WWF Smackdown! 2: Know Your Role

The Good
The best part of this game would be the create a wrestler tool, after being heavily restricted to existing wrestlers attire in the first game, this time you can actually change the colours as well as the lengths of clothing and hair and completely customise the body shape/size. Another excellent addition is the ability to make fairly good representations for wrestlers from other federations. Several new match types were added which are somewhat new for a playstation wrestling title and add a new dimension to the game

The Bad
The most annoying thing about this game would have to be the time it takes to complete a show in season mode, in the original Smackdown the skip button would instantly jump to the end of the match, name a winer and move onto the next one. In this version the skip button takes you to a screen showing a mug shot of the participants and health bars that slowly drop until one is announced the winner (Which takes about 60 seconds) then you have to start again with the next match, there are usually five to six matches to get through so this makes the game very boring, not to mention that every few matches you have to wait for a cut scene to load which only plays for about 15 seconds, this might be fine if it didn't have to load the game engine every time it plays. The other problem that goes hand in hand with this is your character isn't guaranteed to even show up let alone wrestle on each show making the season mode more of a chore than an enjoyable experience. As with the original there is no commentary at all and only the occasional snippet from the invisible ref but they have removed the move display from the original which gave some illusion of commentary and if you tire of the small selection of bland BGM it leaves the game feeling empty. The sound effects are somewhat lacking, when a wrestler walks in a cut scene he sounds like he is stomping through mud, the crowd is almost always silent and when it does make a noise it's very quiet while big moves like a splash from the top rope make a sound similar to bouncing a flat beach ball.

The Bottom Line
While Smackdown 2 probably looks nicer and provides the most 'true to life' wrestling TV show, it does not match it in the long term playability area unless you absolutely love to watch all the matches and make up your own commentary, otherwise beating up your friends in exhibition matches is the most likely way you will get any enjoyment out of this game.