WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 Preview
Confirmed & Rumoured Information for the PS3 and X-Box 360 versions
Oct 31, 2008
Every year WWE fans the world over prepare for the release of the next game in the Smackdown franchise, and every year rumours, photoshopped pictures and outlandish claims are rife.
Every year THQ tell these fans that this year will be ‘the best instalment yet’ and every year they learn that ‘you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.’
This year falls into this category, with the inclusion of some anticipated features, and the removal of some fan favourites.
WWE Roster
This year’s roster is sure to be one of the biggest to date.
The official website has 63 boxes in the roster section (Since posting the number of boxes has been reduced to 53, although no 'unlockable' characters are featured); while a number of message board communities believe that the official roster size will be 66. A recent leaked video featuring two totally unknown characters named ‘Tony’ and ‘Masked Man’ have added weight to this, although the video also featured unconfirmed Superstars Ted Dibiase Jr. And Evan Bourne, making many sceptical of its authenticity.
Players can be sure of one thing; there will be at least 53 Superstars on the roster.
Road To Wrestlemania
One of the biggest changes to this year’s game is the removal of the standard season mode, in which players would take practically any superstar from the roster or any created character, and play through a number of years which featured a selection of generic storylines. While this gave players more freedom, it meant that for example Kane would play the same storylines as Jeff Hardy. This often led to uncharacteristic and unbelievable behaviour and detracted from the player’s engagement with the game.
This year the player can choose to be one of the following:
- John Cena
- C.M. Punk
- Chris Jericho
- The Undertaker
- HHH
- Batista and Rey Mysterio (Tag Team)
They then take them through character specific storylines culminating at the following Wrestlemania.
While many fans initially reacted badly to this, claiming they had nothing to use their created wrestlers for, THQ soon appeased them with the announcement of ‘Career Mode’ in which any Superstar created or otherwise can progress towards a title of their choice in order to raise their stats.
WWE Alternate Attires
Alternate attires are yet another grey area this year. In a Q&A on IGN, THQ’s Senior Creative Manager Cory Ledesma said: “We have about eight alternate attires in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009. All of these are unlockables in our Road To WrestleMania mode”
Many speculated that each Road to Wrestlemania character would get an alternate attire, and Shawn Michaels would be the 8th with his DX attire.
This may not be the case, as in the leaked video mentioned before some characters have ‘zombie’ attires to tie in with The Undertaker’s storyline. Again the authenticity of this video has been brought into question so it remains to be seen if this is the case.
Other New Features
- Tag team matches have been given the overhaul this year, so much so that THQ, Yukes and the WWE have decided to promote the game on the back of this.
- Inferno Matches have been confirmed, as well as another new match type that has never been included in a Smackdown game to date.
- More C.A.W parts and a new Create a Finisher mode that lets players string together a selection of moves to make their own devastating finishing manoeuvre.
- The Highlight Reel mode lets players take 30 second snippets of their matches and create compilation videos which they can then post for others to download and view.
- Improved online mode as well as Downloadable Content, although what this will be is still yet to be announced.
Goodbye to fond favourites
Sadly to include this many new features a couple of things had to make way, the two that will be missed the most are ‘Create a Championship’ and ‘The General Manager Mode’.
Many will miss the G.M mode, which added hours of gameplay for many players, but it remains to be seen whether the list of new features will make up for this loss.
Review
To read the review of Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009 Click Here.
References
"SVR 09: THQ&A (09.12.08)’ IGN.Com. Online. 09.12.2008 <Link> 31st October 2008.
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