Metacritic Games

Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood (Xbox)

Backyard Wrestling Inc. has announced "your town" as the location of its first live pay per view. They've put a million dollars cash prize on the line for the wrestler who's got what it takes to destroy every obstacle in their way to the main event and ultimately the unified BYW championship. A completely revamped wrestling and animation system raises the ability to inflict copious amounts of pain to an opponent to nearly infinite levels. Standing and ground based submissions, multi-position grappling, a block button body and an even deeper location-specific damage system all play into the carnage! Players will battle through both an enhanced single player experience, complete with death matches and a "quest for the belt" mode, or the ever popular, greatly expanded multi-player scenarios. The list of licensed backyard brawlers has grown immensely, including stars from the explosive home video series, as well as some of the craziest pro wrestlers to ever set foot in a ring. The completely redesigned Create-A-Wrestler System allows gamers to get creative and craft their own alter-ego with. The new robust C.A.W. allows for the customization of a backyard brawler from the ground up, including Tattoo's, Face Paint, Customized Clothing, and more! [Eidos Interactive]

Eidos Interactive
Wrestling, Action
Players: 2
M (Mature)
Developer: Paradox Development
Released November 16, 2004

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

43 / 100

Critic Reviews

76	Team Xbox We don't yet think Eidos has ironed out all the wrinkles, but we definitely think they are taking the series in the right direction, as Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood is a straight-up, screw the WWE brawler that gamers with a few screws loose will enjoy.
62	Game Chronicles A marked improvement over the original game, at least in features and level design, but ultimately there have been just too many other games in the same or similar genre that edges this one out in overall quality.
58	Game Informer Movement feels floaty, hit detection and collision issues are everywhere, and enemy AI is painfully stupid. [Jan 2005, p.118]
57	Electronic Gaming Monthly Three times superior to its predecessor. Though still well shy of very good. [Feb 2005, p.100]
56	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.
50	Yahoo! Games But take away the shocking aspects and anti-culture roster of fighters and what's left is still just a mediocre fighting game.
50	DarkStation Although some of the sequences can be pretty over the top, for the most part the game doesn't really pick up any steam.
43	Official Xbox Magazine Lots of blood, but not enough meat. [Jan 2005, p.84]
40	Worth Playing Tedious gameplay, dumb A.I., bad collision detection, glitchy graphics, and weak audio in a video game.
40	Xbox Nation Magazine There are audio glitches galore, with sound effects either missing or repeating themselves over and over for no good reason. [Feb 2005, p.93]
40	Computer and Video Games With only two way multiplayer returning, this really was a missed opportunity to improve upon a disappointing franchise. As it stands, BW2 gets the smack put down on it by virtually every other fighter out there. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]
34	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.
33	TotalGames.net The controls are pretty lousy, characters will often merge with each other and scenery, and moves feel limited; plus, why can't we grapple an opponent when they're stunned?...Avoid this rubbish at all costs.
32	Gaming Target It’s El Stinko for this title, folks. Unless you’re some diehard fan of ICP (or Tera Patrick, maybe?), you should steer clear of this at all costs.
30	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.
25	Game Revolution Fans of Backyard Wrestling may want to try this game out, but then again, they might have more fun with a blowtorch and video camera. Lord knows I would.
20	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.