WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007

"Don't Judge A Book By Its' Cover"

Hopefully this is the last game that I review to ever receive a score lower than 8. Owning all Smack down games from Playstation one to present on the Xbox, I have to say I am so angry at how things are in this game. As always I try to present my reviews on a conservative approach.

Storyline. With the drama in the WWE, you would expect some better story lines in the actual game itself. However, this fails in over every angle possible. First thing is the part where you choose a brand, you basically choose your desired wrestler and you start right away on that show as a special referee? Yeah ok... so let's call the match fair and square even though I think more than 90% of the players chose Undertaker over Benoit. After letting Taker win, he some how reacts to you as he lost, therefore starting a rivalry with you. Doesn't make much sense does it? The programmers made it so that no matter what the outcome of the match was, Taker was going to rival with you. That to me is not very interesting.

As you play along, it gets pretty boring quick, I found myself falling asleep a couple times while playing and that has never happened before. Wrestlers start becoming rivals for no reason and they aren't consistent. One week you can be dishing it out with Cena and suddenly the next week you are fighting Ric Flair. The magic that was once there in the Season mode is definitely not there anymore.

Graphics. Perhaps this is the best aspect of the game. The graphics for this game is unreal and realistic. The Xbox 360 shows what it can do with this game, with wrestlers sweating, lighting, to dead on reactions from certain hits to movements that sometimes it feels you are literally not playing the game, but watching it instead.

Controls. At first I was very concerned and disappointed in the fact they changed the controls. But after a few plays, it got pretty easy. First, unlike the other SD games, the usual grab button, which would of been circle for the PS1/2 is now the right analog stick. Using it normally, enables you to do weak moves, but by holding the R button plus the right analog, you can do a strong grapple. I can explain all the controls to you but quite frankly, but I don't want to bore you, so I will let you know they have an option where you can watch videos on how to play the game. It is pretty comedic in the way it was done and it is highly suggested to watch them before trying to play the game.

Music. Besides the wrestler's theme musics, I have to say most of the music in this game is crap. Now there might be one or two tracks that aren't bad, but most of them make you want to stick a pencil in your ear to take away the pain. Each year it seems to get worse and worse, I truly wish they just get rid of the tracks and have some normal music.

Flaws. This is a new section in my reviews that is added. Especially since this game has more flaws than any game I have ever played. First, let's get the announcers right, if you make a tag match, the announcer only announces one of your wrestlers. In the Royal Rumble, they introduce the number two entrant as "first introducing". Then let's get to the commentary, I didn't think this flaw would be in the 360 as well. It seems when two wrestlers are going at it, they get the names wrong and they didn't change much. Most of the stuff Tazz and Cole talk about are exactly straight from Smackdown vs. Raw 2006, what is with the laziness?

What bothers me most is that how easy it is to win a match or how easy it is to lose one. You will either get reversed like crazy, or you will dominate. In the past games, you had to get your opponent red in a body part to finish them off, in this one, you can get them just a little yellow and you can win. This makes matches too short and sometime frustrating when you are about to win and your opponent does one move and you lose.

The controls also seem less responsive, when you try to reverse a grab you know coming, most of the time it doesn't go through. You find yourself being chained grab and then losing. The most problem I have is when you get knocked down once, your wrestler seems to stay down for a ridiculously long time. I mean, getting tripped, doesn't make you stay down that long, I know because the CPU gets up pretty fast from a strong slam.

Replay value. After you complete season mode and get all the unlock-ables, you will want to go through GM mode and after that you will try to go for the achievements on your 360. However, after that, the game becomes fun only when you have friends or when you go online. However, getting all this stuff done will take some time.

In closing. I love the WWE but I don't love this game. This game could of been perfect if the developers and programmers would fix the glitches and bugs in this game, or at least add a patch so most of us can download it. But no, instead we are left with a taunt of a almost perfect game leaving most of us frustrated and upset. I would if you can rent this game first, don't make the same mistake I did and bought it right away. This game is a fine example of to never judge a book by it's cover.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/07