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IGN Review of WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010
In case you missed it, it's time for another wrestling game over on the PlayStation 3, and this year, it isn't a disappointment. Lately, that hasn't meant much for the PSP. When I have to review a PSP game that's also on the PS3, the portable version usually gets the short end of the stick with lousy graphics, watered down, and so on.
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 has some of that going on, but the WWE-style presentation, ability to create your own stories, and in-ring upgrades help compensate for the shortcomings.
Can you stand the heat?
If you've missed all the coverage on IGN, SVR 2010 is the latest installment in THQ's annual wrestling series. This time, you're getting 67 Superstars and Divas, a handful of match types, and a whole bunch of modes. Road to WrestleMania (the six story-driven, character-specific tales) is back along with the Create-A-Superstar-honing Career Mode and the roster editor that allows you to move championships and brands with the press of a button.
However, the biggest news is what's new in this year's version of the game – namely, Story Designer. Last year, the game introduced Road to WrestleMania, uber-specific stories that were focused on a particular character. That mode is back this year. The stories focus on Edge, HBK, Mickie James, Triple H/John Cena, Randy Orton, and your Create-A-Superstar (CAS) -- but Story Designer gives you all of the tools to make your own tales. You're getting more than 100 preset scene animations that range from giving a speech at a podium to someone getting hit by a car to someone finding a briefcase. You take these scenes and put whomever you want into the animation roles and then tweak the camera angles and music. From there, you can input your own text and have the Superstars/Divas say whatever you want them to.
Want to create a story about Jericho falling in love with the Bella Twins? CM Punk quitting the Straight Edge Lifestyle? Mark Henry missing Mae Young? All the pieces are here for you to create those epics.
You'll take these scenes and use them to set up matches on calendars that can last for up to 10 years. If someone gets wailed on in a scene before a match, you can go in and set the health for individual parts of the body. If you want a run-in, you can choose who will run in. If you want someone to lose by DQ or win by count out, you can set those stipulations so that the player knows what he or she needs to do. Every belt is available to put in a story and assigned to a given Superstar or Diva via the character select screen.
Still, when I was writing out Create-A-PPV plans in my high school notebook, this is what I was dreaming about.
Another new thing this time around is a serious push to makes this game feel like its legitimate WWE programming. When you finish selecting the competitors for a match, it flashes "World Wrestling Entertainment" before taking you to the standup screen before the entrances. Choose to go on and you're launched into entrances. If it's a championship match, you get the screen with the belt on it before the ref holds up the title and you're kicked into the ring. For the first few moments of the match, the "WWE Live" logo appears in the bottom left corner, and when a bout is over, the show copyright pops up. That ugly HUD from years past has been dumped and replaced with a simple halo around your Superstar's feet, too. You'll build up momentum, earn your signature move, hit that, and you'll have the chance to hit your finisher.
These are tiny touches that make the whole package feel a bit more solid.
Getting beyond visual enhancements such as the new camera angles, there's a bunch of tweaks under the hood. A number of new moves have been added to the game's repertoire. The controls are still D-Pad to move and Circle to grapple, but there are now chokeslams and other moves from the apron; the ability to execute grapples on the sides of downed opponents; and Collar & Elbow, Side Headlock, Rear Waist Lock, and Wrist Lock strong grapples that each come with four moves apiece.
Another nice addition is the move to one reversal button. No longer will you have to click one button to reverse strikes and another to reverse grapples; now, the R button does it all. It might sound easy, but you only get one shot at tapping the reversal for a given move and the window is pretty tiny. I've been playing quite a bit, and I only now feel like I'm getting in the rhythm for when to properly use it. Being able to duck under HBK's superkick after he's gone through the whole rigmarole or wiggle off of Cena's shoulder before he can deliver the FU is an amazing feeling -- especially when it looks this good and is accessible enough that you never feel completely out of a match.
Sigh. To be her left arm.
Honestly, all the gameplay stuff I just talked about is straight from my PS3 review with some minimal stuff changed, but the tweaks don't play as well on the PSP as they played on the PS3. I'm glad they're here because they do make the game play a bit better than previous years, but the whole experience still feels stiff. See, over on the PS3, the new moves and such make the experience more fluid and dynamic, here, the moves are still very robotic. Part of this interpretation has to be because of the graphics, which feature a lot of jagged edges, blurred imagery, and ugly crowd members. For me, even with the enhanced TV presentation, these failings take out SVR's legs.
Sadly, there haven't been many tweaks to Create-A-Superstar either. The clothes are still painted on, and everything seems like well-worn territory. Don't get me wrong, there are still a ton of shirts and hairstyles, but it's the same stuff you've seen for years. Another low point is the fact that the number of names for the ring announcer to call you has been reduced to 35 and they're all general things such as "The Rocker" and "The Show." As with previous years, that's just the ring announcer – there is no commentary during your actual matches, just music.
There is an upside to Created Characters this year. In SVR 2009, you started with a lackluster, sub-50 overall ranking for your CAS and had to beef that up by playing the Career Mode, which was a story-less affair that just had you playing match after match on a ladder to earn attribute points that you didn't get to decide where they got assigned. This year, Career Mode is back and mostly untouched, but you'll be earning attribute points by the handful for any match you take a CAS into no matter the mode. If you want, you can even enter your CAS into matches as a computer-controlled character against a computer-controlled opponent and bank the points at the end of the match without ever playing. Thankfully, you get to apply the points to whatever attribute category you want when all's said and done.
Personally, I dig this year's spin on leveling-up created Superstars. Now that I'm not forced into the boring Career Mode and can level-up no matter the match I choose, I'm fine with applying my own points. I know that the kids who want to make armies of characters might be disappointed to have to go out and earn the points and cooler abilities, but it's nowhere near as limiting as last year's game.
What makes these stories stand out from last year is the fact that there's quite a bit more interactivity. In the Mickie James story, you begin dating Brian Kendrick and need to choose between him and an increasingly creepy Natalya. When JBL launches a Shawn Michaels Retirement Campaign in HBK's story, they'll come a time when you need to decide if you'll accept Bradshaw's blackmail demand. It's these little moments where you get to choose whom you take out or what you want to say that make these instances interesting. It made me feel like I was playing the role of that character in the WWE.
A few other nice touches are the optional and mandatory goals for some of the Road to WrestleMania matches. These tasks -- leap off the top of steel cage, beat someone in a few minutes, etc. -- are cool in and of themselves because they unlock characters, costumes, and areas, but the fact that most are introduced with the Superstar explaining why he'd want to do something really drives home your reason to do whatever it is you're being tasked with doing. Shawn Michaels' whole story is showing that he's not ready to retire, so you feel for him when he explains why he's going to vault off the cage or bust Jericho open.
Although a majority of the match types are stuff we've seen before -- the Inferno Match, Extreme Rules, and so on -- there are some new tweaks and new bouts. Remember how much the Royal Rumble has sucked for, I don't know, all time? This year, you're going to participate in one of several mini-games to eliminate opponents/fight to stay in the ring. When you have a guy against the ropes, you'll grapple with him and kick off a game where you need to tap whichever button is lit up on the screen. Pull off the taps faster than the opponent, and you hurl him over the top rope. For a corner elimination, three buttons will pop up one at a time. First person to nail them wins the moment. Sometimes, foes will go over the top rope and land on their side on the apron. You'll start pushing the guy with your foot, but to actually shove him out, you'll have to stop a bouncing line in a sweet spot a few times in a row.
If all these mini-games aren't your cup of tea, everyone also has Royal Rumble finishers. These are one-hit moves that eat up your finisher and knock opponents out of the match when they're on the ropes, apron, etc. There are 18 of these finishers that can be as simple as a powerbomb but can be character specific feats such as Sweet Chin Music, GTS, and the Pedigree. When you're creating a Superstar/Diva/CAS moveset, you'll be able to choose which Royal Rumble Finisher you want.
Kick out!
Before I move on from the Rumble, it's worth pointing out that this has been given the presentation gloss as well. The event starts with the ring announcer welcoming you to the event and explaining it before introducing the participants who drew the first and second slots. When someone gets eliminated, you'll see them freak out on the outside before walking backstage. When it gets down to the final three and then the final two, there are in-game cutscenes of the participants reacting to the fact of the matter.
Similarly, Championship Scramble makes its debut this year in the 5-, 10-, and 20-minute varieties. Here, Superstars enter at preset intervals until five guys are in the ring. When time expires, the last person to score a pinfall or submission is crowned the champion of whatever title you've been fighting for. Again, presentation is solid here with the rules being presented with the belt before the beginning of the match.
Also popping with "new" next to their titles are the Mixed Tag match option and Backstage match. Mixed Tag is just a girl and a guy taking on another girl and guy. When a member of the opposite sex tags in, the other team has to follow suit or face a DQ; just like in every other mode, there's no guy-on-gal action allowed. Meanwhile, the Backstage bout gives you access to five locales behind the scenes (no, you can't brawl to those locations from the ring) where there are interact-able objects. The "Backstage Arena" has laptops to smash over people's heads, the locker room has a door to throw people through, and so on. You can only win this type of match by a knockout.
On a smaller scale, First Blood matches now have specific moves you can do at the opponent's head to try and draw blood, TLC/Ladder matches sport a cone of light so you know the perfect spot to climb in, the weapon wheel is in color in the Extreme Rules Match, and the ref now follows you in the Falls Count Anywhere match. There are still no entrances for the Elimination Chamber, but you can climb to the top turnbuckle this time. Similarly, Create-A-Finisher is back and adds the ability to create diving moves, but if you saw the mode last year, you know what to expect this year. Ad-hoc multiplayer is also back and supporting play for up to four in-house gamers. All the matches you can do with four players are here, and they seem to be running well based on my playtest.
Seeing as how most of the matches were pretty solid last time, I'm fine with the developers leaving them as they were. The blood-drawing moves in First Blood are nice and I enjoy the cone of light to guide me in ladder matches. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed participating in a Royal Rumble match, so the new mini-game format totally had me pumped to start trying to see how long I could last, and the Championship Scramble is as much fun as it sounds. I know I haven't really dwelled on the match types, but that's because there's no real reason to. They're solid and can fun; so that's all you need to know.
The only thing holding these matches back is the rather archaic look and feel of the action. I hate to keep harping on this, but it just doesn't look that good in the ring and moving from having a guy on the ropes to having him on the mat doesn't look as fluid as it should. This is what pulls the experience down.
©2009-10-20, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 has some of that going on, but the WWE-style presentation, ability to create your own stories, and in-ring upgrades help compensate for the shortcomings.
Can you stand the heat?
If you've missed all the coverage on IGN, SVR 2010 is the latest installment in THQ's annual wrestling series. This time, you're getting 67 Superstars and Divas, a handful of match types, and a whole bunch of modes. Road to WrestleMania (the six story-driven, character-specific tales) is back along with the Create-A-Superstar-honing Career Mode and the roster editor that allows you to move championships and brands with the press of a button.
However, the biggest news is what's new in this year's version of the game – namely, Story Designer. Last year, the game introduced Road to WrestleMania, uber-specific stories that were focused on a particular character. That mode is back this year. The stories focus on Edge, HBK, Mickie James, Triple H/John Cena, Randy Orton, and your Create-A-Superstar (CAS) -- but Story Designer gives you all of the tools to make your own tales. You're getting more than 100 preset scene animations that range from giving a speech at a podium to someone getting hit by a car to someone finding a briefcase. You take these scenes and put whomever you want into the animation roles and then tweak the camera angles and music. From there, you can input your own text and have the Superstars/Divas say whatever you want them to.
Want to create a story about Jericho falling in love with the Bella Twins? CM Punk quitting the Straight Edge Lifestyle? Mark Henry missing Mae Young? All the pieces are here for you to create those epics.
You'll take these scenes and use them to set up matches on calendars that can last for up to 10 years. If someone gets wailed on in a scene before a match, you can go in and set the health for individual parts of the body. If you want a run-in, you can choose who will run in. If you want someone to lose by DQ or win by count out, you can set those stipulations so that the player knows what he or she needs to do. Every belt is available to put in a story and assigned to a given Superstar or Diva via the character select screen.
Still, when I was writing out Create-A-PPV plans in my high school notebook, this is what I was dreaming about.
Another new thing this time around is a serious push to makes this game feel like its legitimate WWE programming. When you finish selecting the competitors for a match, it flashes "World Wrestling Entertainment" before taking you to the standup screen before the entrances. Choose to go on and you're launched into entrances. If it's a championship match, you get the screen with the belt on it before the ref holds up the title and you're kicked into the ring. For the first few moments of the match, the "WWE Live" logo appears in the bottom left corner, and when a bout is over, the show copyright pops up. That ugly HUD from years past has been dumped and replaced with a simple halo around your Superstar's feet, too. You'll build up momentum, earn your signature move, hit that, and you'll have the chance to hit your finisher.
These are tiny touches that make the whole package feel a bit more solid.
Getting beyond visual enhancements such as the new camera angles, there's a bunch of tweaks under the hood. A number of new moves have been added to the game's repertoire. The controls are still D-Pad to move and Circle to grapple, but there are now chokeslams and other moves from the apron; the ability to execute grapples on the sides of downed opponents; and Collar & Elbow, Side Headlock, Rear Waist Lock, and Wrist Lock strong grapples that each come with four moves apiece.
Another nice addition is the move to one reversal button. No longer will you have to click one button to reverse strikes and another to reverse grapples; now, the R button does it all. It might sound easy, but you only get one shot at tapping the reversal for a given move and the window is pretty tiny. I've been playing quite a bit, and I only now feel like I'm getting in the rhythm for when to properly use it. Being able to duck under HBK's superkick after he's gone through the whole rigmarole or wiggle off of Cena's shoulder before he can deliver the FU is an amazing feeling -- especially when it looks this good and is accessible enough that you never feel completely out of a match.
Sigh. To be her left arm.
Honestly, all the gameplay stuff I just talked about is straight from my PS3 review with some minimal stuff changed, but the tweaks don't play as well on the PSP as they played on the PS3. I'm glad they're here because they do make the game play a bit better than previous years, but the whole experience still feels stiff. See, over on the PS3, the new moves and such make the experience more fluid and dynamic, here, the moves are still very robotic. Part of this interpretation has to be because of the graphics, which feature a lot of jagged edges, blurred imagery, and ugly crowd members. For me, even with the enhanced TV presentation, these failings take out SVR's legs.
Sadly, there haven't been many tweaks to Create-A-Superstar either. The clothes are still painted on, and everything seems like well-worn territory. Don't get me wrong, there are still a ton of shirts and hairstyles, but it's the same stuff you've seen for years. Another low point is the fact that the number of names for the ring announcer to call you has been reduced to 35 and they're all general things such as "The Rocker" and "The Show." As with previous years, that's just the ring announcer – there is no commentary during your actual matches, just music.
There is an upside to Created Characters this year. In SVR 2009, you started with a lackluster, sub-50 overall ranking for your CAS and had to beef that up by playing the Career Mode, which was a story-less affair that just had you playing match after match on a ladder to earn attribute points that you didn't get to decide where they got assigned. This year, Career Mode is back and mostly untouched, but you'll be earning attribute points by the handful for any match you take a CAS into no matter the mode. If you want, you can even enter your CAS into matches as a computer-controlled character against a computer-controlled opponent and bank the points at the end of the match without ever playing. Thankfully, you get to apply the points to whatever attribute category you want when all's said and done.
Personally, I dig this year's spin on leveling-up created Superstars. Now that I'm not forced into the boring Career Mode and can level-up no matter the match I choose, I'm fine with applying my own points. I know that the kids who want to make armies of characters might be disappointed to have to go out and earn the points and cooler abilities, but it's nowhere near as limiting as last year's game.
What makes these stories stand out from last year is the fact that there's quite a bit more interactivity. In the Mickie James story, you begin dating Brian Kendrick and need to choose between him and an increasingly creepy Natalya. When JBL launches a Shawn Michaels Retirement Campaign in HBK's story, they'll come a time when you need to decide if you'll accept Bradshaw's blackmail demand. It's these little moments where you get to choose whom you take out or what you want to say that make these instances interesting. It made me feel like I was playing the role of that character in the WWE.
A few other nice touches are the optional and mandatory goals for some of the Road to WrestleMania matches. These tasks -- leap off the top of steel cage, beat someone in a few minutes, etc. -- are cool in and of themselves because they unlock characters, costumes, and areas, but the fact that most are introduced with the Superstar explaining why he'd want to do something really drives home your reason to do whatever it is you're being tasked with doing. Shawn Michaels' whole story is showing that he's not ready to retire, so you feel for him when he explains why he's going to vault off the cage or bust Jericho open.
Although a majority of the match types are stuff we've seen before -- the Inferno Match, Extreme Rules, and so on -- there are some new tweaks and new bouts. Remember how much the Royal Rumble has sucked for, I don't know, all time? This year, you're going to participate in one of several mini-games to eliminate opponents/fight to stay in the ring. When you have a guy against the ropes, you'll grapple with him and kick off a game where you need to tap whichever button is lit up on the screen. Pull off the taps faster than the opponent, and you hurl him over the top rope. For a corner elimination, three buttons will pop up one at a time. First person to nail them wins the moment. Sometimes, foes will go over the top rope and land on their side on the apron. You'll start pushing the guy with your foot, but to actually shove him out, you'll have to stop a bouncing line in a sweet spot a few times in a row.
If all these mini-games aren't your cup of tea, everyone also has Royal Rumble finishers. These are one-hit moves that eat up your finisher and knock opponents out of the match when they're on the ropes, apron, etc. There are 18 of these finishers that can be as simple as a powerbomb but can be character specific feats such as Sweet Chin Music, GTS, and the Pedigree. When you're creating a Superstar/Diva/CAS moveset, you'll be able to choose which Royal Rumble Finisher you want.
Kick out!
Before I move on from the Rumble, it's worth pointing out that this has been given the presentation gloss as well. The event starts with the ring announcer welcoming you to the event and explaining it before introducing the participants who drew the first and second slots. When someone gets eliminated, you'll see them freak out on the outside before walking backstage. When it gets down to the final three and then the final two, there are in-game cutscenes of the participants reacting to the fact of the matter.
Similarly, Championship Scramble makes its debut this year in the 5-, 10-, and 20-minute varieties. Here, Superstars enter at preset intervals until five guys are in the ring. When time expires, the last person to score a pinfall or submission is crowned the champion of whatever title you've been fighting for. Again, presentation is solid here with the rules being presented with the belt before the beginning of the match.
Also popping with "new" next to their titles are the Mixed Tag match option and Backstage match. Mixed Tag is just a girl and a guy taking on another girl and guy. When a member of the opposite sex tags in, the other team has to follow suit or face a DQ; just like in every other mode, there's no guy-on-gal action allowed. Meanwhile, the Backstage bout gives you access to five locales behind the scenes (no, you can't brawl to those locations from the ring) where there are interact-able objects. The "Backstage Arena" has laptops to smash over people's heads, the locker room has a door to throw people through, and so on. You can only win this type of match by a knockout.
On a smaller scale, First Blood matches now have specific moves you can do at the opponent's head to try and draw blood, TLC/Ladder matches sport a cone of light so you know the perfect spot to climb in, the weapon wheel is in color in the Extreme Rules Match, and the ref now follows you in the Falls Count Anywhere match. There are still no entrances for the Elimination Chamber, but you can climb to the top turnbuckle this time. Similarly, Create-A-Finisher is back and adds the ability to create diving moves, but if you saw the mode last year, you know what to expect this year. Ad-hoc multiplayer is also back and supporting play for up to four in-house gamers. All the matches you can do with four players are here, and they seem to be running well based on my playtest.
Seeing as how most of the matches were pretty solid last time, I'm fine with the developers leaving them as they were. The blood-drawing moves in First Blood are nice and I enjoy the cone of light to guide me in ladder matches. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed participating in a Royal Rumble match, so the new mini-game format totally had me pumped to start trying to see how long I could last, and the Championship Scramble is as much fun as it sounds. I know I haven't really dwelled on the match types, but that's because there's no real reason to. They're solid and can fun; so that's all you need to know.
The only thing holding these matches back is the rather archaic look and feel of the action. I hate to keep harping on this, but it just doesn't look that good in the ring and moving from having a guy on the ropes to having him on the mat doesn't look as fluid as it should. This is what pulls the experience down.
©2009-10-20, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved