by many. The first of them is the addition of gourad-shading in the second game that gave the wrestlers a more realistic look to them. The addition of lighting effects (another Toukon Retsuden 2 innovation) really added to the sense of drama in the match. The flashbulbs going off while big moves were executed helped add another layer of drama to the matches and helped make the game even more enjoyable. Another key Toukon Retsuden 2 innovation (there were a lot of them folks) was the addition of a little snippet of Japanese text at the bottom of the screen that enabled you to see what move you were executing on your opponents, or vice versa. I found this feature to be quite enjoyable and I enjoyed seeing it in the first SmackDown game. It’s a shame that Yukes hasn’t placed the feature back in the series, as I found it to be a nice feature that added a sense of charm to the game. That mass of information pretty much covers the the Toukon Retsuden games, now it’s time to lay the SmackDown.
Part two.
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WWF SmackDown
This series began when the first game was released on March 2nd, 2000. WWF SmackDown was the first THQ-published WWF game on the PlayStation, and given the high standards set by their previous WWF release, WWF WrestleMania 2000 for the Nintendo 64, they had high expectations to meet. When the word came out that Yukes was developing the game, many people wondered what the game would play like. Those who played Yukes’ Toukon Retsuden games wondered if the gameplay style from that series would carry over, or if Yukes would make something totally new. When the game came out, Toukon fans were, by and large, disappointed to see some of the best aspects of the gameplay either watered down, or taken out completely.
The submission system, for example, was completely hacked to bits since each submission had a pre-determined amount of time it could be applied for. Most submissions didn’t last longer than one or two seconds, a trend that has yet to change in the SmackDown series, sadly. The running grapples that originated in the second Toukon Retsuden were carried over into this game. The rock/paper/scissors style of gameplay was done away with, and the gameplay speed was increased ten-fold to enable players to better recreate the fast-paced WWF style of matches. Perhaps the biggest selling point that this game had was its’ use of backstage areas. While backstage areas were nothing new in wrestling games (they were first seen in WCW Mayhem, which was released in September of 1999,) SmackDown promised to go beyond the re-drawn walls that were called backstage areas in Mayhem, and try something new. Yukes certainly did a great job with the backstage areas since they are still pretty good, even to this day. Yukes added in quite a bit of interactivity to them, such as having a stove shoot flames if you were thrown into it, and they made each area look great. One of the mot memorable areas was the gritty boiler room, which features dim lighting and had a fantastic atmosphere in it.
The fantastic, and realistic, bleeding system from the Toukon Retsuden games was removed entirely due to concerns from the WWF about the game’s (and eventually, the series’) use of nearly photo-realistic in-game wrestlers. Another key selling point to the game, other than the backstage areas, was the game’s story mode. The story mode featured in the first SmackDown game was the first one to incorporate RPG-style elements into the goings-on of the game. Say you’re in the backstage area, well, someone could come up to you and ask you to be your partner, and you can either accept their offer, or reject their offer, which would probably upset them just a wee bit. While it wasn’t a quantum leap forward for a story mode in a wrestling game, it planted the seeds towards a more realistic approach to storytelling in a wrestling game. Another innovation brought into 3D wrestling games was the ranking mode, in which you were given title shots based on your spot in the rankings. If you were in the top five, you could get a WWF title shot, if you’re in the top 10, you can get an Inter-Continental title shot, while being in the top 20 enabled you to get a shot at the European and Hardcore titles. Any competitor was eligible to win the tag titles, and only in-game women could win the women’s title (or created wrestlers with no gender specified.) While there were many good points about the first SmackDown game, one of the worst points in it was the sub-par create-a-wrestler mode. This mode is simply the worst creation mode ever in a 3D wrestling game, even the one in the third Toukon Retsuden game was better, and that game pre-dates this one by over two years. The game also suffered from a huge lack of moves. I can honestly think of SNES games with more moves than this one. Also, the entrances for the first and second games are worse than the ones for the third and fourth Toukon Retsuden ones, much worse.
The entrances in the first two SmackDown games consist of your chosen wrestler doing a set animation in front of their entrance video. While this may seem like a nice idea in theory, and it can be an enjoyable one in execution, it simply looks horrid when you see a guy like Jeff Hardy climb up a set of invisible turnbuckles to play to the crowd. Thankfully, the third SmackDown game featured more realistic entrances. The first SmackDown game featured something that hasn’t been done in any SmackDown game since: the ability to pull your opponents into the ring posts by their legs and put their testicular fortitude up against a solid steel ring post. Now, I’m sure you’re asking yourself just why on Earth I would miss this one, simple thing. Well, the answer is simple, it was done before in the series, and it should be in the sequels. On top of that, I’m a huge Curt Hennig fan and that was one of his trademark mannerisms before his back got all screwy in 1991. Also, one wrestling move has not been seen in the SmackDown games since the first one. That move being the twisting knee drop (as called by the game) done by Jeff Hardy in the game. In actuality, the move is a double-jump moonsault that was, for whatever reason, never seen again in the series. As a fan of Sabu’s ring-work (at one time), I was disappointed when I realized that this move was no longer there. Sure other moves have been added, but, as with the ring post racking, it’s been done before, and it should be in the sequels. The ability to do a piledriver, powerbomb, or Rock Bottom through the ringside tables was one that I enjoyed quite a bit from the first and second games in the series. They looked perfect when they were executed, and being able to counter the Rock Bottom on a table with a series of elbows that (in the second game and when done on a table near the ropes) could send a foe to the floor was one that I enjoyed immensely. Thankfully, the series has seen the level of table interactivity increase to its’ highest level with the fourth game in the series to the point where all of these things can be recreated manually (and then some) but the sub-par table system in the third game sure could have benefited from the automatic moves where all you have to do is hit circle (and a directional pad command for a powerbomb or Rock Bottom.)
The final selling point of the original SmackDown game that I’m going to touch on is going to be the special guest referee mode, which made its’ debut in the first SmackDown game. This mode enabled you to really add some spark to matches since you could make future matches and feuds (that you, the player created) on your time and at your leisure by your actions in the mode. This works in much the same way that being able to attack your foes after the match worked in the Toukon Retsuden games. You can do something to give one character some motivation for a feud, like putting a fast count on them and costing them a match. By getting as involved as possible with the characters and feuds that you create, it should keep you, the player, interested in the game. After all, you made the feud. This mode worked quite well in the first SmackDown game, and it was refined to near-perfection in the second game. The second game added the ability for a second guest referee, which definitely made things interesting since you could either choose to help the wrestler that you have been assigned to being the referee for, or you can screw him over and put the fast count on him, and side with his or her opponent and their referee. This mode remained unchanged in the third game, thankfully, but it took a huge turn for the worse in the fourth game, which saw the amount of guest referees that you could choose from drop dramatically. Instead of being able to pick from anyone on the roster to be a guest referee, like you could in every other SmackDown game, the fourth game limits you to four default characters in the game, plus your created wrestlers. I can’t even begin to fathom why Yukes would make such a drastic change to the mode, since it really cuts down on the fun you can have with it due to the limitations placed on it.
The second SmackDown game (released on November 11, 2000, barely over six months after the first game in the series) saw a complete and total revamping of everything in the game but the gameplay. The graphics received a slight touch-up. The biggest changes in the game occurred in the game’s story mode (now called a season mode), the create-a-wrestler mode, the amount of modes in the game, and in the amount of moves that were actually in the game. The season mode could go forever in this game, which gave it tons of replay value if you didn’t get tired of it. The most welcome addition to the season mode, in my opinion, was the inclusion of the “unknown” move sets, which were the real-life move sets of pro wrestlers who weren’t in the game. The sheer amount of move sets added was astonishing at the time, and it ensured a nice increase in the amount of moves in the game, which is always a good thing. Also, the ranking mode, which was used liberally in the first SmackDown was refined to the point where you could conceivably win every title in the game just by having one championship in your possession. It’s a feature that I enjoyed quite a bit and it really made the game last longer for me.
Here’s how it worked- you win any title, like the European title, and you are automatically eligible for a title shot at any title that is higher or lower in status than your current one. You can place just one title on the line in the match, like the title you want to win, or you can place both titles on the line so that it’s a “winner takes all” situation. Do this enough times and you will eventually hold all the championships in the game. The create a wrestler mode saw an even bigger overhaul than the season mode. The mode was redone from the ground up, and was made into the best one ever seen at that point in time. The appearance aspects of it were very thorough, and this game was the first one to enable you to edit each individual figure that your wrestler had. You could adjust the width and length of nearly every limb and appendage on your wrestler, which let you tailor-make everyone you created. The amount of attire added to the mode also made character creation a breeze, as did the unknown move sets. Up until the most recent SmackDown game, I’d have to say that this game had the best create a wrestler mode ever. The backstage areas in this game were, in my opinion, the best ones that the series has seen yet, and that includes the ones in the most recent SmackDown game, Shut Your Mouth. The sheer amount of backstage areas was jaw dropping, add to that the hidden ones and you have yourself quite an enjoyable set of backstage areas to fight in. The interactivity in them increased, as did the visual quality of them. The addition of the time limit title mode for the hardcore title was quite enjoyable, as it enabled you to recreate the 24-7 rule of the hardcore title to perfection. This mode perfectly showed off the tons of backstage areas, and their interactivity, since you could do so many things to so many people within just one of the areas. As I mentioned earlier, this SmackDown game features the same style of wrestler entrances as the first game, and as someone who wasn’t a fan of that style, it bothered me a bit. Although Yukes did add some humorous entrances (like one in which your character comes down the imaginary aisle with a missile on his shoulder) that added a sense of comedy to them. The outlandish nature of some of the entrances really helped overshadow how inaccurate they were. But, if they had to be inaccurate, I’m glad that they were, if nothing else, entertaining. The new modes added to the game made all of the fun gameplay aspects even better. SmackDown 2 was the first game to feature a create a taunt mode, which enabled you to personalize the taunts for your created wrestlers. SD 2 was also the first (and so far, only) game to feature a casket match. SD 2 was the first game to ever feature a Hell in a Cell mode, and it was the first (and only) PSX game to feature a ladder match mode in it. On top of that, the create a stable and create a manager modes enabled you to customize the goings on in the game to your liking. You could set who you wanted to be paired up with as partners, or teammates, and then select a manager. The create a stable mode has been seen since SD 2, but not as well done as it was in this game. The create a manager mode hasn’t been seen since, which is a shame. The second game added a nice little feature that increased the amount of interactivity you could have around the ringside area. This game added the feature of being able to ram your opponent’s head directly into the ringside barricades and the two announce tables. While this feature didn’t add too much, it was something that set it apart from the rest.
The third SmackDown game is regarded much like the fourth Toukon Retsuden game, a good game in its’ own right, but it pales in comparison to the other games in the series. The move to the PlayStation 2 brought very little new to the table, and nothing that couldn’t have been done on the original PlayStation. The graphics received a slight tune-up like they did with the transition from the first to the second SmackDown, but since this was the series’ debut on the PS 2, people expected, and rightfully so, more changes improvements to the graphics than the ones that were there. Other than some polygon increases on the characters, and increased details, very little changed graphically. Quite frankly, the graphics in the third SmackDown game barely look better than the ones of the second game when its’ running in the PS 2’s graphical filter for PSX games. To make matters worse for the third SmackDown game, the number of moves in the game didn’t see as dramatic an increase as before, despite this game having about double the development time of the second one.
Also, the ranking mode feature was scrapped entirely so that players could only win titles in the game’s story mode, which was all of five matches long. The story mode ended up being too short for long-term play, and too long for simple title defenses. Also, on top of not being able to defend a title when you wanted, you couldn’t even choose what type of match to defend the title in, or even who to defend it against. As bad as this is, it’s still better than the title defense situation in the fourth game, which I will touch on a little later. It wasn’t all bad though, the create a wrestler mode saw a nice change made when it enabled you to edit the move sets of the wrestlers already in the game. I found that this feature helped to really keep the game fresh, as you could combine it with the create a taunt mode (which returned from SD 2) to add more personal touches to every wrestler in the game. It’s a shame that the appearance features in the create a wrestler mode didn’t receive too many notable additions, other than being able to add text over a limited area on a wrestler’s body, and the logos of WCW and ECW being featured in the mode.
The entrances in the third game were much-improved over the ones in the first two games, while the table system, much like the series as a whole with this game, took one step forward and two steps back. First off, the entrances were now done in a more realistic fashion, like they were in the third and fourth Toukon Retsuden games. The wrestlers are shown going from the stage area, into the ring, where they proceed to do a taunt or two to establish the characters. This method is, in my opinion, more visually appealing to the player, and it’s far more realistic to boot, which is always a plus in my book.
Part 3.
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The table system in the third SmackDown game is, for the most part, the worst one yet for a SmackDown game. The wrestlers have an annoying tendency to just slide off of the tables before you do a move to them, and the ability to do any grappling moves through a table is a pipe-dream unless you put two of them side-by-side. Also, you have to hit them just right in order for them to break. I find this aspect of it to be quite unrealistic from a pro wrestling standpoint, although it does make the moves look more damaging when done on a table since the table didn’t break, yet the wrestler still took all the impact from it. The third SmackDown game was the first one that enabled players to double-stack the tables up like Public Enemy used to do in ECW and WCW (R.I.P. Ted Petty- A.K.A. Rocco Rock.) Being able to double-stack the tables is a blast and brings back a lot of memories for me. In the game, you can use the double-stack of tables near a ramp way to do a powerbomb (the automatic one only) through the top table, which looks quite vicious since you and your opponent are so high up, and your opponent’s fall doesn’t break the bottom table, which makes it look even more brutal than it would be. Also, you can recreate (sort of) the finishing move of Public Enemy “the Drive By” if you give a Rocco Rock CAW (or any other wrestler) the rope flip 2 attack in the create a wrestler mode and have him do it to a foe on a table. The table system in the third SmackDown wasn’t all bad, and it did add some innovation to the mix, so it wasn’t all bad. The backstage areas in the third SmackDown game weren’t quite as fun to use as the ones in the first two games. The standout features in this year’s backstage areas were the fantastic APA office, which enabled you to throw your foe through the APA’s door, and assault them with all sorts of things on their card table, such as ashtrays and crushed beer cans (which were made into soda cans for the game) and being able to throw your foes through glass. The third SmackDown game was the first one that enabled you to throw your foe through glass, which you could do in a locker room, or on top of a balcony. You could also throw your foes off of the balcony and jump down on them, much like what New Jack used to do in ECW and XPW. This was also the first game that enabled you to pummel your foe up and down flights of stairs, which makes recreating the legendary Chris Benoit-Kevin Sullivan matches a breeze.
The fourth SmackDown game was expected, by the fans, to right the wrongs of the third game. Namely, the sub-par improvements to the graphics, the somewhat-poor table system, and the short story mode. And it did all that, and then some. However, they also made some mistakes along the way, which I will get into in a little while. First off, the wrestlers in the game are now bursting with life thanks to the hard working folks at Yukes who made sure to capture the look and mannerisms of every wrestler in the game. Everyone in the game, from the Rock down to Mark Henry has at least one more or mannerism that was made just for them. This kind of attention to detail from Yukes has helped ensure that every character in the game exude a personality all their own. Yukes has captured the power of Brock Lesnar, the size of the Big Show, and the insanity of Shawn Staziak’s Planet Stasiak character through their attention to detail. Visually, the character models are leagues ahead of the ones in the third SmackDown game. Every character is bathed in bodily detail. Brock Lesnar’s body is bulging with muscle mass, while the bodies of Hulk Hogan and “the Nature Boy” Ric Flair show their age through wrinkles and excess flab around the muscles of their bodies.
The table system in the fourth game is like a “best of” for all the tables systems used in the SmackDown games. Yukes managed to combine the ease of use for the tables from the first and second games (more so the second than the first) with the diverse uses for them from the third SmackDown game. Yukes also added in the ability to set tables up in the corners of the ring, which was first seen in WWE WrestleMania X8 for the GameCube, a game that Yukes developed. The story mode from the third SmackDown game has been revamped in much the same fashion as it was from the first to second SmackDown games. It’s been renamed to being the season mode again, and Yukes added in a ton of compelling storylines this time around though, most of which are based around the real-life storylines of the past year of WWE programming. The most prominent storylines featured in this game are the roster split and the New World Order invasion from early-2002. While I, personally, didn’t find the real-life versions of these two things too exciting, Yukes did a fantastic job at putting their creative license to use in an effort to make the storylines better suit a video game. The RPG elements from the first game that were pushed aside in the second and third games (for the most part,) are back again, and better than ever. You now have total control over the path that your in-game career takes. The ranking system from the first two games is back, although now it is just limited to the season mode, which means that you can’t defend titles, at all, unless you are in a season with a certain character. I didn’t think it was actually possible, but Yukes managed to make the title defense situation even worse in the fourth game. At least they brought back the old time limit title mode from the second SmackDown game, which is now not for the hardcore title, but it’s rather more of a survival mode than anything else. It’s still a fun mode, but the lack of being able to defend the hardcore title in it does taint it somewhat.
The entrances in the fourth SmackDown game are slightly better than the ones featured in the third game, although not by much. First off, the level of animation in them has been bumped up, and they’ve been personalized more. Secondly, the title belts now wrap around pretty much every wrestler perfectly, and some wrestlers carry belts in a unique manner, like the Rock, who tosses the belt around in his hand, and the Undertaker, who wears it around his neck as he makes his way to the ring. The key downside to the entrances, and the thing that makes them just slightly better than the ones featured in the third game is the omission of certain transitional parts of the wrestlers’ entrances. For example, as the Hurricane, you will see him go down one part of the aisle, then go onto the apron, then go into the ring, but you won’t see him do some little things, like him actually walking to the apron, or walk into the ring, he’ll just magically be there, as if he teleported there or something. It’s a small feature, but, much like my distain for the entrance in the first and second games, it kind of destroys the sense of reality that having realistic entrances is supposed to create.
The body location damage system from the Toukon Retsuden series was finally brought into the SmackDown series for the first time in the series’ fourth game. The damage system works in much same fashion as it did in the Toukon Retsuden games, only it has been furthered just a little bit, and yet, at the same time, knocked down a peg due to the sub-par submission system, which doesn’t do the body location damage system justice. Anyways, Yukes brought the body location damage system back to their games, they refined it a bit to better show the damage done to the body parts. First off, they made it a progressive system, much like in the Toukon Retsuden games, as more damage is done to a limb, the wrestler who’s being damaged will show more pain than before. In this game, the wrestlers will for a few seconds after suffering extensive knee damage. While this system of showing more pain to better emphasize the damage done to the limb is great, the fact that the wrestler being attacked will just shake the pain off in a few seconds is bothersome. In the Toukon Retsuden games, if you did damage to a limb, it stayed there the entire match. In the fourth SmackDown game, if you do damage to a limb it stays there for mere seconds before it magically disappears. Had Yukes made the attacks that used the damaged limb less effective, like they did in the Toukon Retsuden games, it might be a forgivable flaw, but since they didn’t, it isn’t.
The Final Verdict
In my opinion, the Toukon Retsuden series is superior to the SmackDown series. It laid the ground work for all 3D wrestling games, and it features the most realistic gameplay of any 3D wrestling game series on the market. The Toukon Retsuden series is better suited towards fans who appreciate the psychology in a pro wrestling match, and it does a great job of doing the New Japan Pro Wrestling style justice. On the other hand, those who want more glitz and glamour in wrestling, rather than pure substance, will probably like the SmackDown series more. Yukes has always done a fantastic job of doing the WWF (now WWE) license proud by making sure that they capture everything that makes that particular product great. Yukes has a knack for making whatever license they’re given look like gold. They have proven that they can make the best sim-style wrestling games out there, and that they can make the best arcade-style wrestling games out there. I hope that you had as much fun reading this comparison as I had writing it.
