WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2008

"Crapdown vs. Flaw 2008 - Featuring Laziness"

No, this is not what the game is called, although it might as well been called that. I never played a more frustrating wrestling game on any system ever. For a "next generation" game, this game took a few steps back and while playing this game, the enjoyment is gone and annoyance kicks in. With so many problems with this game, there are barely any good things to say about it. Remember this is a review and this is my opinion of the game. If you dislike it, ignore it, if you like it, I thank you. Please don't go by my review on whether to buy the game or not, read other reviews and do a comparison for better judgement.

To begin with something bad, this has to be the first Smackdown game in its' series to not have an intro movie or any sort of intro. No introduction from Raw, Smackdown or the dying brand of ECW. Now this aspect doesn't really break or make the game, but it does make yourself ask why wasn't there any. Was it a memory issue or was it just plain laziness? I am going to say I favor the second one more.

Just like the previous Smackdown versus games, we are introduced to songs and bands that most of us never heard of. I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to do this, but it certainly has the WWE liking it. I will admit that most of the songs are pretty decent and there are more than three that I like. Unlike Smackdown vs. Raw 2007, this game has more tolerable songs.

Along with the songs and bands you either heard or never heard of, we have our options. This year they added the pointless "Play now" option where it right away takes you to the wrestler selection screen and it is only one on one. What the hell was the point of this? I still haven't found out, I think it is a complete waste of an option and again, laziness. Besides the pointless option you have your usual; Exhibition, Game modes, Create modes, Xbox Live and Options. Now first getting into options, they added a new "Cheat" feature where you input a code and something happens. Too bad there are only two codes so far, one being the DX attire which you can get in the game by unlocking it and an alternate attire for Kelly Kelly. Seriously, who thought that would be a good thing to unlock? Do we really care what Kelly Kelly wears and how many of us honestly uses her?

Moving up, Xbox live is of course going online and fighting people around the world, defending your custom belts or trading your created wrestlers. However, there are so many glitches and people that edited their wrestlers and actual wrestlers to do the most annoying moves along with the connection issues and the immaturity, I think most people avoided this completely. And you can't ever "Win" online. When you win, people call your cheap and unfair and make a topic about on forums where ever they can. Some even go to the extent of posting videos to prove a point, again who cares, it's just a game it isn't life.

An exclusive feature for the Xbox 360 of this game is that you can have your wrestlers come out to custom music. If you ever wanted The Rock to come out to Crawling in my skin by Linkin Park, here is your chance. However, this feature is destroyed when you have to create a playlist on your system for each ONE song you want to add. To top it off, most of the time, your music won't play and to end it with a blast of goodness, when you go online your music can't play either. So what is the point of having this feature again? It's just like the Playstation 3 feature, "First Person View". It's pointless and just a waste to have in the game. For the 360, at least do it right, then it would be the best version out there.

Since we on the subjects of new features, they added fighting styles to the game. Something new again they screwed up badly and caused an unbalance in the game itself. There are a total of EIGHT fighting styles which are; Powerhouse, Technical, High-Flyer, Brawler, Submission, Dirty, Showman and Hardcore. Each of these fighting styles have exclusive features. For example as a powerhouse, you can activate "rampage" mode which makes you unaffected by attacking moves and all of your grapples can't be stopped. Seems really fair huh? Hardcore seems one of the best because you can make your own wrestler bleed which recovers limb damage and if you are caused to bleed you automatically gain full momentum. Also, Hardcore has a variety of moves that can be done by weapons and objects.

Each fighting style has their good and bad sides, some just seem more useful than others. Technical, Powerhouse and High-Flyer are a few that I think are very good but very cheesy since in certain matches your momentum goes up almost instantly so you can spam the heck out of the exclusive abilities. Again, this to me makes the game pretty unbalance but it is also at the same time is a small tiny good addition.

Now on to Game Modes. A few new options are here, the 24/7 mode which is the story mode for this game is a terrible glitchfest. You can go through this mode with a wrestler or play as a GM. Both modes are boring but I would suggest playing through both to see the glitches in the game, they are pretty funny. One moment you are rivaled with a wrestler, next thing you know you are best friends. When you win matches, you are counted as you lost, wrestlers fight themselves is also a hilarious mess up. Both modes you can just sim through it or let's say you chose Undertaker and you are fighting HHH, you can choose HHH and just get yourself counted out. There is NO challenge in 24/7 mode, it's a joke and it's pretty bad on how it came to.

Now the main reason to play 24/7 mode is to get money so you can go to the WWE shop. There you can purchase move sets, extra attire for a very few wrestlers and to purchase Legends and extra wrestlers. Which brings me to the next option; Hall of Fame mode. Here you are to play some memorable matches on the legend difficulty and some of them unlocks legends like Bret Hart, The Rock and even Sabu. After they are unlocked, you can then purchase them at the WWE shop. Some of the matches you can play direct while some you have to do yourself in Exhibition. Playing the Hall of Fame mode also unlocks the arenas that are locked.

Another option is Tournament Modes. Here you have the King of the Ring where if you actually win, you get to see the chosen wrestler get a ceremony just like King Booker when he was still in the WWE and you actually get to choose a Queen which is a choice between the Divas. The funny part is that the game actually creates a stable for you two. Again, so pointless but it's a small nice added feature just for it to be there.

On to the part where everyone that plays this game will mainly be playing, Exhibition. Here lies all the match types from One on One, Two on Two, Triple Threat, Fatal 4-Way, 6-Man, Handicap and the Royal Rumble. Each of these have a variety of matches to choose from. Just as some examples, One on One you can do every match there is, while the matches for 6 man are less to choose from. Because this game on the cover has "Featuring ECW" a ECW extreme rules match was added. This match is just like a Hardcore match but with more weapons to choose from. You also get to choose the weapons to be used before the match starts. When you go under the apron to get a weapon a wheel of weapons appear and you get to choose which one you want to use. This match also forces you to only be in the ECW arena, but then again, it isn't a Extreme Rules match if it isn't in ECW right?

If you aren't in Exhibition, you are in the Create mode creating yourself, someone you like or the many wrestlers that didn't make it into this game. If not, you can create a belt or a stable. Put Randy Ortan with Stone Cold or Great Khali with Ashley, there are so many choices! Anyway, create a belt seems very limited and for some reason when you create spinning belts, they don't spin. At least for me that is. For the wrestlers part, a lot of moves were taken out. Many argue that this was done because of the incident relating to Chris Benoit but this rumor was never proven, it just looks like again, laziness. With create an entrance you can have your favorite wrestlers walk like women or vice versa or give them some other entrances. Some even have two like Booker himself and Johnny Nitro aka John Morrison.

Now to the part with the flaws of this game. Oh yes, I didn't get to that part yet. First is the horrible, TERRIBLE commentary. J.R and King on RAW is the same as 07 while Michael Cole and JBL are so terribly done that I wish there was a way to turn commentary off. JBL has the exact lines Tazz did in 07, EXACT word for word sayings and he sounds like he was asleep when he did the voice over. Another sign of laziness from the developers. The best commentary is the ECW side, Tazz and Joey Styles. These two are funny and you can tell they put effort in doing their part, the other four were like forced to do theirs. It's too bad there are only three ECW arenas but then again that doesn't really matter because the ring looks the same no matter which arena you choose.

Another flaw and perhaps the biggest one is that you can't target anyone, the game does it for you. So if you are in a Fatal 4-Way or a 6 man battle royal, you are screwed. You can't choose who to attack or block, the random targeting is frustrating and it makes almost any match with three or more people in the ring unplayable. During the demo for this game, you were able to target, but then it was taken out, why? This has to be the biggest WTF moment in gaming history.

Some flaws are from the old games which they never bothered to fix. When you are knocked down, you stay on the ground for a very long time. The A.I. however, gets up right away. Want to win that Ladder match you set up? Good luck, if you have the A.I. in all red and outside the ring, they get up immediately and run in the ring to stop you. Want a good laugh, set up a Money in the Bank match and try to win. Sometimes the A.I. will just stand there and let another get the case without doing anything, but if it was you, they will all go after you. Doesn't make much sense does it.

Last flaw worth mentioning is the terrible roster. It just doesn't make sense. You have wrestlers that have given their life and devotion to the company like Jimmy Wang Yang, Hardcore Holly, Brian Kendrick, Paul London, Hacksaw just to name a few and they are no where to be found in the game. However, they added Marcus Con Vor? This wrestler known as the Alpha Male from TNA was only in ECW a few weeks and he makes the game? Boogeyman which was IN 07 along with Viscera are no where to be found either.

Then on the ECW side, you have Elijah Burke but no Steven Richards or even RVD? Some will say well RVD had problems with WWE, but so did Sabu and he is in the game. I also like how we the players are teased with the pictures of Maria but yet she isn't usable. They have her model and her loading screen but there is no way to use her. Did they make a mistake again? Will she be a code to unlock? Will anyone care by the time they do? The Legends are also terrible this year, only new ones they added are Rick Rude from WWE. I would of expected Anvil Neidhart, Andre the Giant or even the most memorable Hulk Hogan. But no, let us get Rick Rude who most people forgot he existed except for his short time in DX. They also added ECW legends, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer and Terry Funk. Besides Sabu, I haven't even bothered with the other two.

Now is there anything good about this game? Yes there is. The ability to sim matches which is what I do most of the time because I love wrestling and I like setting up dream matches for fun. The other thing is the graphics. Very lifelike motions and entrances. The mat is also very detailed with a matching apron to go along. However, the wrestlers faces seem very fake at time because there is this shiny glow in their eyes. One of the things that can't be explained. One last thing I do like a little is that some old belts are unlockable. The old WWE Champion belt and even the WCW belt is available. But my favorite is the Million Dollar belt, too bad Ted Debiase isn't in the game.

In closing, if you haven't figured it out, please rent this game first. With the new controls, glitches, horrible roster, limited moves and boring replay value unless you have friends, please avoid it. Even the most hardcore WWE fans like myself find this game almost unbearable. This is the first console game I ever regret buying, don't let it be yours too.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/07, Updated 12/17/07

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