WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 (Nintendo DS) - Review by Chris

Introduction

The Smackdown Vs Raw series, from publisher THQ, is into its third year now on the Nintendo DS and previous attempts to bring the sport to the handheld have been less than stellar, with a lack of options and some unnecessary options thrown in to pad out the experience. With this year's title, though, developer Amaze Entertainment has decided to focus more on the wrestling experience and provide more of it and at a better quality than last year's try. The result this time is a good experience marred by a developer's reluctance to let go of old habits.

Gameplay

WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 attempts to provide a more substantial and fleshed out single player experience than previous handheld efforts while also giving something for those who want to play against or with friends. The basic structure is largely unchanged over previous editions, with the standard Exhibition mode taking pride of place atop the main menu. However, there have been new additions to the collection of match types and while the selection does match up with that in the console versions, with the matches strictly complying to one-on-one only, there is certainly enough variety on offer to make a wrestling fan happy. Yet the biggest addition this year in terms of content is a full and fleshed out Season mode. In this, you'll choose from the roster of 29 available characters or from one of your own creations, and take them through a regular season of the sport with the ultimate goal to win the 5 belts from the respective championships and become the ultimate wrestling champion. The mode takes several elements from the role playing genre of the game, with your chosen wrestler starting out with minimal and basic stats for attacking, defending, etc., and you having to progress week on week, winning matches and training to increase them so that you'll be able to hang with the big guys. It feels slightly strange playing a season mode in this style as it does away with the majority of the frilly bits and theatrics which make up the majority of the content in the versions seen on the home consoles but at the same time, it feels like a much more focused attempt at providing the gamer the true, core wrestling mechanics. It's certainly extensive and will definitely keep people occupied for a long time.

Another new addition to this year's game is the Create-a-Wrestler mode, which features all of the intricacies which you'd expect to find. It's a well built mode allowing for a great amount of possibilities in your character designs and all of the wrestlers that you create can be taken through any of the modes on offer. Multiplayer options are included in the form of local wireless, supporting up to two players who both have the game and it runs smoothly throughout its run time. The only other inclusion mode wise is a tutorial which I wholeheartedly recommend you look into because of the new control scheme being implemented in the game. It happily takes you through all of the setup so you can get to grips with it and it is a well done tutorial, but you'll ultimately have issues with the control scheme when it comes to the actual wrestling, which feels clunky and awkward.

Controls

Touch screen controls are the name of the game in this year's titles, working in conjunction with the d-pad, but they feel unnecessary and awkward. To punch or do standard striking attacks, you simply tap the touch screen but to do grapple moves you have to draw either a single or a double circle depending on whether you want a weak or strong attack. Once grappling, a tap of the d-pad unleashes an attack or a slide of the stylus across the touch screen does an Irish whip. The d-pad also carries out your characters movements, with a double tap making your run but this doesn't really work as you can only run in four directions as there is no requisite button to double tap for diagonal running meaning you're movement around the ring will often be slow and sluggish. It sort of works after a little while but the game doesn't always detect input on either the touch screen or d-pad meaning you'll not be able to pull off your moves. There is a decent tutorial to take your through the ins and outs of the setup and while it works in this context, where your opponent isn't attacking you, it doesn't quite get pulled off to the same effect when playing for real. The game is just screaming out for a more traditional button based setup because of how awkward the touch screen controls really are.

Graphics

Given the limitations of the DS' hardware, it's a testament to the work of the developers that they've managed to get everything to look this good and run smoothly. Character models look like their real life counterparts, boasting all of the small details that you'd expect in the console versions, and their animation is also spot on, reacting realistically to attacks, fatigue and injury. Arenas are equally well done, being large in scale and managing to provide the feel of the stadia and arenas within which the sport and its various events take place and all of the entrances for the wrestlers are provided here as well, doing justice to both the quality of the visuals and the real things. The crowd is relegated to a mess of pixels that does detract slightly from the overall presentation, but it's a very small discrepancy when you consider how good everything else looks.

Sound

The entrances are all apparent for the roster of 29 wrestlers and it sounds great, being of a higher quality than much of the other sound in the game. There is no commentary at all but there are announcers who voice the entrances but the quality of this is far and below that of the quality set by the entrance music, which is boarding on MP3 quality. The crowd isn't particularly vocal and so you'll only hear them let out small snippets of sound every so often but it's so quiet that it hardly helps to replicate the experience of the sport.

Dual screen

The wrestling takes place on the touch screen and you have to use touch screen controls, in a way making good use of what is available there but ultimately feeling awkward. The top screen acts as little more than a scoreboard, keeping the time as well as displaying damage information and the type of match in which you're playing. It might not seem like a good use but the damage information is definitely helpful in submission type matches.

Final comments

THQ and Amaze Entertainment have once again built upon and bettered their previous attempt on the console, providing a great, solid wrestling title, with fantastic visual, that has enough in the way of content to keep fans pleased for a long time. The touch screen controls will either make or break the title for many gamers though and it's both mystifying and annoying that the developers still refuse to put in any form of button based alternative because the game really needs it.

Pro: A good amount of gameplay options, fantastic visuals, RPG-like Season mode is a fantastic inclusion
Con: Touch screen controls are awkward and don't always work, audio isn't always to a good standard
Final score: 7.6

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