Wrestling games cater to a very specific audience, those rabid fans that can’t go a week without catching up on the sports entertainment action offered by World Wrestling Entertainment’s Monday Night RAW and SmackDown! television shows, and countless pay-per-views. With each new SmackDown game, THQ continues to up the ante, and with WWE SmackDown vs. RAW, the publisher offers more features than ever before. The wrestlers in SmackDown vs. RAW are some of the most realistic to appear in a video game. The facial features are remarkably accurate, blinking and mouthing their words just like the real athletes and pseudo actors. Considering that characters in the past haven’t looked quite right, it’s a pleasant surprise that these actually look human. The animation is excellent, with clean moves and smooth transitions. While the stadiums are still inhabited by crowds made up of two-dimensional paper cutouts, they are much better looking, more animated paper cutouts. The ring entrances look better than ever, from the stage details to the impressive pyrotechnics. The Undertaker’s entrance, for instance, is spot-on. The lights go out, and the Undertaker comes out with a full entourage of hooded figures, going through the elaborate routine with his eyes rolling back into his head and all. Eddie Guerrero comes out rolling in his lowrider, hittin’ the switches and representing La Raza. On the other hand, a few entrances aren’t quite as accurate. Renee Dupree for instance, doesn’t come out with his poodle Fifi, a crucial part of his character, but he still goes through the motions of his French tickler dance, which may entertain some and disturb others. The Yuke’s wrestling engine performs as well here as in any of the previous SmackDown iterations. Wrestlers duke it out with strikes and a variety of grapples, ranging from powerful holds, signature moves, and quick techniques. Submissions are handled well, with body damage being inflicted to body parts with each move, and the holds themselves being adjudicated by a button-press minigame. There are other minigames as well, such as for the initial test of strength, the corner chop contest, and shoving matches. It's only a matter of time until we get shouting matches. The weight classes play a role, as cruiserweights can't lift the super heavyweights. Wrestlers are also lumped into one of two categories, clean and dirty fighters. Clean wrestlers feed off of the crowd, and get hyped when performing their signature techniques, or when flying off the top rope. Dirty fighters, on the other hand, will thrive on using illegal weapons, holding submissions after a ref asks for a break, arguing with the referee, and basically making a nuisance of himself. Working a match in the proper clean or dirty manner will reward you with either a punishing low blow maneuver if you’re a baddie, or a few seconds of invulnerability for the good guys. Tag team AI is much improved, and no longer frustratingly biased on the CPU side, making these matches a pleasure. Countering moves is accomplished by pressing the appropriate shoulder button, and with practice, as the action plays out so smoothly, the back and forth gameplay of holds and counterholds can be quite fulfilling. The storylines and created wrestler features are key to wrestling games, and neither disappoints in SmackDown vs. RAW. The create-a-wrestler mode is the most action-packed feature seen yet, but not an incredible improvement upon those in past games. You can make pretty much anyone you want with enough patience and spare time. With enough earned cash within the game, you can unlock some characters you may be too lazy to create, including Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart, and the Legion of Doom. The audio features in SmackDown vs. Raw are much improved over each of the past games. The crowd reactions are exuberant, while the sounds of the wrestlers smacking each other about with chairs, slams, and sledgehammers are well handled. This is also the first wrestling game that features full voice acting in the story mode by the wrestlers. The voice work adds immeasurably to the story mode’s culpability, and will be loved by fans of the WWE. The game’s soundtrack, on the other hand, can be extremely repetitive, no matter how much you love Public Enemy and Anthrax.
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw is the first wrestling game to offer online matches, but sadly this feature just isn’t up to snuff. You can select either a standard match or a bra-and-panties match, and then after venting your frustrations on a silent, nameless opponent, you’re done. Without a suitable array of options or win-loss ranking system, the online mode is more of an afterthought. Even so, as a complete package, SmackDown vs. Raw will entertain any closet wrestling fan for months to come, or at the very least until the next game is released.
Thats the bottom line......Do you smell what the Rock is cooking? Dude this game rocks out. Having the voice over is a really neat added benefit as well. Ok so the the voice over wasn't perfect. The one draw back to ... Read Full Review
Smackdown vs. Raw is the best wrestling game that I have ever played. The gameplay is very good. The ability of being able to do 16 different facing grapple moves is great. There are four different grapples which are pow... Read Full Review
