SmackDown!: Just Bring It is the third game in the series. It was released in November 2001 for the PS2. This is one of the many games I’ve never played, and I’m wondering what I was doing in November that caused me to miss this game.
I was in my final year of high school, on the wrestling team, and working at a Little Caesars when this game was released. I wasn’t really paying attention to gaming news, and was still playing SmackDown 2. It’s kind of amazing that these games were released so close to each other.
I’m looking forward to playing this game. I liked the other two games in the series, so I expect this one to be good. There is a lot of content in this game, so I’ll be picking and choosing what to play. I’ll do my best to get through as much as possible.
TLDR: Great Graphics but little more than a Roster Update.
Narrative
There is a story mode/career mode in this game. I don’t like it as much as the same mode in the second game. It is a little awkward to play.
You pick your character and then are asked if you want to play in singles mode or form a tag team. I did both, and was rather confused by what happened next.
The game drops you into a first-person perspective where you wander about aimlessly. I had no idea what I was supposed to do, and just wandered around until I got set up with a match. It felt strange to go through this.
After I won the European Title with Perry Saturn, the game had me select another character. Every time I tried to continue the story with Perry Saturn, I wasn’t presented with a storyline. This was, to say the least, strange.
I think there was something to this mode, but I wasn’t all that interested in continuing to play it. I had to turn to the manual to figure out what was happening. This wasn’t something I wanted to do, and I shouldn’t have to try to decipher what I’m supposed to do.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Just Bring It is very good. It isn’t all that different from the previous games, which is a great thing. The only thing I don’t like is how you change your character’s focus. That control scheme feels a little awkward, but I felt that way about how it was done in all the games from this period.
The developers added a lot to this game. There are about the same number of game modes, but there are more match types. The roster has also been updated.
The controls are very good. It’s easy to do the different moves, and each character feels unique. What I don’t like is the changes to the career mode.
I liked the career mode in the second game much more than this one. The first-person perspective feels odd to me, and I don’t like how it has you wander about aimlessly. I would rather have a menu system than what they came up with.
There was one thing that felt a little off with this game. Changing targets to other characters felt strange. This might’ve been due to me taking a break between games. It has been a few months since I played SmackDown 2.
I do like that the controls are largely unchanged. As I play more games in this series, I should get better at them. This was how I felt with other wrestling games I’ve played.
There was a year between the second and third games. Just Bring It has several improvements, but the core gameplay remains largely unchanged. I like it, but I’m not sure this would’ve made me abandon the second game.
Visuals
Just Bring It is the first wrestling game I’ve played on the PS2. It looks very good, which it should since it is on a more powerful system than the other games I’ve played. It isn’t all good, but it is very good!
This was early on in the PS2’s lifecycle. Developers were still learning how to make games for the system, and this game acts as an update from the previous game. This means there was some carryover from SmackDown 2.
Facial reactions, lip syncing that matches the text on the screen, and camera issues during multi-man matches are some of the game’s problems. Despite this, I didn’t see anything horrible; I just noticed a few things I didn’t like.
My biggest issue was the weird first-person perspective screen that the game drops you into. I would have preferred a simple menu to select from. The developers tried something new, and I didn’t like it that much. I get why they did it, but I simply don’t think it was the best option for the game.
The wrestlers, move animations, and presentation all look great. I like the ring entrances, and the few cutscenes are good despite what I mentioned earlier. Ring entrances look very good when compared to the previous games in the series.
Overall, the graphics are excellent. There aren’t any major issues with the game. There are a bunch of little things that I didn’t like much, but the majority of the game is very good.
Reviews at the Time
Just Bring It received lower scores than the previous games. While still receiving 8s, these scores were lower than the 9s that SmackDown 2 received. I’ll be looking at four publications this time.
GamePro gave the game a 3.9/5, whereas Wikipedia lists it as a 4/5. It always amazes me when they do something like this. Their main complaint was that the game doesn’t appeal to non-wrestling fans. I can see what they’re talking about.
GameSpot gave the game an 8.1/10. This is a long review. It all boils down to whether you liked the second game; then you’ll like this one.
GameSpy gave the game an 85/100, and as a side note, I really have their website. It is now archived on archive.org, and it’s awful. It echoes what was said in the previous reviews.
IGN gave the game a 7.8/10, and I think the reviewer wanted to give it a lower score, but couldn’t come up with a reason to do so. They call it an improvement, but far from perfect.
I find it amusing that each of these publications claimed the game improved over the previous one, yet still gave it lower scores. I’m not sure how they managed to square that circle. It just seems very odd to me that something like this happens. It will be interesting to see what the other games in the series get.
The sound and announcing were a problem for all the reviewers. Yeah, it is bad. It seems like it had a bigger impact on the review score than it should’ve. There is always something in these reviews that reviewers latch onto, and the sound seems to be it for this game.
8/10. This game feels like little more than a roster update from the second game. Some things are better, but I didn’t like the changes to the story mode.
Pros
- Great Graphics
- Easy to play
- Lots of game modes
Cons
- Annoying first-person mode
- Awful commentators
- I didn’t like the story mode
Conclusion
There isn’t anything seriously wrong with Just Bring It. It’s a great game, but I would’ve gone back to SmackDown 2. Graphics wouldn’t have been enough for me.
This game feels like a roster and game mode update and nothing more. I was not a fan of the changes to the career mode, and the first-person perspective sounds like a cool idea, but I didn’t like the execution.
The reviews for this game were very interesting to me. Just Bring It received one to one and a half points lower than the second game, but all of the articles I read called it an improvement. This just helps to reinforce that reviews are simply opinion pieces, and the scores are largely crap.
If you liked this post, please check out my other wrestling posts, such as SmackDown 2 and Ultimate Muscle.