 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | Yuke's Media Creations |
| Publisher: | THQ | |
| Genre: | Sports | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1-4 | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (online play, DLC) |
While the Road to Wrestlemania mode is excellent, the same cannot be said about career mode. Career Mode allows you to choose any wrestler on the roster (including your created wrestlers) and run them through a perpetually cycling schedule to win every WWE title. This mode has potential, but it falls flat because there’s nothing in it outside of the matches. There are no feuds, there is no storyline, and there is no sort of interference or really anything to make the mode feel authentic. You select which path you want to go on, beat everyone in that ladder, win the belt at the pay-per-view, and then select another path. You don’t have to really defend any title, and you’ll eventually win every belt and simultaneously hold them all.
In other words, Career Mode gets very boring very quickly. Unlike the Road to Wrestlemania mode, Career Mode has absolutely no style, buildup, voices, storylines, or really any sense of the WWE product outside of a match. You don’t build up rivalries, and you don’t have things like sneak-attacks, run-ins, or any real challenge for your collection of titles.
The create-a-wrestler mode is extensive (as always), and allows you to make all sorts of characters. A quick Internet search will find sites with templates and instructions that allow you to make extremely impressive characters ranging from classic wrestlers (or ones in other promotions) to cartoon characters. I do have quirks with a few parts of this mode. You cannot edit attributes on created wrestlers, as they have to be improved through the career mode. THQ promised a patch that would allow you to edit attributes, but have thus far failed to deliver it to the Xbox 360 version of the game as of this writing. Still, this is just an obnoxious flaw, and caused me to wait forever to really get into the mode. I also wasn’t a fan of being forced to complete special events in the Road to Wrestlemania mode in order to unlock various move-sets and entrances. I would rather unlock other things through story mode (like costumes, arenas, characters, etc) than unlock things that should be available out of the box (like move sets).
Most of the matches feel right, but I have a few quirks with how some are pulled off. The Royal Rumble is fun until your character is tossed towards the ropes. This starts a button-mashing fest, where the opposing player is trying to push you off the rope. You have a meter, that quickly depletes until it runs out and you are eliminated. The problem is that it takes too long to recover from an attempt at being tossed out of the ring and that the meter never regenerates. If you manage to avoid elimination from the first guy, you can bet that the next person that puts you on the ropes will automatically toss you out. The Money in the Bank match feels flawed. While the real-life match is pretty chaotic, the game version can drag on for an hour or more because AI players will never be “knocked out.”
I also don’t like that several features that have been in prior wrestling titles are not in this one. For example: you can’t sneak-attack your opponent while he’s walking into the ring. You also can’t take the fight backstage from the ring. The AI is also generally bad. I would persistently have AI opponents get into a loop of repeatedly performing moves. I saw this most in any matches involving ladders, especially if the ladder was wedged into the corner. The opponent would whip you into the ladder, perform a move that bounces you off the ladder, pick you up and repeat x10 or until you manage to squeak a reversal.
Bottom Line:
Smackdown v. Raw 2009 is actually pretty fun. I haven’t picked up a wrestling title in years, yet this one managed to sneak its way into heavy gaming rotation. The Road to Wrestlemania mode is great, although I wish they had more storylines to play through. Career Mode is boring and feels wasted. Wrestling fans probably already have this one. Other people may want to give this game a look. Wrestling games have always made good multiplayer titles, and this one is no exception.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 8.0 |
Posted: 2009-04-24 09:30:43 PST