Its hard to believe that the original Smackdown video game came out on the original PlayStation console 25 years ago. WWF Smackdown was developed by Yuke’s and published worldwide by THQ. The original Smackdown game for the PS1 was pretty unique especially since never saw another game like it within countries like America. Unlike, any pro wrestling game you saw on the N64 back in the late 90’s WWF Smackdown featured arcade like gameplay. The controls were very basic and felt very beginner friendly unlike other pro wrestling games for the PS1 such as WWF Warzone and WWF Attitude from ’98-’99. WWF Smackdown was released in 2000 which was considered to be one of the best years of the Attitude Era and featured the top stars on the roster. WWF Smackdown had an Exhibition mode that featured a variety of different match types including Single, Tag-Team, Triple Threat, Fatal 4 Handicap, Cage, Hardcore, Falls Count Anywhere, King of the Ring and Royal Rumble. WWF Smackdown was also one of the first games to feature backstage brawls right after WCW Mayhem from 1999. The Season and Pre-Season modes in WWF Smackdown were also fun. The Pre-Season mode allowed players to play as their own custom wrestler while being able to earn attributes and make choices that affect their alignment in the game.

The regular Season Mode allowed players to choose any wrestler on the roster as they play through different years at different events like Raw and Smackdown and even House Shows. Players also got to compete at PPV’s like King of the Ring, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. WWF Smackdown featured numerous championships that players could compete for including WWF, IC, European, Tag-Team, Hardcore and Women’s. As cool as WWF Smackdown was did not have as much depth as its sequel WWF Smackdown 2: Know Your Role from 2000. However, there were various features from original WWF Smackdown that stood the test of time over the years. In fact, some might argue that WWF Smackdown was a more fun game than most of the WWE 2K titles from the 2010’s decade even though it had inferior graphics.