WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2008

"Atrocious. Shockingly bad. Still semi-fun though!"

You know how IGN hypes up this game year after year? With the daily updates revealing the newest Wrestler or the newest features in the game? You would think that with that alone... the game should live up to the hype.

I have played all the Smackdown vs RAW games, year after year. I'll admit, this is my first Xbox 360 Smackdown VS Raw. I brought last year's version on the PS2. So yes, I was looking forward to the graphics also. Even though we all know this is more or less the same as the previous game.

What really gets me interested every year, and I'm sure for you guys too... is the Season Mode. You look for different storylines and whatnot in a new game. That's the BIGGEST part of the game. Unless you have a huge imagination and that you can have tons of fun with Exhibition mode... otherwise, the game really is Season Mode or bust. Well, let's get on with it... shall we?

Graphics: 9/10

What can I say? It's a game with typical Xbox 360 game graphics. Things look accurate for the most part. You just kind of wish that the facial expressions can be better, considering the technology we have today. The hair on the Divas is surprisingly bad, because it just looks unrealistic. The same can be said for wrestlers with long hair, such as The Undertaker, HHH, and Jeff Hardy. The crowd still looks like cardboard and extremely unrealistic. Then again, the crowd is the least important part of the game. But you still wish they would make it just slightly better.

Sound: 7/10

Eh. The soundtracks in the game are pretty much just there. I don't really listen to it or get excited over what's playing. It's really up to what your taste is. Other than that, I think everyone's music is accurate. Obviously some character's music isn't up to date, but neither are the wrestlers THQ has included in the game.

Control: 3/10

Nasty. Just nasty. There are just way too little moves now with the new grapple system. I don't know if they're trying to make it easier for inexperienced gamers or whatever, but as a hardcore WWE gamer... this is plain bad. Don't get me wrong, the moves are absolutely easy to execute, but it's boring doing the same few moves that's available. The worse thing they could have possible done is taken out the people you want to target! I couldn't believe it, when I found out you can't choose who you want to target. You have to get near the opponent and hope that you'll face that direction. This makes it frustrating, because of how stupid it is in Triple Threat, Handicap, and Fatal Four Way, and the Royal Rumble matches.

Gameplay: 2/10

Season mode, like I said from the beginning is what's important. This time, they combined the GM Mode and Season mode, and called it 24/7 Mode. That's fine right? It sounds great. You go through the whole calendar, day by day. Show after show. The days you don't wrestle are the days you can train, improve your skill, or promote yourself. I'll tell you, this gets repetitive, and fast.

Plus, if you happen to get injured... there's really no way to heal your injury. You just have to take some time off on your "off" days. But when it comes to RAW or Smackdown, whatever show you're on... you still have to wrestle!

The 24/7 mode is a good idea, but THQ and Yukes executed this extremely poorly. There are only 18-19 something characters you can choose to play the 24/7 mode with, out of all the Wrestlers available in the game. That's still fine and dandy, but what really annoys me is how much errors there are in this game. There are typos, or the commentary not making sense (story line wise), or even the continuation of the story. The cut scenes before your matches are dumb as hell.

Please stop reading if you don't want to be spoiled just a bit.

This is what is wrong with the story in 24/7 mode. One moment you're feuding for a #1 contender spot. You win the #1 contender spot, and suddenly you are fighting for a movie role. After that, you're fighting for a #1 contender spot once again. If you're on RAW and your PPV is Backlash, JR sometimes calls it Judgment Day instead of Backlash.

They totally left out the Smackdown PPV Armageddon as well. I couldn't believe it. Oh yeah, and I was on RAW... and the story was suppose to lead up to the New Year's Revolution PPV but JR and King calls it Armageddon.

You'll also see a match card, and sometimes some wrestlers are wrestling 2-3 times a show. You'll see matches like HHH versus Kenny. Who wins? Kenny. Or you'll see Khali versus Kenny. Who wins that? Kenny. (By the way, nothing against Kenny)

Again, please don't get me wrong. If you can ignore all these stupid blunders that THQ has kept in the game, you will have fun playing this game.

Online Mode: N/A

I honestly haven't played online mode, and I won't. There are too many cheap people out there and it's not worth getting frustrated over. But that's just my point of view.

Overall: 5/10

So yeah, it's okay. I know I pretty much insulted this game in my review. But that's really how angry I am with the game. I can not believe I shelled out 60 bucks for this game without giving it a second thought. You would just think that after all these years; the games would get better and better. But instead, this game felt flat on its face. It's like 1 step forward, and 5 steps back.

Rent or Buy?

Rent it. Or don't even play it if you have played the other versions. But if you really feel like you want a Wrestling game and want to buy it. Go ahead. If your imagination is good, you'll probably be able to enjoy random matches on Exhibition mode. Give this game a chance if you can really tolerate the 24/7 mode. If you can do that, I'll tip my cap off to you.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/07

Game Release: WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2008 (US, 11/13/07)