A must have Smackdown game
No shortage of similarities to the previous SmackDown! series games, but there are a lot of differences in it too. The gameplay is much slower, meaning it's at more of a reasonable speed, unlike the previous SmackDown! games which were stupidly fast. The hit detection is better, now with it's 'lock on' striking moves. The action is hard hitting and extremely fun, and the new special move counters are fantastic. Ever wanted to stop a Rock Bottom mid move and hit a Stone Cold stunner? Well now you can. Another addition to the game play are weapons moves, now you bash people silly with various weapons and pull off moves such as Rob Van Dam's 'Vandaminator'.
10/10
Modes
Although Shut Your Mouth only supports 6 wrestlers in the ring this time (7 including good ol' Earl Hebner) there are still plenty of modes. First off, the biggest improvement is the Season Mode, which in 'Just Bring It' was a HUGE let down. THQ really got there heads down and worked hard on it this time. Two whole years of whoopin' ass and taking names, but this time with real storylines. You choose what you want to do, accept challenges, lay down challenges and interfere in other peoples matches. Re-create the best of 2002 with real storylines such as the nWo invasion, the roster draft and much more.
The Exhibition mode now features more match types than ever before. New additions include full sized hell in the cell, cage match with pinfalls and submissions, the 6 man elimination table match, the captain fall match. The Royal Rumble now lets you select who enters and when they enter. The King Of The Ring also lets you select who fills up the brackets.
One disappointment to most people is the title matches. Exhibition mode does NOT have title matches.
The create mode is more in depth that previous SmackDown! games. Now with the create a superstar mode's 'Face Morphing', you can fully customize facial features and head, eyes, nose, mouth and jaw size. THQ has spread out the amount of created superstars you can save. Previous SmackDown! games had 4, 10 and 16 spaces, well THQ have gone one better this time with 32 (yes, thirty two) created superstar slots. You can now store more created superstars than ever before.
Also in the create mode is the animation creator, with allows you to make taunts, walks, celebrations, etc. Unfortunately, despite to heavy rumors there is NO create a move feature.
10/10
Graphics
Jaw dropping. It's the only way to describe them. This time, the character models have more polygons than ever, and look so much more realistic and the faces look great.
Shut Your Mouth now features REAL authentic WWE pay per view arena's such as WrestleMania X8, Royal Rumble 2002, King Of The Ring and more. There are about 17 in total, all in full detail. Definitely the best graphics on any SmackDown! game yet.
10/10
Sound
The sounds are good, the sound effects are nice, and the music is great. Although some superstars are missing there official themes (Maven, Tajiri, The Hardyz, etc), most people have theirs, such as Edge's 'Never Gonna Stop' by Rob Zombie. The game features quite a few licensed themes, from artists such as Marilyn Manson, The Union Underground, Rob Zombie, Saliva and more.
9/10
Replay Value
There is a lot of things to unlock in this game such as, alternate costumes, created superstar parts, create a superstar movelists, arenas and theatre mode movies. Each pay per view in season mode has 5-6 items to unlock, and if you win a match on the pay per view, you can choose 1 of the items. You'll need to play season mode a few times though before you can unlock stuff, but with so many different storylines, it will be very different each time.
Rent or Buy
If your a fan of wrestling video games, then BUY BUY BUY
Overall
10/10