Anyone with even a passing interest in wrestling owes it to themselves to track down a copy of this game if you haven't.
I've been replaying all five of the original Smackdown games to refresh my memory for these reviews, and I got the same feeling I did when I originally played the series when all these games were brand new. In every iteration, the "Smackdown" series climbed in quality massively. From the gameplay, to the controls, the features, and definitely the visuals. Like many people, I consider Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain to be the peak of the series. There hasn't been a "Smackdown vs. Raw" game made to the date of this posting (2009) to even come close to the quality of Here Comes the Pain, and I doubt there will be in the future.
In a nutshell, everything I loved about Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth is in here. The few problems I had with Shut Your Mouth have been fixed. The controls have been overhauled, and while they're very similar to the previous games, they're much better. Every other aspect of the game has been improved as well.
As far as the controls are concerned. They introduced a new grapple system in Here Comes the Pain. Here's how it works. Instead of pressing circle and a direction to do a move as you did in the previous games, you now press circle and a direction to do an initial grapple. Then you press circle and a direction again to do a move. While this slows down the grapple moves a bit, it allows for much bigger movesets and still works extremely well. Although, this only applies to grapple moves from the front. grapple moves from behind, in the corner, etc, still use the old system.
The countering system has also been changed. Instead of square countering all moves, L2 reverses strikes and R2 reverses grapples. L2's previous function, taunts, have been moved to the previously unused right analog stick. R2's previous function, shifting your target from one opponent to another, has been moved to R1 but isn't used as much anymore as you now target opponents automatically, which very well. R1's previous function as an action button used for leaving the ring, tagging your partner, and other functions, has been moved to square.
All of this works much better once you get used to it. Getting used to it doesn't take very long either, because it's very intuitive and works much better than the previous controls. So, they somehow took a game that had great controls already, and managed to improve them even more. So the controls for Here Comes the Pain are about as close to pure perfection as you can get.
The submission system has finally been overhauled. In all the previous Smackdown games, you'd lock on a submission, and if your opponent had enough damage, he would submit instantly. Here Comes the Pain added a new submission mini-game, where you button mash in order to move a sliding bar to the far left to make your opponent submit. This is all effected by your submission stat, your opponent's submission stat, how much damage has been done to your opponent, and more specifically, how much damage has been done to that particular body part with the new limb-specific damage system, which adds a cool new level of strategy.
I only have two problems with the new submission system. For one, button mashing isn't fun, although it is good exercise and gives the submissions a level of urgency. It can hurt your fingers, not to mention your controller. My other problem with the system is not all submissions even use the system. A lot of the older animations still use the old submission system, where your opponent gives up automatically. I still think it's an improvement, but I prefer the timing-based system introduced in the Smackdown vs. Raw series. That's probably the only thing I prefer about Smackdown vs. Raw.
As for the match types. It's not a huge improvement over Shut Your Mouth, but that's okay because what we had in Shut Your Mouth was good. There are two new match types. The first is the big one, Elimination Chamber. It's a 6-man match which takes place in a giant cage. It's almost a perfect recreation of the real thing, and it has a great amount of interactivity. Just this one addition alone is huge, and adds a lot to the game as a whole. It's probably the most fun match in the Smackdown series.
The other new match type is Bra & Panties, a female-only match where you use the new submission system to pull your opponent's clothes off. The problem is, the female characters in Smackdown are boring to play as, and the match is more of a novelty than anything else. Gameplay-wise, it's the same as the submission match, which I'd much rather play instead because it allows you to play as the more interesting male characters.
Other than that, there's really nothing new as far as match types. But all of the matches do feel slightly different and better in general, because of the improved controls. One thing that adds a lot to the more hardcore match types is blood, which has been added in this game as a first for the Smackdown series.
The roster is also an improvement. New wrestlers introduced in Here Comes the Pain include John Cena and Rey Mysterio. Although Hulk Hogan and some other favorites are gone, they've been replaced by the new Legends Mode, which adds a number of classic wrestlers such as Jimmy Snuka, The Iron Sheik, The Road Warriors, George Steele, and the old-school Undertaker, who appears in addition to the modern (at the time) Undertaker. Although the Legends only have generic entrances, it's still nice that they were included.
The Season Mode is really the only major step down from Shut Your Mouth. It's very similar to Shut Your Mouth's, in fact, too similar, and the only real changes are negative. For example, they removed the first person exploring in favor of a generic locker room menu screen. The Here Comes the Pain Season Mode is also only one in-game year, whereas Shut Your Mouth's was two in-game years. Everything else is pretty much identical, just with new storylines and a bit more player participation in the storylines. It's still an excellent season mode, it's just a step down from last year.
Every iteration in the Smackdown series, they improved the Create A Wrestler. Adding more features, and making the system easier to use. Here Comes the Pain's Create A Wrestler is really the high water mark for the series. It adds a ton of replay value to the game. I remember I filled all 32 Create a Wrestler slots many times over. It's packed full to the brim with features and yet it's so easy to use. It's very easy to recreate any non-WWE wrestler you want, or a huge number of original wrestlers. The only problem I have is, with all the possibilities, it feels limiting just having 32 slots.
The graphics in Here Comes the Pain are a definite improvement over Shut Your Mouth's, although the sound is actually a bit of a step back. The commentary is gone completely. While I wasn't crazy about the commentary in Shut Your Mouth, it still served its purpose without being too annoying, so I'm disappointed that they removed it. There's actually no speech in the game at all, which was pretty shocking to me at first. The music is a love it or hate it kind of thing, and the sounds in the ring are generic. Overall, the sound is the only weak point in Here Comes the Pain.
Despite the sound, Here Comes the Pain is easily one of the greatest wrestling games ever made. They managed to improve over Shut Your Mouth, which in itself was nearly a perfect game. The improvements they made truly took it from near-perfect, to perfect. Anyone with even a passing interest in wrestling owes it to themselves to track down a copy of this game if you haven't. Not only is one of the best wrestling games, it's one of the best games, period.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 10
Sound: 5
Value: 10
Tilt: 15
Overall score: 10