WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009: One Man's Opinion

[RaychelSnr]

Are you on the fence about THQ's upcoming WWE Video Game, Smackdown vs. Raw 2009? Our very own Wil McCombs is checking in today to try to clear the air a bit and give his opinion on if the game will be worth checking out or not. Be sure to take a look at his opinion in his article, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009: One Man's Opinion.

"I’m a unique breed of wrestling fan.

Let me elaborate. I am not a hardcore fan. I occasionally watch WWE and TNA programming, but usually only small cross-sections of each show. In fact, I could not readily identify all of the WWE and TNA champions without first stopping at Google.com. Shame on me."

[TCF]

i really don't know. TNA was already talking about how they will do tag teams this year when the game is released next week and now all of a sudden SvR is doing the same thing. SvR08 sucked it felt like i was playing SvR07 which was ok but still nothing impressive. now that the competition has a game out they are trying to make better improvements?

will have to wait and see i do know i am getting TNA next week.

[Shadymamba]

i dont know if svr has the wwe wrestlers taking part in customizing the game, but when i seen that some of the TNA wrestlers had on the black suits doing moves..I was like now thats a way to go..hey i wont say its great cuz it hasnt come out yet and i havent played it..but that kind of hands on can be something good...hopefully its a good game (TNA) ive played 3 RVS im done with this franchise

[goh]

Re: WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009: One Man's Opinion

I used to get really excited for these games but they've been going downhill since HCTP. I think they need to scrap the whole thing and start over.

[adembroski]

SvR08 was horrible. I enjoyed 07, but the game just got clunkier and harder to enjoy. I understand what you're saying regarding the storyline stuff being important enough to put up with average gameplay, but SvR does not have average gameplay, it has poor gameplay. It's not passable enough.

Unless there's a leap in gameplay, I wont be buying it again.

[icepikk]

I used to get really excited for these games but they've been going downhill since HCTP. I think they need to scrap the whole thing and start over.

I agree with goh. I used to love the smackdown games, i was excited all year long waiting to see the new moves or features that the next one was gonna bring. True it has never lived up to No Mercy which many, including myself, feel is the best wrestling game of all time, but I still loved the games. Then they slowly started removing what to me are key things to make room for new features which were lackluster at best. I totally disagree with Wil on what makes a wrestling game great and playable. All the features in the world mean nothing to me if the gameplay sucks. Sure u can have customer entrances with ur own music, a great story mode and matches, but if every match ur using the same few sucky moves, even combining a lot of moves over multiple characters the game will become boring fast. Since WWF Attitude I have based my wrestling game experiences around my CAWs. They are the characters I use and I make the same ones on each new game. I have storylines and backhistory for all of them and have added many over time. So im glad i can customize their looks a lot more now so they stand out from each other, but as the games allow me to do that better and better (except for hair, the hair to choose from is terrible), at the same time its limiting how my characters play. A lot of my characters have overlapping moves cuz they keep removing more and more each year and leaving all the crappy moves. I understand my characters can each have a few of the same moves but its becoming more and more, even when they can do less. I remember when in a smackdown game i had 8 back moves, now only 4, and when i had plenty of front moves and each year i get to pick less moves, making my matches repetitive and boring. Also limiting what moves I can choose for each character is bogus. I dont want a filter telling me what moves I can and cant have for a certain character or with what button configuration I can have them. Let me decide that. We used to get any four moves up down left and right now we have this total control which takes up some move spots, and submissions we have to have a place for and then two different "styles." It makes me have to pick and choose between moves I want even though I should have place for the ones I want but because Im limited I cant give my guys moves Ive had them have as recently as the year before's game! I used to play SD games all year long, now im lucky to wanna play them past the first month and that sucks cuz I really loved these games and looked forward to them. I know TNA isnt going to be all that good cuz being its first game its just getting the feel for things and where it wants to expand but SD is going to be in its what, 10th iteration? It should get the gameplay right. because honestly HCTP was the best, giving me a lot of freedom and choices for moves with plenty of places to put them and a nice story mode. PLEASE THQ focus on the gameplay and allowing plenty of moves without limiting who can use what and maybe I'll be into these again. I own them all and I'd hate to think of the day when I just give up on buying one, itll break my heart, like losing a friend who has gone astray and u feel u dont really even know them anymore.

[TCF]

the one thing about TNA is that Midway had access to all the roster members so that is a huge jump over the handful that THQ has for SvR

[blinkfan77]

I agree with a lot of whats been said. Especially in the article. This lame ticky-tacky stuff like the Inferno Match and the backstage brawl that has the same stupid canned, long, boring, repetitive animations that get old and stale after 1 match are getting seriously old and boring.

So what, flames rise up after a few minutes/strong moves. So what the loser rolls around with crappy looking flames on them. It's cool to watch once.

For me, fixing the gameplay mechanics and the weapon interactions is what they need to do. I'm so sick of weapons/tables etc.. and the "sliding" mechanic, where if you walk near something, it just simply slides, rather than being able to do a move ONTO it. Rather than some stupid animation that involves you throwing an opponent on a table first, then you do something. No thanks

Get rid of these lame, gimmicky moves and interactions with the crowd. I don't feel like I'm really involved in the matches when it takes a single button press that goes into some stupid animation with the crowd/barrier that included a new camera angle, further removing me from the experience of me actually performing the moves with the utmost video game gratification.

The developers and producers clearly don't have a genuine feel for what SHOULD be being fixed and what fans really want. A couple new modes and matches that are fun once or twice, isn't going to make me buy this game.

Improved controls, mechanics, graphics, loads of backstage areas, new situations to do moves in, new moves themselves, GETTING RID OF 8 YEARS OLD MOVES!!!! That's what I want to see.

And for gods sake, PLEASE REDO THE HELL IN THE CELL!!!!! I can't tell you how sick I am of the 8 year old animation of falling through the cell and HANGING ON! The old WM game for GameCube had THE BEST HIAC match in any WWE game. I loved playing it because every move you used to put someone through was new, exciting, different looking animation/reaction.

Not to mention Corey Ledesma is the most fake, disingenuous, see through, transparent developer/PR person I've ever seen in interviews. The guy thinks his audience is 10 year olds who just accept all the crap he says. I don't fall for all of his stupid hype tactics that he whips out every year.

This franchise needs a new direction, new staff, new outlook, better community relations, better PR, better goals, higher standards and a better feel for what their consumers really want.

Freshen this game up already!!!!!

[icepikk]

I agree with a lot of whats been said. Especially in the article. This lame ticky-tacky stuff like the Inferno Match and the backstage brawl that has the same stupid canned, long, boring, repetitive animations that get old and stale after 1 match are getting seriously old and boring.

So what, flames rise up after a few minutes/strong moves. So what the loser rolls around with crappy looking flames on them. It's cool to watch once.

For me, fixing the gameplay mechanics and the weapon interactions is what they need to do. I'm so sick of weapons/tables etc.. and the "sliding" mechanic, where if you walk near something, it just simply slides, rather than being able to do a move ONTO it. Rather than some stupid animation that involves you throwing an opponent on a table first, then you do something. No thanks

Get rid of these lame, gimmicky moves and interactions with the crowd. I don't feel like I'm really involved in the matches when it takes a single button press that goes into some stupid animation with the crowd/barrier that included a new camera angle, further removing me from the experience of me actually performing the moves with the utmost video game gratification.

The developers and producers clearly don't have a genuine feel for what SHOULD be being fixed and what fans really want. A couple new modes and matches that are fun once or twice, isn't going to make me buy this game.

Improved controls, mechanics, graphics, loads of backstage areas, new situations to do moves in, new moves themselves, GETTING RID OF 8 YEARS OLD MOVES!!!! That's what I want to see.

And for gods sake, PLEASE REDO THE HELL IN THE CELL!!!!! I can't tell you how sick I am of the 8 year old animation of falling through the cell and HANGING ON! The old WM game for GameCube had THE BEST HIAC match in any WWE game. I loved playing it because every move you used to put someone through was new, exciting, different looking animation/reaction.

Not to mention Corey Ledesma is the most fake, disingenuous, see through, transparent developer/PR person I've ever seen in interviews. The guy thinks his audience is 10 year olds who just accept all the crap he says. I don't fall for all of his stupid hype tactics that he whips out every year.

This franchise needs a new direction, new staff, new outlook, better community relations, better PR, better goals, higher standards and a better feel for what their consumers really want.

Freshen this game up already!!!!!

very well put. I agree with all of that.

[CarryTheWeight]

Re: WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009: One Man's Opinion

The best thing about the SVR series is the CAW mode. Probably the best one out there and the only one out there worth a damn. Hell, I run a CAW league on SVR just because of that reason. SVR, by far, has the best customizability (is that even a word?) of any sports game out there, even if games like Fire Pro and No Mercy had more flexibility.

But, at the same time, I'm still very skeptical of just where the game's going gameplay-wise. It's the "Madden" of Wrestling games after all. THQ and the developers talk every year about how "nothing's been recycled" and how they're "rethinking" the game's various features. Why are we seeing recycled animations from Smackdown 1, then? Why does the game always seem to take "one step forward and two steps back" gameplay-wise?

I like the "struggle submission" system they implemented last year, but I hated how it rendered every submission without an "SS" by its name null and void. I liked the addition of the ECW Extreme Rules Match last year, but when I can't break an announce table by jumping off the top rope or suplexing someone off a ladder, I instantly cringe.

Like 2K5/Madden, it's REALLY sad when games with inferior graphical quality and games on older consoles (DOR and No Mercy) perform much better when it comes down to basics. Sure, SVR still has the best customization around and the most authentic out-of-ring authenticity. But when it comes down to pure wrestling, SVR is junk. The AI fails to act competently, you can still beat opponents endlessly with stomps and irreversable maneuvers on the mat, and its mechanics still belong in a fighting game.

...oh yeah, and don't get me started on the commentary.

SVR2009 looks like more of the same to me. Despite the addition of some new exciting customization (create-a-finisher), I'm still skeptical. And I'll continue to be skeptical until the demo or the game itself releases. Sure, it's still a "buy" for me (I own a CAW league, after all) but I can't help but think it's...well...more of the same.

[VG31]

Has it been announced if you can use any superstar in story mode or are you restricted to a list of like 20 wrestlers like last year?

[goh]

Re: WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009: One Man's Opinion

The best thing about the SVR series is the CAW mode. Probably the best one out there and the only one out there worth a damn. Hell, I run a CAW league on SVR just because of that reason. SVR, by far, has the best customizability (is that even a word?) of any sports game out there, even if games like Fire Pro and No Mercy had more flexibility.

I think the CAW mode has gotten progressively worse too. Especially with the females,goodness forbid they have a logo on their shirt and can wrestle in more than one match type,apprently they're also made of some sort of plastic cause they don't bleed,also can't be used in story. Guys can't have logos on their upper pants either and putting any logos at all anywhere on them and they're not usable online. Need the PS2 version with a cheat device to get anything done anymore.

[CarryTheWeight]

Re: WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009: One Man's Opinion

goh, even with its quirks on next-gen (less layers on PS3 than 360, and all the blurring) and even after all that's been removed, SVR's CAW mode hasn't been butchered as much as the gameplay. People are still able to make mindblowing creations in there.

On second thought, though, it's still a damn shame. Every point you made is valid. At the very least, we should have more slots for creations. 30 is fine, but 64 would be better. Why can't we have the limit be our own hard drive (or memory card) capacity? And about women bleeding, I think it's more of a rating issue than anything else...if they were to include it, up comes the M rating. Which isn't a bad thing per se, but we'd have to deal with the endless groups of angry kids complaining about why "gamestop won't let me get the game".

Once again, one step forward, two steps back...

[TCF]

The best thing about the SVR series is the CAW mode. Probably the best one out there and the only one out there worth a damn. Hell, I run a CAW league on SVR just because of that reason. SVR, by far, has the best customizability (is that even a word?) of any sports game out there, even if games like Fire Pro and No Mercy had more flexibility.

But, at the same time, I'm still very skeptical of just where the game's going gameplay-wise. It's the "Madden" of Wrestling games after all. THQ and the developers talk every year about how "nothing's been recycled" and how they're "rethinking" the game's various features. Why are we seeing recycled animations from Smackdown 1, then? Why does the game always seem to take "one step forward and two steps back" gameplay-wise?

I like the "struggle submission" system they implemented last year, but I hated how it rendered every submission without an "SS" by its name null and void. I liked the addition of the ECW Extreme Rules Match last year, but when I can't break an announce table by jumping off the top rope or suplexing someone off a ladder, I instantly cringe.

Like 2K5/Madden, it's REALLY sad when games with inferior graphical quality and games on older consoles (DOR and No Mercy) perform much better when it comes down to basics. Sure, SVR still has the best customization around and the most authentic out-of-ring authenticity. But when it comes down to pure wrestling, SVR is junk. The AI fails to act competently, you can still beat opponents endlessly with stomps and irreversable maneuvers on the mat, and its mechanics still belong in a fighting game.

...oh yeah, and don't get me started on the commentary.

SVR2009 looks like more of the same to me. Despite the addition of some new exciting customization (create-a-finisher), I'm still skeptical. And I'll continue to be skeptical until the demo or the game itself releases. Sure, it's still a "buy" for me (I own a CAW league, after all) but I can't help but think it's...well...more of the same.

really compared to what other wrestling game in regards to the CAW? it had no competition and TNA's game comes out next week and until we get to see that nobody knows how good it really is.

[CarryTheWeight]

Re: WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009: One Man's Opinion

Well, at least compared to the other WWE titles out there, SVR IMO had the better CAW mode, despite the fact Raw 2 had more customization options (editing existing wrestlers' attire and the robust create-an-entrance) and DOR had the better gameplay of the three (at least IMO). SVR always was the higher end of the three in terms of detail and what you could design. Since it made the jump to every console under the sun, though, you're right. There really isn't anything to compare it to. But for what it's worth, it's incredibly detailed, even with the stuff they took out (layer copying, anyone)?