WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role

This page details one or more prototype versions of WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role.

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This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

A prototype of WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role, dated August 11, 2000 (the day the game was announced to the public, coincidentally), was released as part of Hidden Palace's Project Deluge. This build is roughly similar to those used on some IGN pre-release videos of the game.

Roster Differences#

Removed Characters#

Infamously, Ken Shamrock and The Big Show were dummied out of the final game. In this prototype both wrestlers are fully implemented alongside the others.

Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, Cactus Jack, Steven Richards and Debra are missing, although Debra has her upper part as an original CAW part. The spots where their select portraits would be located at are instead occupied by generic male "Create-A-Superstar" icons as placeholders.

Altered Characters#

Many wrestlers are featured with earlier gimmicks such as Prince Albert (different name), The Kat (black hair) and Bull Buchanan (his SWAT gimmick as Big Boss Man's stablemate). A number of other wrestlers are also still in their outfits from the first game, such as The Godfather (still a pimp) and The Undertaker (Ministry of Darkness); Big Show and Ken Shamrock also have their attires from the previous game.

Perry Saturn and Eddie Guerrero also have their earlier lower parts (and head in case of Eddie's), which are unlockable "Create-A-Superstar" parts in the final game.

Early Character Select Portraits#

Most of the character select portraits in the prototype are different from in the final. A good amount of these are taken from pictures used for loading screens. Note that these may not represent the currently used outfit in-game: Lita's portrait depicts her with her Essa Rios manager-era gear, although her in-game gear is the Team Xtreme one. The reverse is the case with The Undertaker, who has his American Badass portrait but still uses his Ministry-era model from the first game, as mentioned above. Pete Gas and Joey Abs also have their portraits appearing to be cut off on the sides.

The rest of the portraits were mostly the same as in the final game, but with different coloring. The portraits below are listed by internal order.

Prototype	Final

Unused Graphics#

SmackDown! Leftovers#

While Season Mode is disabled in this build, the show cards from the first game are in the game's data, unused, with two TV shows (Raw is War and SmackDown!) and the "Big Five" PPVs (using 1999 event logos, with exception of King of the Ring which uses the 1998 one, and Survivor Series which uses the promotional poster logo while the final game uses the branding from the actual 1999 event); this change is also reflected in ring mats and aprons.

Prototype	Final

This also means that the house show card is also leftover in the game, which was removed in the final SmackDown! 2 due to changes to Season Mode.

Match text from the first game is also present within this prototype's data.

Unused Loading Screens#

Big Show and Rikishi both have unused loading screens. Rikishi's was removed since he was already featured in the Too Cool loading screen (although the picture used for it is in the final as a sign in "Create-A-Superstar" mode), and Big Show's would be removed completely.

Placeholder Graphics#

These placeholder images showing the Yuke's office were listed alongside the loading screens. These are not used in-game.

Match Types#

• Fatal Four-Way is called Four-Way Dance in this version.
• Hardcore matches (including Anywhere Fall ones) will always have count-out enabled, even though it will be shown forced to off in the rules menu.
• Hell in a Cell is fairly functional, although the announcer tables are always located on the left-hand side of the arena, which can cause problems when climbing on and off them, and any move on top of the cell results in the top panel breaking. Throws such as the Choke toss, Body Press Drop FW and the Catapult can cause the opponent to go through the cage as though it doesn't exist.
• Cage matches uses Hell in a Cell's mesh cage (complete with panels that look destructible but aren't, albeit without a roof), as well as the same issues with the above.
  • It is worth noting that the cage and cell structure used in the previous two modes will only load in the Arena 1 (SmackDown!) arena; they are invisible in other arenas.
• Royal Rumble is pretty non-functional; wrestlers don't seem to be eliminated when ejected from the ring, and will pull other wrestlers under the bottom rope to continue fighting outside the ring. It can be done in the SmackDown! and PPV arenas, as well as back stage areas.
• Special Referee will crash in two referees mode, especially when going for pin falls, they will also occasionally count two when bouncing against the ropes.
• Slobberknocker is locked at all times and TLC mode is completely missing.

Title Holders#

Almost all of the default title holders were changed from the prototype to the final version:

Misc. Differences#

• Many sound effects are missing.
• The menu song plays on the title screen as well as the menus and is less fleshed out than the final version.
• Some of the fonts are different.
• Season Mode, Create-A-PPV, Create-A-Manager, and Create-A-Stable are all disabled.
  • Big Boss Man and Bull Buchanan are one of the default stables, before being replaced with Right to Censor due to Buchanan switching allegiances from Boss Man to Steven Richards.
• Create-A-Superstar is unstable and can only be loaded if a match has not been played, and even then takes a while to load. Additionally, custom wrestlers cannot be saved, parts cannot be removed once installed and selecting some (standard) parts can cause the game to crash. There is also only eight custom wrestler slots, instead of ten.
  • If the Create-A-Superstar menu gets loaded and a wrestler is being displayed, additional view controls are available by pressing Start; a rapidly changing blue bar on top confirms activation of the hidden controls. D-Pad moves the model, X zooms in and Triangle zooms out. Even with the controls not enabled, it is also possible to which wrestler side is being shown using L2/R2 even when selecting a base model.
• Both players can select the same wrestler, but only if no match have been played prior.
• Arena 3 (the PPV arena) has steel barricades in front of the regular barricades. Additionally, there is also a monitor screen on top (alternating between SmackDown!, THQ, and Yuke's logos) that ware removed in the final to aid with visibility in Hell in a Cell matches.
• Some of the stage select icons are placeholders featuring the WWF logo in front of a black background.