Mr Gump said:
If Yukes hasnt got rid of all the smackdown 1 animations by now they really do suck.
AKI's characters - while not composed of as many polygons seem to be way more pleasing to look at however. The level of personality is unparalleled.
I agree, it's cool to see great animations like Flair's cheap shot or eye rake, the shining wizard etc., but then outta nowhere you get these pre-historic looking, stiff and poorly animated Smackdown 1 moves and it hurts the overall smoothness. They've had 3 PS2 games already, so by now they should've smoothened out or completely reanimated the old Smackdown 1 & 2 animations to fit into the current look of the game.
That's what I loved about the AKI games, their move and animation library, always grew and improved and after 7 years still looks great. Moves had impact, and looked smooth. The character models were not the best, but the way the wrestlers moved, and attacked looked great, almost as if the attacks really had weight and impact behind them.