Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Mike Escobar

One of the biggest downfalls of annual release games is the curse of sameness.  Franchises that release a “new” version of a title every twelve months constantly battle this curse, trying to add enough new content and gameplay to bring their fans back year after year.  But every once in a while an annual franchise makes such a huge leap forward that you truly wonder how the developers were able to add so many features in such a short time.

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 (SvR10) has managed to pull off that amazing feat this year.

Don’t get me wrong, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 was an outstanding game, earning a solid 83% when we reviewed it this time last year, but this year’s game is so much more advanced in terms of flexibility and gameplay that fans of the franchise will be absolutely dumbfounded.  For those of you new to this series, consider yourself fortunate; you’re going to experience what has to be one of the high points in this title’s history.

The attention to detail is what makes the graphical quality of SvR10 really shine.  The wrestler’s outfits not only look incredibly realistic, but the cloth even wrinkles as they move around.  If your opponent is bleeding at some point in the match and you put them in a headlock, their blood will show up on your clothing!  The wrestler’s themselves are more recognizable than ever.  Many other franchises will boast about their improved graphics, but when it comes down to it you have a tough time telling the difference between LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal.  Not so with this title – every wrestler should be instantly recognizable to even the most casual of wrestling fans.  The detail is so incredible that you’re able to see the individual tattoos that run up and down Randy Orton’s arms!  Developer Yuke’s even managed to capture the movements and mannerisms of each of the athletes, upping the realism another notch.

While not as high in quality as the wrestler’s themselves, the graphical fidelity extends to the crowd and each of the arenas.  As anyone who has seen a wrestling event (either in person or on TV) can attest, the biggest names in wrestling are usually accompanied by the biggest explosions and light shows.  WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 does a fantastic job of bringing this to life, with many of the locations and ring entrances meticulously modeled in the game.  Nothing quite matches the spectacle of hearing “My Time is Now” and then seeing the explosion of lights that accompany John Cena’s entry into the ring.

The sound quality throughout the game is solid.  Everyone’s theme song is faithfully presented at each of their ring entrances and whenever they win a match.  The voice acting from the different celebrities is well done and the ring announcing has a nice amount of variety that matches the action in the ring very well.  Crowd noise also reacts to the action, with the cheers swelling and people calling out the name of either one of the wrestlers from time to time.

One of the places where this franchise has taken some abuse is the control scheme.  There is definitely a steep learning curve to work through before you’re able to control all the various grapples, throws, taunts, and reversals that each wrestler is capable of.  This is a double-edged sword though; if this wide variety of moves had not been so meticulously recreated in the game, then people would have complained that the control scheme was too simplified.  In my opinion, the controls for WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 are exactly as complex as they need to be.

To help gamers get up to speed on this set of controls, THQ implemented the Training Facility.  Once you’ve installed the game and pressed Start, this is the first thing that you will see.  The Training Facility is set up as a context sensitive, open-ended tutorial that covers the entire range of controls available in the game.  If you move your wrestler towards the edge of the ring, you get a tool tip telling you that you can hold the Left Stick towards the edge of the ring and tap A to climb out to the apron.  Once you’re standing on the apron, if you move towards one of the corners you get another tooltip that tells you to hold down the Left Bumper and point your Left Stick in the direction you want to go to run on the apron.  Move over by your opponent and you’re prompted to press X to attack your opponent from outside the ring.  And on and on.  The Training Facility adjusts its prompts depending on what you’re near in the ring and helps you learn how to completely control your wrestler. 

To make this tutorial even more effective, each of the tooltips only turns up once, so you’re not prompted to do the same thing over and over.  If you feel you’re missing or forgetting some of the tips, you can reset them at any time and you’ll receive all the prompts again.  This is a fantastic way to teach gamers a complex control setup, and works exceptionally well for this type of game.

With more than fifty stars to choose from, it’s difficult to decide where to start once you’ve had your fill of the Training Facility.  Diving into career mode will give you the option of choosing any one of the dozens of wrestlers and attempting to take them from small regional matches all the way to the championship.  You are presented with loads of options before you embark on your career, being able to change everything from whether your entrance music plays at every location to deciding if submission holds are allowed to win matches.

Once you engage in your first match, you immediately start putting everything you learned in the Training Facility to good use.  As you abuse and eventually defeat your opponent, all the controls will start to feel more natural and make a lot more sense.  One of my favorite parts of the game is what happens after you win the match.  The post-contest wrap-up is great, giving you the chance to see the highlights of the match and save them for future viewings or uploading to the WWE community for others to bask in your awesomeness, err, awesomosity?  Awesomitude?  Regardless, be prepared to brag about your accomplishments quite a bit, because it’s easy to upload your highlights and screenshots for the world to see.

You may also have to deal with any lasting injuries that you sustained during your previous match. These may affect your next contest, even if it happens to be a couple weeks down the road.  You can level up your wrestler’s attributes, making your Superstar faster, stronger, and tougher as they become more experienced.

If you’re looking for more of a story to go along with your wrestling adventures, then you’ll be happy to know that the Road to WrestleMania mode is back and better than ever.  There are six different storylines that you can play through on the Road to WrestleMania – three of the stories follow individual wrestlers on the road to the ultimate contest (Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, and Edge) or if you want to explore your feminine side you have the option of playing Mickie James’ story.  More interested in the dark side?  Then the Vince McMahon storyline “Brand Warfare” is for you.  You even have the option of running your own custom Superstar through the Road to WrestleMania.

Another play option you can choose is to try your hand at the new and improved Royal Rumble.  With more options for corner and middle-rope eliminations, the Royal Rumble is greatly enhanced and even allows for special Royal Rumble Finishers.  Whether you decide on a ten, twenty, or thirty man match, you won’t believe the amount of chaos and excitement you’ll have with so many wrestlers in the ring at once.  If you prefer your chaos in slightly smaller doses, then you can try the Championship Scramble Match.  In Championship Scramble you start on wrestling one-on-one, with three other opponents being added to the ring at various intervals.

As you can start to tell, there are a ton of things you can do in this game.  This doesn’t take into account leveling up your wrestler’s skills, participating in one on one, three on three, or six on six matches, or unlocking special wrestlers (Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, just to name a couple).

Where THQ and Yuke’s really broke the mold is with all the customization available in this game.  Previous incarnations of SmackDown vs. Raw let you create custom wrestlers and outfits, but it doesn’t come close to the amount of creative freedom you have in SvR10.  The crown jewel of this creative suite of tools is the WWE Story Designer.  There is almost nothing you can’t do with the Story Designer.  You can create everything from a single custom match all the way to a custom career that can span an entire decade.  The amount of control you have over these matches is incredible – you can set victory conditions, trigger events, add dialog and even cutscenes to help give your dramatic moments more flair.  From specifying camera angles to the emotions of each of your characters, you’ll be telling your own stories in no time.  Another great creative tool in SvR10 is the Paint Tool.  For those familiar with Microsoft Paint, you’ll instantly recognize all the tools you have available to create your own custom logos and tattoos.  The only complaint I had about this tool is that it was limited to your own artistic skill.  Having some templates to work from would have been a huge help to those of us less artistically inclined.

You might be asking yourself what good is all this custom storytelling if I can’t share it with the world?  Apparently THQ was thinking the same thing, so they implemented WWE Community Creations, allowing you to upload and share your custom Superstars, Storylines, and Finishers.  THQ’s Community Creations includes an easy to use search interface, so you can look for custom content of your favorite wrestler, or even highly rated content.

The amount of replay value associated with this title is nothing short of astonishing.  The quantity of time that can be spent just playing around with the Paint Tool, or creating new wrestlers, or just customizing your favorite star’s wardrobe is nearly endless.  For the wannabee Spielberg’s out there, the WWE Story Designer will allow you to create everything from dramatic moments in individual matches all the way through epic careers.  That’s only half the equation though; you can then go online, download, and experience everyone else’s creation and even modify them to your own tastes.  The possibilities that THQ has presented us with this title should not be underestimated, and I fully expect the online community to go crazy with the wealth of tools that have been provided this time around. THQ and developer Yuke’s have absolutely hit this one out of the park.  Just having all the new moves, greatly expanded options for creating your own Superstar, and the improved graphics would have been enough to make fans sit up and take notice.  The addition of the Divas, the upgrades to the Royal Rumble, and being able to share all your custom creations with the rest of the gaming world take this from being a really good title to making it a really great title.

Gaming Trend Score

92

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 90
3. Controls: 85
4. Gameplay: 95
5. Value/Replay: 95
6. OVERALL:92