WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2008

"Smashing your own head open with a chair has never been funner."

Another year another Smackdown. What started as a fun Playstation game has now become a franchise, and as such that doesn't leave a lotta room for development. Unfortunately it shows in a big way with this newest edition, and unless you want the new roster and whatnot, this game might not be for you. Anyhoo, let me go over this wrestling extravaganza.

The wrestlers are back and they've never looked better. The best thing I can say about this game is that presentation-wise, there is no wrestling game that looks as good as this. When you see Triple H, or the Undertaker, and even Vince Mcmahon with his puppet string arms walking down the ramp with their main theme blaring, the crowds cheering, the ring announcer saying their name with the same intensity they would the show....you can't help but appreciate that. And the entrances aren't sacrificed at all anymore. The wrestler Sandman for example, actually enters the ring by coming through the crowd like he does in the real thing. The diva Melina actually has paparazzi take pictures of her as she enters. We have hit the peak of wrestling presentation and I think it's absolutely amazing.

All of the wrestlers have their theme songs intact, and even their stable themes are in there. Meaning D-Generation X, and Rated RKO are themes you can use in the game. Rated RKO's theme is all kinds of awesome by the way. As is the soundtrack that you hear in the menu. Many of the wrestlers also lend their voice to the season mode like they've been doing since the first Smackdown vs. Raw. However I did notice the lack of voices this time around. Including cover boy, Bobby Lashley. But more on that later. The announce team has changed significantly from Smackdown 2007. For one, the Smackdown show has replaced Tazz with JBL, and now there's the new ECW brand. So we got some fairly new commentary which is good since Raw, 06, and 07 have had the same announcing every year. In reality though ECW was the only breath of fresh air, since not only is the dialogue between Styles and Tazz hilarious, but JBL just says Tazz's old lines now, and he sounds like he's illiterate. Like he's barely reading the lines or something. I've seen him do voice work for the previous games...he can get into it! So what's up JBL?

Anyhoo that's how the presentation is. But wrestling games depend on the gameplay. Some things have been improved, but unfortunately a lot of things have not. If your new to the series, it's very simple. There's a wrestler in the ring. You want to beat him up and pin him. Or break his arm. Whatever comes first. Nothing's changed there. The one thing I have to mention off the bat is that yes, ECW is in the game now. And it translates really well. I couldn't believe some of the stuff I found myself doing in these hardcore matches. Now you can set up chairs so that you put it on their head and smash it with your foot. You can light two by fours wrapped in barbed wire, on fire! You can light tables on fire! You can do a one man Conchairto as well! For those who aren't familiar, that's when you set a chair under a person's face as he lies down, and smash it in with another chair. There's a ridiculous amount of things to play around with in these Extreme matches, and I had a blast doing so. You get the most fun if you're a hardcore fighter though.

Which brings us to the new Fighting Style system. Instead of having all the moves at your disposal, and being classed as Clean or Dirty, now each wrestler has 2 different fighting styles that quite frankly limits the amount of stuff they do. You got Powerhouse people who do the amazing muscle moves. High Flyers like Rey Mysterio can leap off the turnbuckle, off the ropes, and everywhere else you can think of to deliver damage to their opponents. Brawlers can beat the hell out of their opponent with a series of punches to the face. And let me say, when you start causing the other opponent to bleed from said punching, that's pretty awesome. And there's a whole slew of fighting styles that limit what your guy can do. And that's a problem. The wrestlers don't have a wide range of moves to utilize anymore. And it's even worse that they do less moves then they did last year! Before you always had four different sets of moves. Now you have two. That's 8 attacks. Of course that's not counting turnbuckle and ground stuff, but even still come on. And I like stealing my opponent's taunts! Only Showman styled wrestlers can do that now. It's a neat idea, but it shouldn't affect moves. It should effect momentum, and that's all.

My biggest pet peeve of the gameplay however, comes from getting into a match with more than one opponent. Now I'm not afraid of challenge. But I am concerned when a working element of past games just disappears. I speak of the targeting system. It is gone. I kid you not. Just to be sure I wasn't being dumb, I looked in the manual, I looked at the message boards, but no! How can there be no targeting system!?! The most I've found is that if you're close to a guy and you flick your control stick in his direction, half the time you might aim on him. But even still that is absolute garbage. I'm sorry but I had no problem with the single button press. You could be at the entrance and your opponent in the ring, and you'd aim on him. Now however you gotta go so close to your opponent that he'll innevitably knock you out or do a move and that's just stupid. It gets worse when you're in the Money in the Bank match, and now you got 5 different opponents. You try to hit one guy you're not aiming at with a ladder, your character will do a complete 180 and try to hit the character your focused on. You have no idea how frustrating that is. So I find myself staying away from matches with more than one opponent.

Creating a character in this game is both great, and thanks to the new Fighting Style system it's kinda lame too. I made my guy a Dirty Brawler. And I am so familiar with the series that I know all my moves. I try to find them, and I'm limited to like half of the moves I always used. And I'm sure Carlito would agree, that's not cool. Everything else about the create a character is awesome still. You can have so many different mask types and hair styles and clothing options it's crazy. Now with the power of the 360, you can even upload your own theme song and play it for entrances and skits during season mode. And I absolutely love coming into the ring with E.G.G.M.A.N. playing in the background. ....I like Sonic. Anyhoo the create an entrance feature also does great wonders. You can choose when the pyro goes off, when the on screen name comes on, even when the camera cuts away. It is absolutely awesome. And you can also create championships with too many designs and colours and jewlery....the game has great content I won't lie.

In order to unlock all the extra wrestlers and move sets and build up stats for your created character, you need to play 24/7 mode. It's basicaly a combination of the old General Manager Mode, and the Season mode. Sorta. You choose whether you want season or GM, and then you do that. Don't think about doing twice. Sorry, it's one seperate file and you have to do one or the other. Yay. Season mode is no longer a "get to wrestlemania and win" type of deal anymore. Now the goal is to become a legend and be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. You have this checklist of things to do, and they add up to your legend percentage. Winning at a pay-per-view, is 1% for example. And you can stack up the tasks so that if you win 100 pay-per-view matches, you're a legend. It still has the usual storylines each month, some stupid some hilarious. But the experience is killed because every time you show up for RAW, they do this introduction scene. And there's only 5 that repeat over and over again. Either you accidently sneak in on the Divas locker room (and they don't seem to care), you see Mcmahon doing an interview, you lift weights, or you're meeting people in the hallway. And the problem is that besides being an unnessecary scene, those people in the hallway? They're always involved with your current storyline.

And in the end it pulls you out of the experience. It doesn't make sense that your character would be shaking hands with the guy who wants to kill you. I mean if you're gonna add this hallway business, then make it characters who AREN'T part of your current storyline! Oy. And I must say, poor J.R., poor Jerry Lawler, Poor Cole and Poor JBL. Having to record all of those introductions, must've been hell. "HEY I'm Jim Ross alongside Jerry "The King" Lawler! Welcome to RAW! Last week --" Poor guys. This is the only mode to earn WWE money with, so you'll have to bear with it. Then there's the General Manager Mode. Now there are 3 different brands to choose from and compete with. But if you want my advice, stay away from ECW. One title = lame ratings. If you loved the old GM modes, you'll probably like this one. Though it's questionable at times. I had tons of superstars with 100 out of 100 for popularity, and I was still getting murdered by the other brands. It confused me. You also get the GM of the year award the same you would a Legend in season mode. Tasks that earn percentage, like putting on 5 star matches and 5 star pay-per-views and whatnot.

The one thing I have to ask about season mode...why are so many superstars not playable? Even (as I mentioned earlier) Bobby Lashley isn't playable in season mode. Now I beat the thing...your character talks like a total of 3 times. If a superstar didn't do voice work, he's not playable. And to me that's just not right. The main character doesn't need to speak. I wanna play as The Great Khali! But I digress. The game also now has tournament modes including King of the Ring which has one of the best payoffs ever. You get this long winded finish where a diva of your choosing crowns you king and it put a big smile on my face. There's Hall of Fame challenges as well which unlock new arenas and characters, much like the old superstar challenges of past games. One thing I was dissapointed to see, you can't customize a locker room like you could in the last two games. I liked that...

Smackdown has a lotta issues. Some are minor depending who you are, some are major depending who you are. But for me, these issues aren't enough to drag it into unplayable garbage. I love the new hardcore matches, I love smashing opponents heads into steel stairways and I love the customization and whatnot. I'm also a WWE fan. But I have to acknowledge that this game has a lotta issues. It still has the TLCs, the Steel Cages and the whatnot you've come to expect. Just be careful because the fighting styles may not be to your liking.

IN THE END...
The new fighting styles limit the moves you do, and it's a bit of a drag. Presentation wise you can't do any better, ECW brings fresh new content and the gameplay is still solid despite it's problems. But not being able to aim on other opponents easily, is still garbage. Proceed to play this with caution.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/04/08

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