WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008 review (X360)

Wrestling games have an interesting history, there have been a couple of reasonable attempts but it's always been very difficult to convey the excitement of a well staged grapple-fest. The game has to convey the difference in the moves that each type of character performs as well as the variety of pace that a match can have. Then there's the match types from one-on-one to steel cage, table matches and everything in between. There needs to be a variety of characters and hopefully some sort of storyline in the style that fans are used to. It's a tall order to wrap up in an intuitive control system. THQ has been pretty successful with the Smackdown vs Raw franchise. Each year the roster changes, the match types update and the story gets refreshed. This year though, it seems that the developers have run out of ideas.

Can you smell what THQ is cooking?

Electronic Arts have founded their business on annual refreshes of all of their sports titles. It sounds like a good business model as long as you're making a decent game. Every year, for a minimal coat of paint, roster update and a couple of tweaks to the game modes, they can sell essentially the same game over and over. I would think that most other development houses would like to follow the same model and that's what THQ are trying to do with Smackdown vs Raw.

The trouble is that it's difficult to get right. You have to try and make the game appear to be a significant update on the previous year, even if it isn't. THQ might have gone a bit too far this year though. In an effort to identify some reason to upgrade it's managed the usual roster update but in tweaking the game modes it seems to have broken some of the best bits of last year's version. The roster update is somewhat out of date by the time the game hit the shelves including wrestlers who are out injured and released wrestlers like Sandman and King Booker. It's understandable that with a reasonably long development lead, there will be issues like this with the updates.

Tell me a story

Last year, the story mode was one of the compelling features. The running story seemed like something out of a WWE rivalry and it was a feature that made an interesting single player mode. There is still a story mode of sorts but it's been renamed 24/7. There's no real cut scene story like there was in the past. Now you take control of a wrestler, either an existing superstar or a created wrestler. If you choose a superstar you can select to start with that wrestlers attributes or you can reset them so you have to shape your character yourself. Last years offering gave you the option to play as the general manager and look after a roster of superstars.

Much of this functionality has been rolled into the story mode. The story has become the minor part of the new 24/7 mode and the management of your superstar has become the major part. This means that you have to manage the training both physical/technique and in terms of your public profile. This means that each day you'll have to decide if you want to step into the ring to work on technique or strength or if you want to work on interview technique or signing autographs for fans. All of the options for each day have an impact on some attribute of your superstar like strength, speed and stamina. These all affect the type of wrestler that your character is.

It's all about how you use it

The superstars this year are classified with two categories each. These include high-flyer, brawler, dirty, showman and hardcore. These categories affect the moves that are available to each wrestler and when the momentum meter fills, the different categories have different abilities. Powerhouse wrestlers, for instance, power up and become impervious to attack, perform strong irish whips to throw their opponents over the top rope, and always win the grapples. The moves for each character type fit nicely with the sort of moves you'd expect them to be pulling off during a match. The controls for doing this are fairly intuitive. The right thumbstick is used to start a weak grapple. Modified with the right button starts a hard grapple which you can then modify with another right thumbstick move.

Meanwhile, the B button is used for an Irish whip and the X button performs a strike. Once you're outside the ring you can use the announcer tables and ring steps for attacks. You can also push your opponent against the crown and take weapons that they offer you to attack your opponent. It's pretty cool to push your opponent against the audience barriers and take a crutch from a fan and start bashing your opponent with it. On the subject of weapons, one of the new additions to this years release is the ECW franchise. When you're wrestling in an ECW match you can go to the ring apron and use the right thumbstick to choose a weapon to pull from under the ring. These include trash cans, tables, barb wire wrapped wooden batons. While you're beating your opponent with your baton you can set it on fire and carry on the beating.

Let me tell you something Mean Gene

While you're at the announcer's table knocking seven bells out of your opponent, you might be tempted to try and knock out the announcers. The trouble is that they're out of pace with the action and sometimes quite badly so. If you skip the introductions at the start of the match then that doesn't stop the announcers. They carry on their pre-fight ramble while you're starting the match and then they announce the start of the match when you're already half-way through. It just starts to get a bit annoying and frustrating. The rest of the presentation is pretty reasonable. The character models haven't been updated since the days that this was a PS2 exclusive.

Fortunately, they still look fantastic. Unfortunately, there are still animation and clipping problems. Hair mysteriously moves through peoples shoulders and some of the animations aren't complete. These are problems that have always existed and it would be nice if THQ could spend some time sorting the animation problems rather than messing with the bits that work. There are other presentation issues in the 24/7 mode. The cut scenes that kept the story flowing have more or less disappeared. There are still cut-scenes but they're pretty short and they don't relate to the story properly. If you're feuding with someone then you're just as likely to see a cut-scene where you're shaking their hand as if you're not feuding with them. It's these touches that make or break the game.

Final round

Smackdown vs Raw 2008 is an unpolished game. It's an odd thing to say because it's basically an annual update on a game that's always been pretty good. It's time to refocus on the franchise though and get the rough edges that have always existed sorted out. The commentary needs to be sorted so that it flows with the action, the collision detection needs to be sorted out and the graphics could do with a freshen up. I'd like to see last years story mode back but maybe extended a bit. I'm basically hearkening for last year's offering because, for all of the updates, the aspects that make it great rather than good have gone backwards from last year. There's advancements with the roster and the match selection and the addition of the ECW roster is an improvement. There's notable improvements that haven't been made with the AI. Tag team partners and managers don't tend to get involved when you need help and often your opponents will struggle to face towards you sometimes during the fight. I would say that there's no real reason to upgrade if you own last years version and if you don't then see if you can pick up a second hand copy before you check this out.

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