For the average wrestling fan, turning to WWE’s video games is a safer approach to reside out your sports leisure fantasies than, say, leaping off the roof of your storage by a flaming desk. Since the late 80s there’ve been properly over 50 such video games which have averted numerous such ill-advised* makes an attempt to be a professional wrestler at home, all sporting the WWF/E banner. And whereas it’s as troublesome to parse out the incremental enhancements from one 12 months to the subsequent as it’s to kick out of a Tombstone, right here’s an try at narrowing down the 10 greatest WWE video games of all time.**
To begin with, we didn’t guide this record all by ourselves with out consulting our roster. The IGN viewers (*10*), giving us a capability crowd's price of knowledge to work with. There are a handful of surprises and no small dose of nostalgia for the Attitude Era that confirmed up within the outcomes, however with out additional ado or wrestling wordplay,*** let’s ring the bell.
10: WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw (2004) – 65%
At quantity 10 with a win share of 65% in our Face-off, we discover ourselves within the heady days of the mid-aughts with 2004’s WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw. The game represents a pretty main shift for WWE as properly. The Attitude Era was coming to an finish and the foolish Invasion storyline was getting smaller within the rearview mirror. Meanwhile, the model break up between Raw and SmackDown that occurred simply a few years prior was in style enough to gamble on rebranding the SmackDown sequence of video games.
The Clean and Dirty mechanic was a bizarre little blast as properly, giving even the kayfabe-iest followers a probability to lean into a gimmick and be rewarded for it. Meanwhile, the stare down and check of energy type mini-games, together with a bra and panties match spanking mechanic that snuck in on the tail finish of the Attitude Era's affect, provided a little more of what the reside wrestling occasions featured on TV. You might additionally create your own belt in a Create-a-Championship mode for when creating your self in a wrestling game simply isn’t enough.
The Royal Rumble of WWE video games, SmackDown! Vs. Raw at quantity 10 appears like the brand new man within the promotion that lasts for a respectable run within the ring, however finally you neglect he was there by the subsequent pay-per-view.
9: WWF SmackDown! (2000) – 65.6%
Counting down to quantity 9, we go back to Y2K and the beginnings of what turned the WWE 2K sequence, with WWF SmackDown! It was a welcome change from earlier entries on the PlayStation that went back to the more arcade type action we knew from the N64 video games which, to not give an excessive amount of away, would possibly do a run in and assault this record with a chair right here in a few spots.
SmackDown! can be a little infamous for the issues it received rid of. With no commentary, you needed to wrestle to a weird combine of stock house-adjacent music and a regular hum of fan noise (it was actually a little anxious…) whereas the weird non-entrances for the wrestlers in entrance of matches felt like a wonky corner-cutting measure more than a artistic alternative.
On a private observe, nevertheless, the hardcore and metal cage match have been an absolute should of an inclusion. What are we even doing if, on the top of the Attitude Era, we don’t have unimpeded violence on the menu. I feel I received injured simply watching the TLC matches with The Dudley Boyz, The Hardyz and Edge and Christian.
All that to say, it’s a stable enough approach to kick off a new sequence. This is a game that might’ve had 2 memorable spots during a Royal Rumble earlier than getting dumped over the ropes by the fifteenth entrant instantly, so touchdown at quantity 9 on our record feels proper.
8: WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw (2007) – 65.8%
For our eighth choose with a 65.8% win price that’s not even a full share level increased than our quantity 10, we soar forward to the 2007 version of WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw. Landing on the Xbox 360, it’s the primary WWE game for a seventh technology console, and instantly took benefit of these candy, candy joysticks. The analog control system launched within the game made the action more practical the place important grappleman ways like throwing a man into the viewers are involved.
Perhaps probably the most practical half of the game although is how moist Triple H is on the quilt. This could also be my own bias, however nothing says “2007 in the WWE” fairly like a soaking moist Triple H screaming on the apron, child oil from his hair streaking down both facet of his chest, having undoubtedly simply spit half a bottle of Crystal Geyser onto the entrance row. It was a sticky, greasy time for the WWE in these days and “soggy Triple H” as the quilt picture for this game makes probably the most sense. In truth, the game would possibly’ve gotten bonus factors in our Face-Off for being a greater spotlight for wrestling followers than the precise wrestling occurring in 2007.
That 2007’s SmackDown! Vs. Raw made this record appears like more of a testomony to one thing being the primary. In retrospect it isn’t spectacular for something more notable than being our first probability to play WWE video games on seventh gen consoles. It looks like that nostalgia might’ve been the tie-breaker between this game and the video games that completed eleventh or twelfth, simply a share level or two behind it.
So to sum up, Wet Hunter 2007 within the quantity eight spot is just like the time Diamond Dallas Page entered the Rumble to advertise his yoga program. It’s good to see a man whose higher days you bear in mind.
7-6-5: A Triple Threat Match of The Rock's Catchphrases
Before we transfer on to the subsequent few picks, I need to bear in mind how stupidly in style The Rock was within the Attitude Era. That most likely goes with out saying, however don’t neglect that in the true world of Determined Outcome Grappling, SmackDown as a model was principally The Rock’s spinoff show. Like if The Rock went to be a radio psychiatrist in Seattle whereas Stone Cold stored operating the bar in Boston.**** Having popularized “laying the smack down on candy asses,” the game sequence moved on to borrow more of Dwayne’s utterly over verbiage for the subsequent three video games within the sequence, which additionally occur to be the subsequent three spots on our record. Because I’m, frankly, a little confused as to how that occurred, I’m going to speak about them in a single outsized section. So for our numbers seven by 5, we’ve received Know Your Role, Just Bring It and Shut Your Mouth.
7: WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role (2000) – 67.7%
So going back to when the WWE was coasting by the height of its recognition, at quantity seven, successful 67.7% of its match-ups in our Face-Off, is WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role. Dropping simply months after its predecessor WWF SmackDown! in 2000, the game had choices galore. While earlier wrestling video games featured them, Know Your Role had the primary correctly superior Create-a-Superstar mode. Crafting your own gimmick full with individualized taunts actually will get what being a wrestling fan is all about: telling your self “I could do that without serious injury” and believing it.***** Know Your Role, which now that I give it some thought is a thematically good subtitle for a game with the primary correct Create-a-Superstar mode, provided you the possibility to show you perceive how to be a wrestler.
6: WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It (2001) – 67.8%
A 12 months later in 2001, WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It dropped one other of The Rock’s mic gems to herald the return of commentary to the action. But whereas it was the primary SmackDown game to function Michael Cole and Tazz speaking you thru the matches, it was the final to function the WWF branding earlier than the World Wildlife Fund landed a frog splash from the highest rope of a courtroom. While Just Bring It additionally consists of six- and eight-man match codecs, these have been subsequently ditched for over a decade and a half, and the game is the meat of a SmackDown sandwich. It’s a midcard gimmick match within the forgettable stretch of a pay-per-view destined to be outshined by the primary occasion. Or, to proceed my thread of Royal Rumble allegories, a Mark Henry/Big Show confrontation close to the midway level of the Rumble the place they by some means eradicate one another as a result of no person else is robust enough to get them over the ropes.
5: WWF SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth (2002) – 70.3%
Two years after Know Your Role, the SmackDown! Series lastly completed The Rock’s signature catch phrases with Shut Your Mouth in 2003. It’s one other incrementally higher game within the sequence, with a bump within the graphics so the wrestlers seemed more just like the wrestlers and, whereas I personally love with the ability to climb and soar off the jumbo tron, it’s fascinating to search out this game together with its two predecessors occupying all three spots within the center of our record. Perhaps it’s a nostalgia factor and these years have been the primary the bulk of IGN’s viewers received into wrestling video games. It may be that this stretch of the sequence will get combined up with each other so all of them variety of break up the vote. Regardless, SmackDown’s early 2000s entries generated some fond recollections. Like how perhaps you may’t bear in mind which Rumble it was that Kane eradicated himself when the orderlies tried to take him back to the insane asylum, however you may slim it down to a couple of years window.
4: Wrestlemania 2000 (1999) – 70.7%
Arguably the primary formally great WWF game, dropping in 1999 (a 12 months that may very well be thought of the high watermark for professional wrestling's recognition), Wrestlemania 2000 received over 70% of its matchups in our Face-Off. It’s additionally a game that makes me really feel secure saying that N64 stuff was all unimpeachably great whereas additionally taking no follow-up questions on the matter.
While it was the primary time you would edit the Superstars, and the concept of placing Chris Jericho in Shane McMahon’s tracksuit can be well worth the price of the cartridge simply in case it was attainable, the actually unbelievable factor about this game is how the event of it mirrored the business of the time. The Monday Night Wars weren’t actually a contest anymore, with the WWF lapping the WCW in recognition by 1999. It can be one other two years earlier than the McMahons straight-up purchased the competitors, however the rivalry between the 2 corporations prolonged into the video game space within the late '90s.
WCW/nWo Revenge from developer AKI and writer THQ was a actually beloved wrestling game from 1998, so the one pure response can be for WWF to ditch Acclaim and swoop in to accomplice with AKI and THQ. The result’s more or much less the identical game as the favored WCW/nWO Revenge, simply with wildly more in style Superstars from the WWF roster. The large database of transfer units and customizable choices within the create-a-wrestler space that already existed within the game’s engine from the WCW title really made it attainable to imitate the WCW wrestlers that received left behind, which is such an on-brand center finger from the WWF to their on-the-verge-of-vanquished competitor. It was a pile on after the bell had already rung.
As far because the precise game goes although, it laid a sturdy groundwork for subsequent titles, together with the one which landed at primary on our record. Kind of just like the man that’s already feuding with the champ coming into the Rumble within the twenties someplace. You simply know he’s going to finish up successful to allow them to sq. off at Wrestlemania.
3: WWE 2K24 (2024) – 71%
WWE 2K24 received 71% of it’s match-ups in our Face-Off, incomes it a spot on the rostrum on this Top 10 record, which is wild contemplating the place the sequence was simply a few years in the past. WWE 2K20 was such a trainwreck that they simply stated “nevermind” in 2021 and began from scratch for 2k22. So, if 2K20 was the tip of a heel flip angle earlier than a wrestler takes a little time off, 2K22 was his return to the lively roster building up to his title run in 2K24.
With a more dependable basis constructed with the 12 months off, 2K24 was the third 12 months in a row that has been about layering the bells and whistles back into the gameplay, and as a end result 2K24 feels full in a method that WWE video games simply haven’t in a very long time.
WWE 2K24 constructed on the stable basis of its predecessor by not solely sprucing and enhancing each function throughout the board, however including method more than maybe anybody anticipated for an iterative WWE game. Ambulance and Casket matches have been a welcome change to the grappling action, and the return of particular visitor referee mode – the primary time we’d seen it in over 10 years – was as shocking as Shane McMahon flipping Austin twin birds when he put on the black and white stripes himself.
There’s recency bias with this one, sure, however WWE 2K24 does really feel like a feature-complete wrestling package deal, an accolade beforehand reserved virtually solely for our high two on this record.
2: WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain (2003) – 77.3%
We have to leap back to the run of profitable WWE SmackDown! Games for our quantity two spot with 2003’s follow-up to Shut Your Mouth, the equally threatening Here Comes the Pain. Winning over three-quarters of its Face-Off match-ups, it may need been the perfect of the SmackDown! bunch earlier than the sequence modified to 2K.
The Elimination Chamber confirmed up in a game for the primary time, as did the Bra and Panties match (though the aforementioned spanking mechanic that unlocked a cut scene of the 2 feminine wrestlers kissing must wait one other 12 months). The game additionally featured Legends for the primary time, with all-timers exhibiting up like Rowdy Roddy Piper, Sgt. Slaughter and The Iron Shiek. That you couldn’t pit The Undertaker’s Dead Man gimmick in opposition to George The Animal Steele in a Bra and Panties match feels each not shocking and like a missed alternative, nevertheless.
The factor that provides this game a lasting legacy although must be its profession mode. It had an RPG really feel to the locker room maneuvering. Players have been free to speak to more people backstage and chart a course to your Superstar that felt a little more off the rails. This game is the face that takes a good long run by the Rumble, the one you need to win the entire thing, however comes up short in the long run by just below three share factors.******
1: WWF No Mercy (2000) – 80.5%
So right here comes the payoff to my TLC match remark from method back in quantity 9. On the record of issues that tug on my wrestling nostalgia strings like a determined Bubba Ray Dudley making an attempt to unfastened a tag group belt 20 ft above the ring, the highest two are grimacing by ladder matches and huddling in entrance of a very small tube TV with three mates, Swanton bombing from the highest of a ladder on an N64.
WWF No Mercy has been a benchmark for wrestling video games for more than 20 years now and at simply a tick over an 80% win share, we’ve received the proof that it continues to be everybody’s favourite (or more precisely, a minimum of 4 out of 5 people’s favourite). As half of the category of the N64 period (on which I’ve already made my emotions clear), additions just like the ladder match and backstage brawls introduced more of what was in style in-ring on the time, whereas the create-a-wrestler operate continued to increase and a profession mode that branched in all types of instructions was an apparent improve over Wrestlemania 2000.
There’s one thing about that mixture, catching every part that was wild in regards to the top of the Attitude Era and channeling it by simple to get grappling mechanics, that has made this game more enduring than each different one on this record. Modders are nonetheless actively including new wrestlers to the playable roster and even AEW Fight Forever was an try at recreating No Mercy’s magic.
The game wasn’t good (it chugged as quickly as 4 gamers confirmed up) nevertheless it nailed probably the most important factor: capturing the essence of a wildly in style time in wrestling historical past, which is why we expect it’s one of the perfect WWE video video games ever made.
What do you assume? Agree with this record? It’s variety of yours really, on account of you guys voted within the Face-Off, however be happy to disagree with it down within the feedback anyway!
*critically, don’t fucking yard wrestle
**on this case “all time” refers back to the final 40-ish years, which continues to be a whereas, however within the grand scheme of issues it’s solely 4 a long time and “of all time” is usually simply right here for a budget warmth
***needed to sneak one more in and didn’t really feel like deleting this promise
****yep, it’s 100% precisely like that
*****my gimmick was named “Arrogant” Dandy Blaine, and he was a vicious and muscly heel, identical to me
******I’m conscious Royal Rumbles usually are not scored on a share level foundation