A glorious, glitchy, storytelling masterpiece that proved failure is the most interesting win condition of all.
Want to invent a move called "The Spinal Paranoia" that starts as a powerbomb, transitions into a backbreaker, and ends with an armbar? You could do that. You could animate every single frame. The result was often either a masterpiece of sadistic creativity or a broken animation where a wrestler spun 900 degrees before gently falling over. It was brilliant, broken, and beautiful. WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 is not the "best" wrestling game ever made. The online servers were laggy wastelands. The commentary (Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler) was recycled and robotic. And the graphics, with their shiny, plastic skin textures, have aged like milk. WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2011
Final Score then: 8.5/10 Final Score now: 10/10 for sheer audacity You could animate every single frame