Let's take our minds off the sim games for a while. The Smackdown! series was really arcade-like until Here Comes the Pain. Let's discuss those first 4. SD1, SD2, Just Bring It, and Shut Your Mouth.
Just Bring It is the best by far of the first 4 for its arcade feel. Shut Your Mouth has better graphics and such, but picking up the opponent always moved into the grapple position. Plus, the Smackdown! fist was climbable. What is your fave of the 4?
[quote][cite] Vetes:[/cite]...but picking up the opponent always moved into the grapple position.[/quote] I really like this feature. It is a great shame that the AKI and Spike games, acclaimed though they are, require the player to grapple the opponent [i]again[/i] after picking them off the mat; the act of temporarily freeing the opponent seems arbitrary if one wishes to keep hold of them. Being able to flow from grabbing a floored opponent directly into subjecting them to another takedown, as SD4 allows the player to do, strikes me as being far more realistic than the systems employed in rival games.
It's not a terrible feature, especially for realistic wrestling games. However, I hate being forced into a grapple position. What if I wanted to do stand him up for a running special?
A way to make it better would be to have it by holding "O" the pickup button, a grapple is initiated. If it's just tapped, then it would just stand the character up.
[quote][cite] Vetes:[/cite]A way to make it better would be to have it by holding "O" the pickup button, a grapple is initiated. If it's just tapped, then it would just stand the character up.[/quote] That's quite a commendable idea. There's a great deal of versatility to be found with tap/hold control systems, it seems. (Analog-stick grappling —another SD! innovation— is also quite a versatile little feature, I might add.)
Shut Your Mouth was the best one in my opinion. CAW was at its best (nothing had yet been bastardized, like the kickpad accessories or the wristbands or the kneepads; and there were tons of pattern options available for tights and shirts, whereas NOW--since HCtP, BTW--we have the same assortment of terrible patterns game after game), the Draft mode was pretty well done (for the first time out, at least), and moves weren't difficult to perform at all.
Plus...yeah, you could climb the SmackDOWN! fist. :)
BTW, to stand an opponent up for a running special, you double-tapped circle (instead of single-tapping it or holding it). Yeah, they moved stuff around.