Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood

Weekly Famitsu

6 / 7 / 7 / 6  [Vol. 852]

Pelit (Finland)

There Goes the Neighborhood has serious weapon-related AI and collision detection problems. The arenas and the movement system are surprisingly good. [Jan. 05]

GMR Magazine

Takes advantage of the new lease on life by endangering the lives of its onscreen combatants in much better fashion than before. [Feb 2005, p.84]

Game Informer

Movement feels floaty, hit detection and collision issues are everywhere, and enemy AI is painfully stupid. [Jan 2005, p.118]

Electronic Gaming Monthly

Three times superior to its predecessor. Though still well shy of very good. [Feb 2005, p.100]

IGN

But in its current form and with so many other better wrestling titles out there, it's mediocrity is the only thing that's exceptional about it.

PSM Magazine

The all-important create-a-wrestler is rather lackluster - which, sadly, also best describes the game as a whole. [Jan 2005, p.73]

Game Chronicles

If you are looking for a wrestling game that isn’t WWE, I’d advise you to check out Legends of Wrestling before you come to this backyard.

Yahoo! Games

Because of its shallow combat and poor presentation, the game loses its thrill very quickly for anyone not a devotee of the subject matter.

GameZone

Everything you hated about the last game makes its return in "Backyard Wrestling 2."

My Gamer

Value is a relative term normally; it’s different for each person, but not in this case. The only convincing reason to purchase this game is as an alternative to a lobotomy.

GamerFeed

Definitely more improved than its predecessor in that there's more stuff to do and it looks nicer, but the gameplay is still a buggy mess. It's also not even in the same league as the other wrestling games on the market.

IC-Games

I’m sure there’s humour and enjoyment in this title somewhere but I think it’s that of a slightly dysfunctional thirteen-year-old boy – quite a narrow market to be aiming for.

Games Radar UK (Pre-2006)

A shoddily stitched together beat-'em-up which is appealing for minutes. Quite frankly we'd rather have our backyard occupied by the Groundforce team. [PSM2]

Cheat Code Central

Compared to last year's game, this is last year's game. There are so few improvements that whatever you hated or liked about the original is what you'll hate or like about this sequel.

PSX Nation

Despite new licensed wrestlers, dozens of new songs and new additions meant to appeal to rural America’s prurient interests (i.e. porn stars as playable wrestlers) Backyard Wrestling 2’s bad graphics, poor collision detection and awful dialogue sink it into the pit of holiday expendability.

VGPub

The few genuine improvements are easily forgotten amid the many things that were made worse from the first game into this one.

GameSpot

This game is just flat-out bad in most every way you can think of, and for a franchise with such promise and potential, that's a truly disheartening thing.

RewiredMind

A rushed mess of a game that doesn't follow up on its promises.

GamePro

With sloppy production values, insane load times, sub-par graphics and sound, and gameplay that irrevocably evolves into: grapple, counter, super, grapple, counter, super, this game isn't even worth the rental fee.

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

What really makes this game a disaster is the presentation. The character models and environments look like they were made using "Fighter Maker," which is to say that one one with a fundamental familiarity with 3D modeling was hired to make this game. [Feb 2005, p.91]

Game Revolution

The collision detection issues become especially irritating when dealing with projectiles, since they’ll clearly appear to miss you, and yet you get smacked.

G4 TV

Unfortunately, while hitting porn stars with weed whackers to the finely articulate tunes of the Insane Clown Posse might sound like a dream come true to some, the junior high-level execution of this game just brings down any possibility of a truly good wrestling title.