Subculture Classics: WWE Here Comes the Pain

Finally, Subculture has come back to the WWE! THQ and Yukes were best known for their involvement with the popular wrestling franchise Smackdown! Previous installments of the series delivered copious amounts of entertainment, but Here Comes The Pain take it up a notch in terms of gameplay, variance and customization. The game boasts up to 50 playable wrestlers including current male wrestlers, divas and legends from the 80s-90s eras, each with his or her own unique moveset and personality. Every match feels like a unique experience because of this, but it is only a small claim next to THQ's greatest creation ever released for the PlayStation 2.

Playing It For The Plot

Here Comes The Pain brings the aesthetics of live TV into the confines of your own console. From the wrestler's entrances down to the moves they perform, it's a gripping experience. Game types vary from single exhibition matches to the chaotic 30-man Royal Rumbles, where the goal is to eliminate other wrestlers by throwing them over the top rope and be the last man standing. Specialty matches like hardcore, cage matches and hell in a cell break off from the norm in terms of just winning by pin or submission. This was also the first of the Smackdown! series to include the Elimination Chamber: the metallic chamber of death begins with two wrestlers while four other opponents wait inside glass pods that open after a certain time. Whether diving off a chamber or Irish whipping an opponent through glass, everything within the chamber is interactive. Hormone induced teens and diva-crazy fans will get a kick of the Bra and Panties match. As its name implies, the objective is rip off the other diva's clothes til one dive is of everything but their bra and panties.

Here Comes the Pain features a plethora of player customization. The Create-A-Wrestler mode is a deep and user-friendly. Players can customize his or her own wrestler from the bottom up. Ranging from tattoos to mask, the mode lets you customize almost every part of the wrestler, including clothing and attributes. Players may also choose pre-designed posters and signs the audience may hold up during matches. Further exploring customization, Here Comes the Pain includes Create-A-Move-set and Create-A-Taunt feature. The latter mode allows players to further craft their wrestler's personalities, finishers and taunts. Creating a taunt is a great concept, but it's clunky. Although, making a unique celebration by flipping everyone off while doing a back-flip may be the best thing you can ever make in the game. Lastly, players can make their own entrances, choosing what song and video will play from the titantron.

The friendliest wrestler ever, Chris Jericho.

Compared to previous titles, Here Comes the Pain's season mode is vastly improved. Players will not be able to freely travel the arena anymore, however the experience becomes more personal and satisfying with branching story paths, influenced by player-made decisions. The roster and factions, before starting a season, are completely customizable, allowing players total freedom for their experience.With the brand split, wrestlers can either go to RAW or Smackdown. They can also become a fan favorite, known as a face, or be the antagonist, known as a heel. Also, championship belts can be assigned to whoever the player wants. Players can earn skill points to improve the stats of their own wrestler and spend in-game money to buy unlockable Legends, move-sets, arenas and extra costumes for wrestlers. Depending on the approach to season mode, players can form completely different experiences. If the player is a team-oriented wrestler, they can go for the tag-team championship belts. On the other hand, they can enter the singles competition and, depending on the weight-class, can strive for titles like such as the Cruiserweight, Intercontinental, United States, World Heavyweight and even the WWE Undisputed championship.

Oh! The Blood!

The controls for Here Comes the Pain were created with much more depth than the previous titles. Along with two reversal buttons, one for parrying strikes and the other for reversing grabs, there are four types of grapples: power, submission, quick and signature. Power moves inflict heavy damage to body parts, while quick moves wear down opponents. Submission moves work work well with in-ring technical wrestlers and signature moves are unique to specific wrestlers, such as Stone Cold's stunner or the People's Elbow. The limb targeting system is a new feature in which wrestlers can attack specific body parts until that limb is drastically weakened. Making a wrestler submit with an ankle lock will be much easier if the player has been attacking their legs and feet. Here Comes the Pain balances, yet delivers a very fun and intricate fighting system. 

Opposite the positives in this game, Here Comes The Pain's negatives are minuscule. Some wrestlers were removed, such as the legendary Hulk Hogan, Jeff Hardy and Ultimate Warrior. And a few of the wrestler's entrance theme songs were missing. Because of licensing dilemmas, some wrestlers have instrumental renditions of their theme songs that come off as a little too cheesy sometimes. Color commentators are absent from the game as well, so don't expect any play by play announcements. Expect to only be bombarded with nothing but the same soundtrack playing over and over again for every match. Nevertheless, these are only minor complains juxtaposed to the entire game.

Overall, the game's intuitive controls make it fun and, at the same time, easy for newcomers to jump right into the action. The creative repertoire of Here Comes the Pain allows players to vividly design their wrestlers from the bottom up and turn them into legends within the story mode. Boasting tons of gameplay and an aesthetically pleasing look, Here Comes The Pain may as well take the crown for being the best wrestling game to be ever released for the PlayStation 2.