Wwfwrestlinggames.com sd!4 hands-on impressions

[Guest Flyboy]

I'm not a PS2 owner, and I don't plan to be one... but since I  am SO nice, I'll post their hands-on impression I got in their newsletter.

 

"Im sorry gang, between the Jet lag and the fact that I got up at

630AM today to do the E3 thing. My mind is a bit fried. I have more

goodness for you. The Smackdown hands on impression I wrote early has

been updated with new information.

 

Smackdown 4 Shut your mouth hands on impressions

 

Wow, I am very impressed. At first I thought that Smackdown 4 SYM

would be more of the same from Yukes. Lets face it, the Smackdown

series has had its fair of criticism from wrestling gamers. With

Smackdown 4, you can tell that Yukes and THQ have taken those

criticisms to heart.

 

The trailer that was released last week by THQ gives players just a

small taste of what to expect in the story mode. I spoke with a THQ

staff member and I asked him of all of what we saw in the trailer

will be in the actual final game. His answer brought a smile to my

face and if you are a true wrestling gamer it will do the same for

you. And shame on you for reading this far if you are not. "Yes

everything in the trailer, players will be able to do in the game."

That spectatular chokeslam performed by the Undertaker? Yes and you

will be able to basically do any moves that throw your opponents to

the ground will be able to be used to send them flying off the top of

the cell like Mick Foley. The climbing of the titan tron? Ditto, THQ

and Yukes have taken great pride in making some of the most painful

looking moments ever seen in a wrestling game. For example, in one

instance, I was wrestling WWFWrestlinggames.com webmaster and all

around good guy Matt Parker. And he irish whipped me into the corner.

Well sitting in the corner was a steel ladder. I crashed into the

ladder and the ladder fell on my crumpled and mangled body. The

ladder stayed there, as Matt climbed the top rope with a evil gleam

in his eye as he proceeded to launch a devastating frog splash with

me underneath the ladder. Holy shit is right. Hogan, has famous test

of strength, he also has a shoving match move which he did with Rock

at Wrestlemania X8. Booker T has the chop he does as well as his

unique version of the rock bottom. It would have been very easy for

THQ to just give him the Rocks rock bottom and call it a day. Rob Van

Dam is lethal in this game with his kicks and unique style. As I said

before, each wrestler has a unique style to reverse moves. For

example with Rob Van Dam, he glides over his opponents back and then

can perform a back grapple. The game play has been greatly improved.

The animations have been touched up tremendously. Every seems so much

more fluid and at this very early state its only going to get better.

The spinneroonie is spot on, and all of the superstars have their own

unqiue style and reversals.

 

Commentary will be done by Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler and from what

THQ has told us that it will be a huge improvement over Smackdown

Just Bring It.

 

As you can tell the graphics have also seen a dramatic improvement.

There are a few examples where the eyes and the faces do not look

quite right. The bug eyed stare of Booker T being one of them. But

what Yukes have done is take the fludity of Smackdown JBI and added

more polygons to the characters. In fact you will see that each

character in Smackdown 4 has double the amount of polygons that

Smackdown JBI it had.

 

The season mode will be based on a 2 year season. So for each month

you have 4 Raw events, 4 Smackdown events and 1 PPV so you can have

up to 108 events total in the Season mode. Basically if you do not

win the WWE title at that time you just suck and should go back to

playing another game. Players will also be able to draft, what

wrestlers will appear on the Raw and Smackdown portions of the Season

mode.

 

Smackdown 4 will feature up to 60 wrestlers, so you will have a large

selection of talent to choose from. And yes the Hell in the cell will

be full sized. And they have also added several new moves to be used

on the ladder such as a submission move and a hip toss off the ladder.

 

Players will be able to buy secret items such as arenas, wrestlers,

moves, cloth items for the caw in the Shopzone mode. You will be able

to earn money by playing exhibition and season modes.

 

The create a wrestler mode, will also be enhanced in the regards that

players will be able to morph diffrent parts of the wrestlers face to

their liking.

 

Weapons, are also very interactive this time around. The chair and

other weapons do bend after repeated use.

 

THQ is also implimenting a 3D crowd and if they can get it to operate

correctly players will be able to find in the crowd.  

 

One of the problems with Wrestlemania X8 was the removal of some of

the key superstar wrestlers music. THQ has made a promise that they

will solve it in Smackdown 4 SYM. They also wanted to pass along that

it was not their fault and that they were upset about just as much as

most of you were/are.

 

I will be playing Smackdown 4 SYM some more tomorrow so look for

further hands on impressions as well as a interview directly from the

fine folks at THQ. Matt Parker will have his own astute

impersonations of Smackdown 4 as well. Again this is the reason why

every one else is just a pretender and were the undisputed champion

when it comes to bringing you the wrestling game fans the news you

want the most."

 

The game sounds if it's coming along well.. hell, might even better than WMX8 (GC-owner).  If it is, then I'm glad PS2 owners will finally get a good wrestling game, and I'll just wait for WMX9.  

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Well, I must say this makes a boatload of sense.

 

Planetgamecube and seemingly everyone else is bashing WM X8 for being too much like the Smackdown series for PS/PS2, and yet here is a site that is salvating over SD 4, which from what I've heard and read is basically the same engine with just a prettier hood on top of it.  Im confused.

[Guest J*ingus]

I seem to be the only person on this board who likes the SD! engine.  I just never had a problem with it, the button-jamming style comes natural to me.  Yeah, I wish it could have a little more psychology to it, but nothing's perfect.  And the SD! series has traditionally had the very best CAW capabilities.  

 

On the other hand, both the story modes and loading times have always sucked, which are what I think everyone should really be ripping Yukes for.

[Guest Big McLargeHuge]

I like the Smackdown engine. It's fun fast paced, etc. I just prefer the Aki engine. It's fun methodically destroying your opponents knee for 10 minutes. At least IMO.

 

And having recently just played RAW for Xbox...the engine sucks. Great features in the game, but the grappling system is the most frustrating I've come across. When it takes me 15 minutes to beat fucking X-Pac, something just ain't right.