''WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It'', known in Japan as , is a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

Yuke's Yuke's Co. Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer based in Osaka. It was established on 26 February 1993 by Yukinori Taniguchi. The company is best known for developing the ''WWE 2K, WWE'' video game series, based on the professional wrestling ...

, and published by

THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initi ...

for

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

, and was released in November 2001. It is the third game in the ''

WWF SmackDown! ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET on Fox Br ...

'' series, based on the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

(WWF)

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling that has little relationship to the rules of the amateur olympic form. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails man ...

, the sequel to '' WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role'', the first game in the series to be released on the PlayStation 2 console, and the last game in the series to be released under the "WWF" name. The game was succeeded the following year by ''

WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth ''WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth'' (known as ''Exciting Pro Wrestling 4'' in Japan) is a professional wrestling video game released on the PlayStation 2 console by THQ and developed by Yuke's. It is the fourth game in the ''WWE SmackDown!'' vide ...

,'' which was released in October 2002.

Gameplay

This was the first game in the SmackDown! series to feature play-by-play commentary, with Michael Cole and

Tazz Peter Senerchia (born October 11, 1967), better known by the ring name Taz (also spelled Tazz) is an American radio personality, color commentator, and retired professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator and manage ...

featured as the announcers. One improvement in this game is the appearance of six-man tag team matches, as well as six-man and eight-man battle royals. This would be the only game in the series in which players were allowed to have eight players on the screen at once until the release of ''

WWE 2K18 ''WWE 2K18'' is a professional wrestling video game developed by Yuke's and published by 2K Sports. It is the nineteenth installment in the WWE game series (fifth under the ''WWE 2K'' banner) and a follow-up to '' WWE 2K17''. It was released wor ...

.'' Additionally, this was the first game of the series to give each wrestler two different finishing moves, as well as the first game to allow editing of the in-game wrestlers' move sets. ''Just Bring It'' was also the first game in the series to feature authentic, complete ring entrances. The game features several venues from 2000 and 2001, including the arena for ''

Raw Is War ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network in the United States. The show f ...

'' and both the original and new arenas for '' SmackDown!'' (Ovaltron, including the '' Sunday Night Heat'' version, and the Fist stages). However, all pay-per-view arenas (except for

WrestleMania X-Seven WrestleMania 17 (stylized as WrestleMania X-Seven) was the 17th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on April 1, 2001, at the Reliant Astrodo ...

and Insurrextion) utilize the same arena with different logos on the ring mat, with the arena being based on the design of

WrestleMania 2000 WrestleMania 2000 (sequentially known as WrestleMania 16) was the 16th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) List of WWE pay-per-view events, event produced by the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took p ...

. The game's roster was criticised at the time for being heavily outdated, as it was finalized very early in WWF's

Invasion An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

angle and prior to the emergence of several former ECW and WCW wrestlers. Whilst

William Regal Darren Kenneth Matthews (born 10 May 1968), better known by the ring name William Regal, is an English retired professional wrestler. He is known for his over 20 years spent in WWE, as both a performer and an on-screen authority, and for his ti ...

Raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...

Rhyno Terrance Guido Gerin (born October 7, 1975) is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Rhyno or Rhino. He is currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where he is one-half of the Impact World Tag Team Champions in his secon ...

, Tajiri,

Spike Dudley Matthew Jonathan Hyson (born August 13, 1970) is an American retired professional wrestler best known for his tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as Spike Dudley. Prior to WWE, Hyson began performing as Spike Dudley in the 1990s with E ...

Jerry Lynn Jeremy Lynn (born June 12, 1963), better known by the ring name Jerry Lynn, is an American retired professional wrestler currently signed with All Elite Wrestling as a producer and coach. He has worked for promotions such as World Championship ...

and

Molly Holly Nora Kristina Benshoof (''née'' Greenwald; born on September 7, 1977) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler signed to WWE as a producer, she is best known for her appearances with the said company from 2000 to 2005 under the ring n ...

were all new additions to the game, several stars who had become more prominent on WWF television, such as

Rob Van Dam Robert Alexander Szatkowski (born December 18, 1970) is an American professional wrestler and actor better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam (frequently abbreviated to RVD). He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling ...

Booker T Booker T or Booker T. may refer to * Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), African American political leader at the turn of the 20th century ** List of things named after Booker T. Washington, some nicknamed "Booker T." * Booker T. Jones (born 1944) ...

Diamond Dallas Page Dallas Page (born Page Joseph Falkinburg Jr., April 5, 1956), better known by his ring name Diamond Dallas Page (often stylized as DDP), is an American actor and retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. In the course of his wrest ...

, The Hurricane, Lance Storm and

Mike Awesome Michael Lee Alfonso (January 24, 1965 – February 17, 2007) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances with the American professional wrestling promotions Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestl ...

were not included, which was also reflected by the inclusion of Fully Loaded 2000 as one of the featured pay-per-view mats instead of

. In addition to these,

Limp Bizkit Limp Bizkit is an American rap rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Its lineup consists of lead vocalist Fred Durst, drummer John Otto, guitarist Wes Borland, turntablist DJ Lethal and bassist Sam Rivers. The band's music is marked by D ...

vocalist

Fred Durst William Frederick Durst (born August 20, 1970) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, and director. He is the frontman and lyricist of the nu metal band Limp Bizkit, formed in 1994, with whom he has released seven studio albums. He ap ...

appears in the game as an agreement with the WWF and THQ which allowed their song "

Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle) "Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)" is a song by the American rap rock band Limp Bizkit from their album ''Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water''. It was released as the second and third single simultaneously, along with "My Generation", ...

" to be included as

The Undertaker Mark William Calaway (born March 24, 1965), better known by the ring name The Undertaker, is an American retired professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Calaway spent the vast majority ...

's then-theme music (it is one of his only two game appearances, as he also appears in ''

WWF Raw WWF may refer to: Non-profit organizations *World Wide Fund for Nature or World Wildlife Fund, a nature conservation group *World Water Forum, an international forum for water issues *Working Women's Forum, a training, trade and credit union in In ...

'' for the Xbox). This is also the only WWF game in which

appears, as he would be gone from the company within five months of its release. A new gameplay addition is the reversal system. ''Just Bring It'' utilizes a counter-attack mechanic system that allows almost every move to be countered, as well as allowing some counter-attacks (such as punches) to be re-countered.

Game modes

Rather than the Season Modes presented in the previous ''SmackDown!'' games, ''Just Bring It'' instead has a Story Mode. The player is given more control over their wrestler's activities, such as having the ability to choose which WWF title to go after. Throughout Story Mode, the player is able to attain unlockables, including additional superstars, arenas, and match types.

Release

The game ended up selling more than 400,000 units in North America, for which it was added to the Sony Greatest Hits collection for the PlayStation 2 on October 17, 2002, and became THQ's second Greatest Hits game, only bested by ''

Red Faction ''Red Faction'' is a series of shooter video games developed by Volition and owned by Koch Media. Originating in 2001, the ''Red Faction'' games have spanned Microsoft Windows, macOS and consoles, including the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, P ...

''. However, when the game was re-released, it was renamed to ''WWE SmackDown! Just Bring It'' because of the World Wrestling Federation's recently lost court battle with the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

, following which the World Wrestling Federation was renamed to the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), although in-game branding was not changed.

Reception

The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to video game

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. However, the game's in-game commentary has been criticized for being disjointed and repetitive, with noticeable pauses when calling wrestler or move names.

Gary Whitta Gary Leslie Whitta (born 21 July 1972) is an English screenwriter, author, game designer, and video game journalist. He was editor-in-chief of both the UK and US editions of ''PC Gamer'' magazine and contributor to gaming magazine ''ACE''. Whit ...

of '' Next Generation'' said, "Marred by some serious flaws and a jarring lack of atmosphere, ''Just Bring It'' still delivers a few rasslin' thrills." In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave it a score of 29 out of 40. It received a "Platinum" sales award from the

Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...

(ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

References

External links