I really didn’t anticipate this game hitting the market at all with the focus being on so many other big games slated to hit the stores. About a week or two before launch, the commercials started hitting the TV and the old wrestling fan in me started gaining a slight interest. Wrestling has changed a ton since I watched it as a kid with the cool characters and wide variety of personalities like Jake the Snake, Macho-Man Randy Savage, Natural Disasters or HackSaw Jim Duggan (hoooooooo!). The last time I watched wrestling was when I would consider it at its peak and that was between 1995 up until the death of Owen Hart in 1999 with his bizarre fall from the rafters. The best match in that time span was the Steel Cage Match (Hell in the Cell 1996) between The Undertaker and Mankind who ended up going through the top of the cage (accidentally) and landing on his back on top of thumb tacks laid out earlier by Mankind. Absolutely awesome to watch but you knew that kind of stuff couldn’t continue so being out of the game for a bit now its going to be nice to see what has become of the bizarro world of Pro Wrestling. Let’s take a look at the game…………I mean this has to be a good game with all the next generation ability and such a strong brand name, right?

First off upon opening the box you will notice the encyclopedia Brittanica they call a user manual. I figured this was a wrestling game so the buttons would be pretty basic and easy to get used to but noooooooooo. Navigating the buttons right away is like try to play wack-a-mole with your feet. Just so many different combinations with various Grapples and Holds that it seems like it will be a daunting task to get your arms around. It’s not that bad after about 45 minutes or so of complete aggravation. So don’t let the manual scare you, it does get easier to control. Practice, practice, slam controller down, practice.


New Features
I haven’t played previous years of this title only because I really haven’t been into wrestling that much other than putting my 6 year old into a sleeper hold playing “King of the Couch” at home. This year there are a some good additions that make the game much more than a button mashing contest. SmackDown vs. RAW has come up with pretty nice controls for grappling and most of them revolve around the right thumbstick. Basic holds require a short move up, down, left or right of the thumbstick and each one will have a unique short grapple move. Aside from the basic moves like the invisible punch, shoulder bump or eye gouge there are strong grapple moves using the right bumper (RB) and the right thumbstick together. With this combination you can pick up opponents and walk around the ring or do unique moves like a DDT, Pile Driver or the “Big Show” Choke Slam. Most of the time you will be using this grappling feature to get in and out of moves and submission attempts. You will find at times that it’s a bit cumbersome and slow depending on how much strength you have left in the tank.



Another addition is the ultimate control hotspots that are around the ring and also outside the immediate area, including into the stands around the camera areas. Once you get into the crowd area there are a ton of weapons to crush other wrestlers’ skulls with or to bash their heads into a post. During ladder matches you can swing the ladder to inflict punishment or pick up the steps and tables around the ring to give a severe beat down. The coolness of the toys around the ring last for about 30 minutes then you will get frustrated while trying to accurately swing them when moving around. It’s just something else to do besides hug other sweaty dudes inside the squared circle.



Visuals
The graphics are pretty good and I would say 50% of the time you will really like the way it looks. The best looking graphics come during ring entrances but if there are props involved you will get the standard hand gap in between at times. Honestly I was expecting a lot more from the graphics considering how much they had to work with but its probably best compared with the initial launch games on the 360. (you know the ones that seemed to be rushed from the standard Xbox version) I just wasn’t wowed but I guess I have been spoiled lately by Call of Duty 3.



Season Mode
I started playing how I always start playing a game, by creating a character before starting a season. The Create-a-Wrestler feature is really weak and compared to other titles like Tiger Woods its almost laughable. The facial tweaks aren’t great and the outfits are seriously lacking. To me this has to be a big focus for wrestling games because the whole point is to create a whacked out character with crazy outfits and bizarro in ring antics. For some reason they do not separate male from female clothes so you have to go through a bit of drag outfits before properly outfitting your dude. If you are looking to create a hot chick to roll around with other hot chicks then the creation feature is perfect in my opinion. You can also adjust the body type from Conan the Barbarian down to normal size guy and then pick from a few ring entrances with fireworks. It took me about 30-40 minutes to tweak my character mostly because I am OCD.


Once you have chosen your horse you can make your way through a season which is absolutely dumb. DUMB! Short of calling it a complete waste of time, I have to say that it’s embarrassing and unless you are a huge wrestling fan who wants to act out the stories in the WWE, I would pass. From week to week there is nothing to do in your locker room and it’s mind numbing listening to the dorky messages left on your cell phone. Anyone who has played Madden, just imagine something less entertaining than SuperStar mode. Exactly!

On top of season mode there is a general manager mode where you can set up matches and basically run either the SmackDown! show or RAW from week to week. You are competing with RAW for ratings and the loser of the two shows gets fired. It sounded really fun so I didn’t play it.

I played for about 2 hours and the game crashed twice and on the third time I let out a Chewbacca scream and almost broke my 360. It could be my Xbox or the Disc but it rarely happens and only happens on a few games…this disc was brand new. In between the meltdowns, the gameplay sort of drags because your wrestler will get worn down throughout the match which leaves you literally lying on the mat for minutes at a time while you “Tap Button Repeatedly” and watch someone else pound your face in. Some will respond that I am not good enough to compete with the computer and that I should try and focus more on the individual move sequences. My Response: “I don’t actually want to wrestle; I want to beat the crap out of someone in a game!” This game missed the mark badly and they could seriously improve a few things to make it more playable.

#1 Adjust the strength meter so you don’t crap out so fast after a few grapple moves or running strikes.

#2 When I am flying off the top rope or doing a big move please make it so I don’t land in the first 5 rows of the crowd instead of the guy I intend to land on.

#3 Put at least some effort into the season mode and the story cause its absolutely lame.

#4 Give us some more cool old school wrestlers like Ravishing Rick Rude, Brutis the Barber BeefCake, HackSaw Jim Duggan, Rick the Animal Steel, Jimmy SuperFly Snooka, Ultimate Warrior or for god sakes snap into a Slim Jim and give me The Macho Man Randy Savage.




Technical Details
-Custom Soundtrack
-HDTV 1080i, HDTV 480p, HDTV 720p
-In-game Dolby Digital
-Online Compatible / Leaderboards, Online Multiplayer, Voice


From what I have seen, the ratings of 8 or above on some sites seem to only compare this to other wrestling games instead of rating the game by itself. I rated this as a game to stand up against other top games. Enough of my rant……I have to give this one a Don’t Buy, Don’t Rent and Don’t Talk About to your friends.