WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain - Beta vs. Final Comparison

[@WrestlingVideoGames]

I'm back once again comparing early unfinished, cut content and pre-release versions for one of the greatest wrestling games ever made... WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain for the Playstation 2. This video contains lots of differences from removed characters, model differences, attire changes and more. It's a real shame Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior & Jeff Hardy were seemingly cut late into development, they would have bolstered an already stacked roster. Hoping to make a Part 2 to this one day, but in the mean time work is being done on other Beta Comparison videos for many other games - so stay tuned! 🤘🏻 Also, a big thanks to those at TCRF and to Gazasaurus for help with format conversions and digging around on the disc!

[@kevinthorn9672]

Is the beta iso releasing?

[@hunte5748]

This is cool

[@RacerGuy450]

Could you do a top 10 Legends of WrestleMania promos video?

[@chrissg4493]

​@@kevinthorn9672theres a mod to play the unused characters in the game

[@mindfuel__97]

Man i wish we got Jeff Hardy in HCTP. Would have been his best model and entrance in the series.

[@venompoison3226]

How do I get the player of Jade Hardy?

[@The_Amazing_Johnny]

It's strange that WWE RAW 2 has some wrestlers who weren't included in the HCTP roster (including Hulk Hogan), even though the difference between the release of the two games is only one month

[@MASTER3371]

Even funnier Benjamin , Haas , O Haire , Rodney Mack & others didn’t make Raw 2. THQ always had weird rosters for their games.

[@KozyKool2287]

HCTP was developed by Yuke's while RAW 2 was developed by a smaller company called Anchor (they were known for making the original UFC games). The roster was stacked at the time. So I guess that both companies prioritize different wrestlers.

[@JayLS]

@@MASTER3371 Could be down to the development timeline - Raw 2 was in the works by summer 2002, before any of those came along. With the exception of Goldberg, the roster does appear to represent mid-late 2002.

[@hitek9too255]

This is why I'm glad they stopped making individual wrestling games for each system and just released the same one yearly for every system. Could you imagine EA releasing a sperate NFL football game for Xbox, PS4, Switch and 2K releasing a different NBA game with different features? It's stupid and just a waste of time and money.

[@KozyKool2287]

@@hitek9too255 It was like that in the 90s with SNES & Genesis. Using WWF Royal Rumble for example, The SNES version of the game had Ric Flair, Tatanka, Mr. Perfect, & Yokozuna as exclusives while the Genesis version had Hulk Hogan, Jim Duggan, & Rick Martel as exclusives. Rage in the Cage which was a Sega CD exclusive had the Tag Teams like Headshrinkers & Nasty Boys, but did not have tag matches. Gaming wise, I don't miss that era.

[@204Jayman]

One of the best looking hardy models we have ever gotten, if only 😭

[@JeremiahDaniel1995]

0:45 The Rock on the left looks like the rock today 😅 The Rock on the right in the final version of the game he looks generic 😂

[@evanhanley6437]

Been waiting for this video for so long and now we got it. Scottjay01 and TCRF uncovered SO MUCH for this game its mindblowing. It was awesome when WWE acknowledged the legacy of this game just last week. This will ALWAYS be one of the greatest wrestling games of all time. Merry Christmas!

[@marvelousadiris]

When did they acknowledge it exactly?

[@TheSafetysuit]

Who is TCRF?

[@evanhanley6437]

@@TheSafetysuit The Cutting Room Floor.

[@TheSafetysuit]

@@evanhanley6437 oh right!

[@RiasatSalminSami]

wait WWE acknowledged HCTP? where can I find the news/ clip of that?

[@Altered-Beast]

Classic Roddy would've been my pick for sure 🔥

[@WrestlingVideoGames]

No reason they couldn't have left the Classic in as an alternate attire. Shame

[@SanDmaNTheFreakTrucker]

If Hogan, Warrior, and Jeff Hardy made the roster…I’d have never played another wrestling game.

[@SakAttack87]

It sucks that guys like Hogan/Warrior/Hardy were cut from the game because that is one of the best game rosters ever for a wrestling game. You add those three names and it becomes undeniable. Would have really helped pad the undercard if other midcarders such as Billy Gunn/Kidman/Jamal/Rosey/Maven made the cut as their names are also found on the beta version. However, there was no excuse at all to admit some of the alternate attires especially for Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. Those Team Angle singlets with the entrance tracksuits were awesome. Would've never taken the tag belts off those guys if they had those in the game.

[@Mikey-rh1ic]

William Regal and Bradshaw also got shafted from the game

[@igotthemonkeypoxcure1624]

Why were hogan and warrior cut from the game ?

[@SakAttack87]

@@igotthemonkeypoxcure1624 Hogan left the company in June 2003 and all of his character models were removed. As for Warrior, I believe they initially got his rights to have him featured in the game, but something happened where he was also pulled late in development.

[@viiiiv5113]

Chris Jericho without the beard was the dumbest decision ever.. cause his backstage attire comes with the beard. 😂🤷‍♂️

[@florencediprospero6603]

I've remembered Rosey & Jamal were included in development but later got cut when Jamal got released from WWE

[@JDaPrynce100]

But he returned as Umaga

[@syahminorizan8064]

Then Umaga passed away

[@codyman5540]

A lot of unused superstar names were in the game's files. Al Snow, Billy Gunn, Billy Kidman, Bradshaw, Jamal, Rosie (Rosey), Spike Dudley, William Regal, and Molly Holly. But they were presumably cut during development either due to their contract expiring or injured/inactive during the time period in Here Comes the Pain's development.

[@ABSF49]

Best wwe game ever. I'd buy a remastered version in heart beat

[@Gameking92888]

Hell yeah

[@hunte5748]

Even Karrion Kross said they should make a remaster but I doubt they will :(

[@hitek9too255]

It's no where close to the best. Overrated with unstoppable power wrestlers.

[@matty_matt24]

​@@hitek9too255it is the best

[@hitek9too255]

@Maldito Mur Power wrestlers are just way too overpowered, no matter their rating in HCTP. Low rated guys such as Test and Albert can completely dominate higher rated guys such as HBK, Angle, Benoit, the Rock, etc. The game favors power wrestlers. Steiner, Goldberg, and Lesnar are virtually unstoppable.

[@Crashj7f67h]

The beta mini tron for smackdown looks sick. I always liked the way it looked.

[@coolduke21]

6:21 i think that may be an unfinished story mode cutscene with Angle doing twin magic

[@michaelburke7978]

Merry Christmas, everyone!

[@KidTonyGaming]

Also I think the game looked better with Shut Your Mouth Models/Graphics, but the improved clearity and lighting from HCTP is a nice upgrade

[@nickweintraub1828]

I’m gonna say it…The beta for WWE SmackDown! Here comes the Pain looks way better than the final product.

[@hunte5748]

Yeah, I feel like most of these changes are just straight up removing stuff, some of them are adding things tho but still

[@jonathanlopezsanchez4343]

They cut Jeff hardy that killed me

[@retrogamer847]

​@@jonathanlopezsanchez4343my man was best wrestler in that time

[@chris_t2020]

I can believe they removed Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior from the game. Same applies to Jeff Hardy, one of the best wrestlers of that period.

[@msu15]

They removed Hogan and Hardy because they were no longer under contract with the WWE at the time. Warrior was removed because he wouldn't agree to the licensing.

[@JBHtown1646]

If they would have had them included in the game as planned, SD Here Comes The Pain would reach a true God Tier level.

[@jackhughes7637]

Jeff Hardy was not one of the best during that period. Mid card guy in 2003.

[@msu15]

@@JBHtown1646 No doubt, especially because Hogan was going to have 3 different separate characters! 80's legend Hulk, 2003 Hollywood Hulk, and then Mr. America!

[@dayoungsta94]

@@jackhughes7637 true but he was a midcard guy that would flirt with the main event scene i.e his interactions with HBK and The Rock. I think he would’ve been in the upper card by the end of 2003 if he kept his head straight and stuck around considering the fact that he was a HHH guy + the potential Matt Hardy feud they teased as well

[@MIAMI305ers]

I love how brock had one elbow pad in the beta version. Me as a kid always wanted that because brock during that time use the elbow pad

[@playthesmackdown]

serious mandela affect with those team angle attires 🤯

[@ColdHoops]

Seeing your opponent's finisher icon is the most scary thing ever. If you're not ready to reverse, its all over😂

[@KiwiDimi]

the Goat! the only downside is Jeff Hardy was removed from the game, would have been insane!

[@CrackDCat]

I guess i mentally pictured "Deadman Inc." on undertakers pants everytime i played this. I will have to take note when I get a new PS2 controller XD

[@paulc1553]

Thank you for this. WWE Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain is the best wrestling game ever.

[@shawndiboti6191]

beta version looks like SYM with updated faces, then HCTP graphics engine is a lot more glossed over and defined

[@ItsAnEndlessWorld]

The beta version was perfect 😣 hate that they removed so many great wrestlers especially Jeff Hardy! HCTP is already a legendary game but it could've been even better.

[@JeremiahDaniel1995]

3:32 ultimato dragon 🐉 doesn’t have any scales in his custom on the left but he does in the final version on the right 👍

[@xdryza]

Thanks for compiling these!

[@danielmvick329]

Lol Idk Why But As A Kid I Used To Be Mad When The WWE Games Never Gave Brock Lesnar His Elbow Pads 😂🤦🏾

[@Metelius]

It's crazy Bec now we get the beta unfinished version of wrestling games and never see how they are supposed to look/run. Miss the old games they ran right and looked right for the time. Even hold up today in my opinion

[@msu15]

I never understood why the graphics downgraded from Shut Your Mouth

[@andrewdunn5568]

My guess is they wanted more overly exaggerated models. A shame too because some of the SYM models were perfect.

[@MASTER3371]

@@andrewdunn5568Yep The Brock Lesnar was more accurate then that overly Meathead version in HCTP lol

[@Jerry4050]

Are you kidding me the lighting in Here Comes the Pain made the graphics look way more realistic than Shut Your Mouth. Goldberg felt like he was coming at me in his entrance.

[@MASTER3371]

@@Jerry4050 Goldberg always had a mean mug on his face no matter what he was doing & he looked like he was Kane height & structure when he’s shorter lmao

[@msu15]

@@Jerry4050 Na man the character models and face scans are clearly downgraded in HTCP. Not sure what you're looking at.

[@scarvello]

Sheesh the beta looked amazing

[@OongTheLastAirbender]

BROOOO they shouldve kept team angle attires in the game also brock looked cool

[@WrestlingVideoGames]

Just because they were slightly out of date at the point of release doesn't mean they couldn't have been alternative attires

[@xavierwashington5408]

Still pretty shitty Jeff Hardy didn’t make this game, it would’ve felt more complete, we didn’t get Jeff again until 2008 man, and he was missed, and it’s weird all the Team Angle attires were cut from the game, like why

[@gazasaurus3142]

Man I love this video series! Can't wait for the others

[@SuperSed-gt5hq]

The Rock’s beta version looks more true to self than the one they went with or am I Trippin

[@pro-wrestlingichibanbrazil8016]

PAUL PHOENIX: No Pain? No Gain! ME: Here comes the GAIN!

[@brandonperez8977]

Bruh 😂

[@KidTonyGaming]

playing all the old smackdown games, you can really see from SD1 to SDvRaw they were all the same game with minor gameplay, graphical, and roster diffrence.

[@JeremiahDaniel1995]

4:55 I don’t know why they would do that I mean on the back of the game cover he shows it on his leather pants that he is the “Dead Man” so why get rid of it?

[@cacomeat7385]

I want the beta to be leaked so bad

[@GuiOmania]

To this day unmasking Kane is one of the fasted recent update i ever seen in a game this and the vengence 2002 stage for shut your mouth !!!

[@JayLS]

No Mercy did well to include his new look at the time too (from Summerslam 2000)

[@tommysingh5196]

I always wanted Jeff Hardy and Team angle attires but for some reason they were cut short

[@Imhim247]

The song bring back beautiful memories😁

[@ColdHoops]

Jericho's final creation was the oddest thing to me

[@tyleranderson5297]

I don’t think I’ve ever been so disappointed in someone’s final model. That model would have been outdated even if it was in SYM a year earlier. No idea why they removed the beard.

[@Blackbohnstergaming]

As far as I know: The Ultimate Warrior didn´t know he was going to be in HCTP, but as soon as it leaked that his model was in the game via footage from Gamescom: He demanded to be removed from the Game, since WWE and him were still on bad terms.

[@paulc1553]

New subscriber. Will you be doing Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth and Smackdown vs. RAW 2006?

[@wweiceman]

Nice video! I wanna see this but for the first SVR game a year after Here Comes the Pain.

[@MetalArcade]

One of my fave games, if all this cut content was left in it might have been the best wrestling game ever

[@YUURRRRRofficial]

So lame Jeff was cut bro it would've made the game literally perfect for me

[@RiasatSalminSami]

The textures and lighting look similar to Shut Your Mouth in the HCTP beta. The textures had better quality in Shut Your Mouth. For some reason in the release build of HCTP, they they made the textures blurry asf. The lighting had more depth in the release build but the downgrade to texture was apparent. Speaking of lighting, while it has more depth and contrast in HCTP, the lighting of shut your mouth long with the way the skins were textured and lit made that game look more real than HCTP. But the arena details, crowd details of HCTP blows Shut Your Mouth out of the water. The Rock model in beta HCTP seemed like a modified version of SYM, while not perfect, looked more accurate than the final build. In the final build his head shape looks almost like that horrendus CGI from Mummy Returns movie, but it does look more tame in HCTP.

[@billybeeeeeeeeee]

FUCK NOW I HATE THEM LOL I never knew they had Team Angle gear with the tracksuits in the BETA. I am SO PISSED.

[@Justin_Farley33]

I wanted the dead man inc logo looked sick

[@sunsigil5404]

Some of these omissions are truly baffling

[@WackyJay9]

Super cool video!

[@priincexavi5504]

A few of the beta models look better than the final versions lowkey.

[@Rizz__E]

This was the best WWE game EVER!

[@Casey420]

It's always fascinating to see how high praise people give this game as well as wwf no mercy. Not sure if it's because of nostalgia or if the people praising it actually believe it's as good as they say it is but to me both games play and looks like complete trash. It doesn't help that I have no nostalgic for it either cause my first wrestling game was svr 08

[@thedinoph]

It's crazy , how Nidia forgot in this game and Molly Holly as a women's champion when the game came out. then they said all removed superstars are in the RAW 2 but RAW 2 was a horrible controller 🎮 including the women announcer. 😂🤣

[@LnD326]

The beta looked better hated the dark arenas in the release copy

[@haunteddeandollsuk]

jeff hardy was removed as well i remember someone looked at the game code !!

[@neoarcada1044]

Damn terrible move to cut Team Angle attires. They should have stayed. Also sucks we didn't Hogan or Jeff in the game. Would have made this game 10x better

[@haunteddeandollsuk]

why did they remove undertakers Deadman INC on undertaker pants ??

[@Zackslimewrd]

Hope you do more of these

[@tawandasvovera5299]

Those roster cuts would have made the game more fun and then some

[@SuperSed-gt5hq]

I was so confused because I believe Jeff Hardy was somewhere on the game cover on the back, but he wasn’t in the game

[@BeezyBalmain]

The Beta Rock Looked Better

[@wingedhussar1453]

The here comes the pain version is stil beautiful and I like how it looks overall but it is shut your mouth engine looks good to

[@hunte5748]

It doesn't make sense why they removed some of the logos in the final game as well as taunting on the Chamber pod, that's kinda strange But my biggest question is why were Hogan, Warrior, and Jeff Hardy removed?

[@fatherotti]

1. Hogan was removed because he had a falling with Vince over some Mr. America pay and quit the company around June of 2003. 2. Warrior was removed because he sued the company, when he realized he was gonna be in the game. He was still on bad terms with them at this point. 3. Jeff was removed because he was released from the company in April of 2003, due to his drug abuse and no showing events.

[@hunte5748]

@@fatherotti Ah I see

[@WillYouCutThatOut]

SmackDown Here Comes The Pain should've been released on the Xbox that would've been really cool

[@Pushstart_oak]

Man I wish there was a beta out there in the form of a rom

[@NitroNEXT]

The Japanese version had commentary from Tazz and Cole I believe.

[@kamiloalvarez5800]

some wrestlers are still mentioned in the game itself like billy gunn, william regal and molly holly

[@judgedrew2076]

Brock looked way better in the beta version. He looked terrible in the final version

[@stephrey8297]

0:21 the biggest mistake they did in the game . They should've kept jeff hardy.

[@Tedgamer-hm9hq]

Sucks, he isn't in the game i wish he was in this game instead creating a caw. But why did they remove him?

[@brandonperez8977]

It was no mistake. They removed him due to some personal issue he had until SVR 2008

[@EliteEasyE]

Wish they included the team angle stuff as alternative gear. No game has had those beautiful red hoodies. I hope 2K can in the future, but they're not nearly the hustlers THQ were.

[@DemetriB0329]

The beta looks so much better than the final product we got 😮

[@amanrussel925]

Many things were removed which i didn't like 😕

[@OhGodologyz]

I feel like a lot of these are still in the game as an alternate attire & not really missing from the game

[@waqaskaash7319]

Those moves for the ultimate warrior should be used in current 2K series

[@venom_bankz621]

Damn this game would’ve been better if they didn’t remove some of those wrestlers

[@princealbertz]

Why was Jeff Hardy cut from the game? Was it cause he was on his way to TNA? And Hulk Hogan too?

[@Jacksonshred]

Believe it had something to do with drugs/rehab

[@haunteddeandollsuk]

the final face for rock looks like a created character 😂😂 beta was better

[@Samia-2003]

Fr

[@BBall-dq9mt]

Does anyone have Beta Version?

[@TheBlackScatPack]

2:15 is nightmare fuel 😂😂😂

[@TheSafetysuit]

Nice

[@kevinthorn9672]

Beta brock for the win

[@josephnorthrop488]

As great as this game is, it would've been so much better with Jeff, Hogan & Warrior

[@LilDiabloRob]

I still played this game to this day. Better than the 2K games. These older ones are so High pace and so easy to remember moves. Hope the aew game will bring that back because 2k22 is a little bit easier to play than the old 2k games.

[@DertySquady]

0:11 Aw hell nah they made Rey black ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

[@Kami3Kaze]

They did Rey dirty lol

[@merriemelodiesfan7425]

Too bad Hulk Hogan and Jeff Hardy weren't in the game, but that's what create-a-wrestler or hacking (if you're good at it) is for.

[@Alvado836]

I miss this game so much I really want em bad where can I get this game

[@TheHappyponies666]

Why is Jeff cut?

[@WrestlingVideoGames]

The WWE released him during the game's development.

[@TDawgSmokes]

Imagine a ps5 and Xbox remake 😭

[@afr0cuban57]

The beta face for the rock was way better

[@kyle7053]

It's still cool to make them through create a wrestler tho.

[@petertan8847]

did you get the hctp beta iso? will tcrf release it to the public?

[@mvpmatty8295]

I felt like SVR2006 was better

[@Nevxh]

Wish they would've kept Jeff Hardy in like why tf not. Makes no sense

[@mariosonicfan8312]

Jeff Hardy was released due to a drug abused I believe.

[@brandonperez8977]

He was removed due some drug issue. That's a reason to make sense

[@shubhammishra9274]

This game is a fire

[@Him_Downstairs36]

From working in the game industry, sweeping changes like this aren’t made in the beta, as that time is used to wrap up the existing features. Art lock would be sometime in alpha