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When I was a kid, I used to go over to my friend's house and play WWF Wrestlemania on the WWF. I always used Hulk Hogan only because Ultimate Warrior wasn't in the game. The game had all of five moves and no matter how hard I tried, I could never win more than one or two matches. A few years later, I rented WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game for the PlayStation. None of my friends had a PlayStation at the time, yet they all were blown away at this games awesomeness. The sprites were very limited, but they looked pretty realistic for the times. Plus, I got to beat up on Doink the Clown and Bam Bam Bigelow with HBK. A few years later, I was going to a summer basketball tournament with my friends when I picked up WWF Warzone which was the first 3D wrestling game. It also invented the "Create-A-Wrestler" mode. We spent about an hour creating our own players (including the memorable Sexy Boy Brent Hanson). I think we stayed up until about 2 or 3 in the morning playing that game. Over the next few months, I beat the game with every single character.
Over the next couple years, a few wrestling games came and went, but none of them caught my attention. WWF Smackdown was probably the one that brought the most new stuff to the table. Def Jam Vendetta was a good time. ECW: Hardcore Revolution was a blast just because I could play as all my favorite ECW star. I also enjoyed WCW Mayhem just because it had Sting, Goldberg, Chris Jericho, Juventud Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Rick Flair among many others. All of these games left me wanting more. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2006 is the first game I've played in years that has left me completely and fully satisfied.
First up, the mode that got me the most excited was GM mode. For those of you who have played Madden, GM mode is the like the WWE version of Madden's franchise mode. You draft players to your show, you decide who gets contracts, you decide who gets title shots, you decided who gets promoted. You pretty much lay out all the shows. You try to set up rivalries that build up to pay-per-views. The goal is to have more "fans" than the other show. For example, if you are the GM of Raw, you try to outdraw Smackdown. It's a blast. There are just so many variables. If you have a guy wrestle too many matches in a row, he gets injured. If a star gets injured, you can still use them in promos. If you have a guy that isn't getting enough promotions, he gets upset. If you choose to promote a guy and the crowd doesn't react, your ratings go down. If you don't "build" the rivalries, nobody will take an interest. For each episode of a show, you decide how many matches, how many PPV promos, match promos, and everything else will be in each show. If you don't run enough promos, people won't watch. If you run too many, they'll be upset. When a star gets popular with the fans, he'll want more money. You'll have to decide whether the star is worth a big money extension or not. You can also choose not to extend him which will cause him to be upset. Lastly, you can choose to let him go to the other show if you don't think he's worth the high price. Much like Madden's franchise mode, it's addicting to stock up and up-and-comers and watch them virtually "mature."
Besides the GM mode, there also is a season mode option. You select a pre-made wrestler or a created wrestler and select either Raw or Smackdown. A typical season consists of a few matches on either Raw or Smackdown followed by a PPV. The four big PPV's (Summer Slam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and Wrestlemania) are all here as are a bunch of the smaller ones. The matches you wrestle all make sense as they are tied together with storylines. For example, in my latest season, my created wrestler had a match with Triple H. He absolutely destroyed me and his manager Ric Flair helped beat me up in the ring. Luckily, Shelton Benjamin had my back because he's beefing with Triple H on the show. They set up a tag match between Triple H and Flair versus myself and Benjamin. After the match, John Cena and Big Show from Smackdown beat up Triple H and Flair with chairs. That setup Triple H teaming with myself versus Cena and Show at Summerslam. That's just an example. Everything you do in the season mode, makes sense, though. It's not like other games in which the "career mode" consists of beating every single wrestler once in order to beat the game. The game feels exactly like the show which is exactly what a wrestling game should feel like.
The create-a-wrestler mode is phenomenal. You have tons of body types and costume options. You also have the option to wear different things in the match, walking to the ring, and in cut-scenes. My wrestler, for example, wears jeans and no shirt during a match. When he's coming down to the ring, though, he's rocking an NWO Wolfpac t-shirt - the very same shirt I still occassionally wear to bed. In the cut-scenes, he's rocking the blazer much like I often do. You can select every single move you want a wrestler to use including finishers. You can customize what type of wrestler you want (brawler, high flyer, technician, etc.) You can decide whether or not you want your wrestler to be a dirty or clean fighter. Just can customize what music you come out to and what your entrance looks like. To put it quite simply, it's very fun and very thorough.
There are countless modes in this game. In one season, I was assigned to be special referee. You can basically choose whether or not you want to disqualify a wrestler anytime they do anything illegal. Of course, you can also count to three in about a half second or you can count to two and conveniently forget to go to three. If you play it straight, your ally might be upset with you. If you count too quick, the person getting pinned may have beef with you. If you count too slowly, the guy going for the pin is likely to get upset with you. Besides referee mode, there are the normal modes (single matches, tag team, triple threat, fatal 4-way, handicap, and Royal Rumble). There are also unique modes like 3 Stages of Hell (best 2 of 3 falls), backstage brawls, battle royal, Buried Alive (including doing finishers into the casket!), elimination chamber, First Blood, Fulfill Your Fantasy, Hardcore, Hell in A Cell (yeah!), Iron Man, Ladder, Last Man Standing, Slobber Knocker, Steel Cage, Submission, Table, and TLC (tables, ladders, and chairs). Again, you aren't going to run out of things to do for quite a while.
Graphically, the game looks nice. I was disappointed that it was a PS2-only game as I usually prefer the good ol' Xbox, but it looks very nice. The loading times between everything are insanely annoying. The sound is great. I have no problems with the announcers being repetitve and the voice-acted wrestlers all sound nice.
The one thing that truly bugs me is that this game could've been infinitely better if it were on the Xbox. Imagine if you were able to rip your own music for entrance themes instead of having to use one of their cookie cutter options. The game would load quicker and it would look a little nicer. There are just so many reasons I prefer the Xbox to the PS2, but that is neither here nor there.
Presentation - 9.5
Looks and feel exactly like watching the WWE on television. The storylines feel very complete. The customizable intros add a lot to the feel of the show. Overall, if you enjoy the feel of watching a WWE show on tv, you'll enjoy this.
Graphics- 9
Looks very good. I haven't bought a PS2 game besides Final Fantasy X in the past 3 years (I'm an Xbox guy) and it's probably the best looking PS2 game I have. It is up there with most of my Xbox titles as far as realism goes.
Sounds- 9
Again, I'd love to have this on Xbox so I could rip my own songs for intro, but all the intro music, ring sounds, and commentary do sound great.
Gameplay - 8.5
There is a little learning curve to this game. It's not too bad, but it's very in-depth.
Lasting Appeal - 9.5
With all the modes included in this game, you could literally play it for 40-50 hours before burning out. I started out by creating a wrestler (about an hour), customizing his moves (another hour) and customizing his entrance (half hour). I then participated in a few exhibitions matches to familiarize myself with the controls. From there, I moved onto a full season of Raw and a full season of Smackdown. Once I get done with that, I'm planning on diving a little more in-depth into GM Mode.
Overall - 9
A very solid effort. The last few things I forgot to mention… there are a ton of Legends in this game like Hogan (80's version and Hollywood), Andre the Giant, Stone Cold, Bret Hart, the Million Dollar Man, Mankind, The Rock, and a few more. Overall, it's definitely worth dropping a few stones of your hard earned money. Highly recommended!
If you're out on your bike tonight, do wear white,
-B-
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