WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2009

Time to enter the digital squared circle again!

Posted 4 years ago By - Nelson Hum

There is no doubt that professional wrestling reached it’s heyday in the late 90’s/early 2000s. You couldn’t swing a steel folding chair without hitting someone wearing an Austin 3:16 t-shirt. You could also argue (and I would be one of them) that wrestling games peaked in 2000 with WWF No Mercy for the Nintendo 64. THQ seemed hit their stride with their Smackdown series, especially around Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain for the Playstation 2. However, the last few incarnations have been treading water by not offering any revolutionary. Does Smackdown vs Raw 2009 (SVR09) reinvigorate the series? Put your tights on and let’s find out.


Gameplay

Like the vast amount of gimmicks and personas that have entered the squared circle over the years, the first thing players will notice is the sheer amount of game modes that SVR09 offers. Everything from your standard tag match to Ladder Matches, TLC Matches, Extreme Rules Matches – there’s a ton of variety and you can jump into any of them from the very beginning. A new match in this year’s edition is the Inferno Match. You and your opponent are in a ring with the ropes on fire. Everytime you do a move, the temperature increases. Once you hit 500 Fahrenheit, you can set your opponent on fire. Sadly, this match mode is about as unexciting as an actual Inferno Match (who’s really going to let themselves be burned right?). What’s worse is that setting your opponent on fire is isn’t very obvious. Unfortunately, the Buried Alive match and Parking Lot Brawl is gone from this year’s game. It’s too bad because both of those matches are better than the Inferno Match.

Another major addition to the game is the Road to WrestleMania. You get to choose from seven superstars (Chris Jericho, Triple H, the Undertaker, CM Punk, John Cena, and Rey Mysterio/Batista) and take them through a story mode complete with cut scenes and full voice acting. The game direction makes you feel like you’re watching an episode of Raw or Smackdown but you get to control the wrestler. It’s a great mode with entertaining plot developments that try to pull you in like the TV product. While it’s unfortunate that you can’t go through the mode with your Created Superstar (at least you can do a co-op tag team journey with the Batista/Mysterio pairing), it’s a blast to play.

Speaking of the Create-A-Superstar (CAS), the most popular mode in the series is back again. Nothing radical has been added or removed – you still get your dizzying array of body types, faces, shirts, tights, boots, tattoos, face paint, etc. The system is as deep as ever and you can pretty much make non-WWE wrestlers or any funked-out abomination you can imagine. I’ve already seen a few homemade Marvel Comics characters. Nothing like seeing Spider Man give the Hulk a Shooting Star Press.

Now that you have your personal superstar, you can take him through a career mode in order to bring up his stats. You basically start at the bottom of the card and wrestle other superstars in order to get a belt (you can eventually win all of them.) At the end of every match you can get up to a 5-star rating on your match (based on dominance, drama, moves performed, etc.) The more stars you get, the more ability points are assigned to your various stats. While what you did in the match determines where the points go (if you ran a lot, your speed would increase), the total points assigned to each category is automatically assigned by the CPU. Kind of a bummer that you can’t pick in choose but its unique way to build up your character. You can also unlock certain character attributes by accomplishing certain tasks during a match, such as beating a Superstar 20 points higher than you in order to unlock the Durability attribute. There are a variety of attributes, such as Submission and Dirty, which nicely represent various “face” and “heel” tendencies on TV. Another nice point of realism is that after a fight you recover damage to your various body parts but could still be banged up in your next fight. As a fan of the wrestling industry, it hits a little close to home as professional wrestlers are notoriously hurt all the time and are rarely injury free. Thankfully as well, a patch will be coming out in the near future so that you won’t have to earn stats and abilities for each of your CAS’s. It may be fun the first time but it would be mind-numbingly boring to have to do it for every single character you create.


Another new but underdeveloped feature is that create-a-finisher mode. The mode lets you string together move animations in order to create your own devastating move. The idea is promising and sounds like a wrestling fan’s dream but ultimately you’ll find the mode more limited than what was originally intended. As you progress though each step (a kick first, then a powerbomb position), you are then limited by what you have chosen in the previous step. While it’s great that you can create a move at all, some people will ultimately be disappointed when they can’t create what they want.

You can also create your own highlight video in the Highlight Reel mode. It’s definitely a great feature, especially if you want to relive some spectacular moments or create a typical WWE montage. The interface was a little clunky to use at first but once you get use to it it’s a good time. It does require a lot of work but it’s satisfying once you see the end product.

The actual gameplay is unchanged from last year. You can move with either the d-pad or the analogue and you grapple with the right analogue. I personally miss using the buttons to grab guys but the analogue sticks do work well. The hit detection is a little wonky at times but the targeting system truly needs an overhaul. In the previous versions, you could hit L1 to cycle through your targets. Now, the targeting is set on “auto” so you attack whoever is closest. This lack of control makes some incredibly annoying targeting issues and your character not attacking who you want them to attack. Prepare for mis-directed attacks aplenty. Online mode is nothing to write home about as I find the slow paced nature of the game and sometimes odd hit detection can make it a frustrating experience. There are leaderboards and such if you are willing to step into the online squared circle.

A new focus this year is tag team wrestling. THQ offers a bevy of tag moves which look great and other neat options like blind tagging but the main addition is the “Hot Tag” feature. Like in most wrestling matches you see, one wrestler gets the bejeebus kicked out of him while his partner amps up the crowd and desperately wants in. You can recreate this by holding down on the D-Pad when you’re on the apron. Once your Momentum bar is full and you get a tag, you go into a button press mini-game that can take out both opponents and refill your meter. It’s a great feature that re-creates the drama of an actual match.


Graphics and Sound

The graphics in SVR09 are great. All of the characters look like their real-life counterparts and the animations are accurate when it comes to their entrances and popular moves. Some updating could be used as a lot of the move animations are holdovers from previous generations. Facial expressions are still a little empty but simple graphical touches like the sweat look great (I never thought I’d be typing that sentence!) There seems to be less licensed music in the game than in previous ones – most menu screen tunes now consist of the wrestling themes rather than hard rock stadium bangers. The commentary, while nice to have, is cheesy and really stilted. There’s nothing like doing the same move over and over again just to illicit the same response from the dummy commentators.



Value

There is a lot to do in SVR09. The CAS mode alone will keep you busy for months as you recreate your favorite grapplers of yester-year or stitch together original creations. The 7 different storylines in the Road to WrestleMania is great for replay value as well as each storyline is pretty good at holding your interest. Building your stats and abilities for you characters can be addicting as well as you don’t want your original toon to be a total weakling. Online will be hit or miss for some so there some extra fun in that if you do like it.


Bottom Line

If you’re a wrestling fan, you’re going to really enjoy this game. As a standalone product, the core gameplay offers a very satisfying simulation of WWE action. If you’ve been a follower of the series for some time, you’ll be pleased with the product but somewhat disappointed with the new features. The hot tag ability is a nice addition but the Create-A-Finisher and Inferno Match is a bit lacking. Even though the series as a whole is a bit stale at this point, SVR09 is still the video game wrestling champion.

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