The Gaming Cove

Wow, wrestling games.  It hasn’t been since the last Smackdown game in 2004 that I have delved into such a rating fiasco videogame.  I used to be completely into wrestling, backyard wrestling, watching every show, yet that slowly faded as a kid grows older.

Last night I decided to rent this game, and give it a shot.  The box is a little misleading as it states there is a co-op career mode.  That, in fact, is only one branch of the new game mode “Road to Wrestlemania” which is much like a career mode featuring only real wrestlers, and no created superstars.

My roommate and I fired it up, a quick loading screen, and I still felt like I was that 15 year old kid awaiting to play a match.  We began a quick tag team match with Triple H and Shawn Michaels.  After a fumbling 20 some minutes of control learning, we seemed to be getting it.  The controls in this game are EXTREMELY different than the previous Smackdown games I grew up with.  It relies heavily on the left and right control sticks, and at times feels a little too indepth and clumbsy to me.  As time and matches went on though, we began to familarize ourselves with the controls and play much better.

To me, the A.I. seems to be missing part of their artificial brain at times, doing stupid maneuvors, and repeating the same action over, and over again.  This made a Royal Rumble match feel a little disappointing, most of the other matches were great fun though.

From one-on-one, to Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches, there are plenty of types of matches and unlockables to make this game completely replayable.  Some of the great features I found were things such as saving career stats to every character, and even showing them during loading times.  This reduces the tension and impatience of the waiting screens a little bit.

After figuring out the controls, you realize that there are worlds of opportunities awaiting you with move selections and ways to throw people through tables, chairs, ladders, and basically anything else you can get your hands on.  There are even multiple ways to set up ladders in the turnbuckle to bring the pain to an opponent.

Blood is a cool feature that I hadn’t seen in many previous wrestling games.  It actually stains the mat after an opponent has been bashed to it while bleeding.  There are new abilities such as a “Hot Tag” which allows you to gain momentum in a losing tag match by many ways such as after realizing your character started to bleed, or with the help of your team mate pumping you up from the turnbuckle.

One of the most impressive modes I’ve seen on the game thusfar is the Create-A-Superstar.  Being able to not only create a version of yourself for the popular TV shows, but perfecting your finishers, signature moves, entrances and more.  You can, really, change every little aspect of your character, from the position of a tattoo, what color it will be, where your piercings will be, and much more.  Not to forget that perfecting a created superstar can easily drain hours out of your day, and make a friend just as impatient to create his or just get in the ring and dish out some damage.

A feature I wish could be toggled with is the fact that you MUST play your created superstar through the career mode to get their overall rating up enough to actually wrestle other characters as opposed to just other created wrestlers.  I’m not really a big fan of this, especially if you rent the game for 5 days just to do the occasional exhibition modes with a friend while relaxing, having a beer, and pretending your opponent is the worst customer you had at work that day.

When Kane and The Undertaker come up to me and proceed to hit me with two moves, laying me out for approximately three minutes as they go to town on my room mates character, isn’t the best of times.  Especially when your characters specials will not even keep them down for more than a few moments.

All in all, there are several, several match types to keep you entertained.  From reliving past matches, to the one’s you saw on last Monday nights RAW.  The new inferno match seems to be what they are pushing for in this version, and hopefully when I get home to play it later today, it will be worth the wait.  From the countless videos I’ve seen on youtube from it, and the ability to relate to the control scheme’s and gameplay now, I can tell that it should be a very fun match.

If you want to release some anger, relax with a group of friends, or just throw somebody off of the top of a Hell in a Cell, Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 is the game for you!

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