Customer Reviews

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I only have a few things against this game. First, you can only use 5 wrestlers in the "Road to Wrestlemania" Triple H, Undertaker, CM Punk, Jericho and Mysterio/Batista (Together) I bought this game Monday evening and have already finished 4 of the 5 story modes. When you start a RTWM you don't start out right after mania like in the past games, you start out a month or so before the Royal Rumble and go from there to Wrestlemania. From the ones I've played so far only the Triple H one was sort of exciting to me, Cena's was WAY Stupid so was Jericho's.
There are TONS of codes out for the game, you have two STUPID ppl added to your list of wrestlers when you complete Jericho and Cena's RTWM. a Army guy named Tony and a guy named Masked Man....GAY
Other then that i do like alot of the new wrestlers and holds on the game. I recommend renting this game before you buy it. Oh and one last negative thing about the game, it is Super easy to win matches in story mode, Nothing has really changed since last years game. The controls, feel and everything is the same. Only differance is the sort of updated list of wrestlers and the Inferno Match.

It's a great game, I just have one minor problem with it, which isn't enough at all to knock off a star on a review. The small problem that I think is annoying is Chris Jericho's entrance theme. What happened to Chris Jericho's song? I have the SvR version stuck in my head, and I hate it. Chris Jericho is one of the best wrestlers in the WWE, and his theme song is always the reason I skip his entrance whenever I wrestle as him.

Other than that, the game is awesome, the Road to WrestleMania's are fun (while they last), career mode's fun, and it's really cool how you can unlock things instead of always buying them. Tag team moves/finishers are fun to use when playing a tag team match with a friend. For anybody who is a Chaingang Soldier, a Jericoholic, or just a videogame/wrestling fan, it is a must-have for any PS2 collection.

The Smackdown series has been around a good while now and this game seemed stripped down. In this version they actually took matches out and it confused me as to why. The addition of Inferno Match was awesome and works quite well. The Road to Wrestlemania mode was a nice diversion and the storylines albeit short were some of the best ever in a wrestling game.

The career mode I thought was a pure joke. There is a good selection of wrestlers and they look like they do in real life. I have always felt that the Smackdown series has done a good job capturing the look and feel of the WWE and this game is no different. Even with a lot of matches taken out there is still enough fun to be had in this game. If you are a die hard wrestling fan or Smackdown fan you could do a lot worse than this.

I will begin by saying I LIKE this game, but don't LOVE it.

To get to the point quickly; SVR09 is an average wrestling game at the very worst and the only installment in the series I bother with that doesn't allow you to use the old school controls from HCTP thru SVR07. For some reason I dislike 08 and 10 a lot but find myself loading this one up from time to time.

My biggest joy in this game is the addition of "signature moves" which you get when you store finishers. It's very satisfying to do the Orton stomp and then prepare for a hunting RKO. I also want to note I think the cut scene-type angles for finishers is better than most of the other games in the series; I hated it in HCTP and SVR06 for example, but also liked it in 05 and 07 (they seem to like to tweak this just enough each year to be different, which I guess is good and bad...).

The graphics in the game are average for a last generation ps2 game. At this point in time the system was basically maxxed out so any title in the series after SVR07 basically looks the same - which is more than ok in my opinion since I happy to like the general appearances of the models. Even the CAW's are great looking for the most part.

Speaking of CAW's; a lot of fuss is made regarding the attribute points for them in this game and how annoying it is set up. The solution for this is really simple - shell out a few dollars for a max drive and download save files you find online. Almost every creator who bothers sharing their save has made it a point to either hack or build up each CAW's attributes to a somewhat "accurate" level. All of my CAW's have at least an overall 85 rating and I didn't play a single one of them in career mode to do so. So there's your simple solution to that small issue.

The gameplay is solid and very much like a wrestling sim, a feature common in every title beyond svr07 so if you like the arcade-type gameplay better you may wish to stick with titles ranging from SYM thru SVR06. My big gripe with the gameplay is having to dedicate two directions, right and left, entirely to an ultimate control move. I don't see why it was really necessary and for a player like me who doesn't necessarily like these UCM's it's a waste of a category where I could have had 4 other preset moves. I'm sure some players are on the opposite end and love it though, so for them this is probably a plus. I'm not sure off the top of my head but I believe it was setup the same in SVR08 (but I haven't played that one in quite a while...).

Load times have been improved dramatically over 07 and 08 and will be noticeable to any player who has owned & played either of those 2 previous titles. Big appreciation for this (thank god).

Overall it's a great game, the controls are very fluent if you give them a chance; I favor control type B personally since I like controlling my wrestler via the D-pad but to each their own. I would have liked to have had an option to use the layout from 06 or 07 (probably 07 since it included the UCM's for the first time that year).

It's a solid game, as I stated in the title of my review. I'll only give it an 8/10 as opposed to a 9 or 10 due to the fact it was late in the series and the playstation 2's era in general. Things are a bit too familiar from the previous year or two's titles so if you own 07 and/or 08 and ARE NOT a big wrestling fan (just a fighter fan in general) you can probably skip on this. However, it's obviously a must own for any fan of wrestling - even if you hate the new school, PG-era WWE offers now.

**last note, I'm not certain but either this or 10 were the last ones to feature blood in the series so for those who are concerned with this, yes this game does feature blood when you break someone open with a chair or any other weapon

I think this is great game and I love playing it! I know that a lot of people would rather have Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 but I stick to this one because Amazon is great and doesn't really charge anything for the used games. That is the road I went. I went with the used game and it payed off, the game is just as good! The Road to Wrestlemanias are great but I finsed them in like a couple hours and I wish they would have a create a superstar Road To Wrestlemania. This is a great game and I would reccomend it to anyone.

my bother got this game and he plays with it sometimes. he got bored of it after a while.

I really enjoyed this game since I've almost had it for a year, but it gets old after a while. Why are they putting so much into partners and such, but you see very little about partnership. I was totally expecting that your making a set of partners and fighting your way to the top in the WWE, but it isn't like that. They did away with all the legends in this game except Tazz and Tommy Dreamer. Overall it was fun expecially the Inferno Match. After winning every title it just got old. The new Create A Finisher was pretty awesome as well. It's a great game and I would recommend it.

This isn't the worst game I played, but it isn't the best either. Smackdown vs Raw 2009 gives an alright roster of superstars, although legends such as Hulk Hogan, The Rock, or Stone Cold are not present in this installment which was suprising to me. The Road To Wrestlemania mode isn't really new but a blast from the past(see wrestlemania 2000 for the nintindo 64). It was still a pretty good idea though. You choose out of 6 superstars who have their own storylines, which start from the Royal Rumble all the way to Wrestlemania. They also have a new Roster management where you can put anyone on any show including WCW, or make them a free agent. You can also give them any title. The graphics in the game are alright, but not better than the PS3 version. Overall this game is pretty fun. I hope they make big time changes on this years installment though. AND TAKE YOUR TIME THQ!!!!!

I've been a big fan of wrestling games since my best friend introduced me to WCW vs NWO for the N64. I hadn't ever watched wrestling before that, and I haven't watched it in over five years, but I love the games. I love fighting games, but am sometimes overwhelmed by the furious pacing. Wrestling slows that down to a level where I feel like every move I make was planned and intended. I also am a huge proponent of 'create' modes in games, it's like LEGOS that can then fight onscreen.

2009 marks a pretty major overhaul for the control scheme (at least part of which is due to my having not bought a SvR game since 2006; but from looking at many reviews, I think that the bulk of the changes came here in '09). It works pretty well. The two stick system feels pretty natural, and perhaps an even better vote for it comes from my not-really-a-gamer fiance who was pretty disheartened by previous wrestling games' controls, but much prefers this new scheme (mostly, I think, because she can use the sticks almost exclusively and pull off some quick grapple moves; whereas back in 2006 any grapple took two steps (which is the R1 + Right stick strong grapple now).

I applaud the return of multiplayer career; even if it is in limited quantity (Batista + Mysterio only). I really wish there were an option to let a friend join in for the regular career modes when you're going for a tag team title...but alas.

I like the direction that the new additions to Tag team matches have taken. The Hot Tag mini game and increased interactivity of the 'out-man' is a nice touch.

I also like that cheesey matches from previous games have been eliminated in favor of more focus on technical matches (ladder has been improved (no more 'sweet spot' and no more stamina meter!!! (though there is the option to turn stamina on) from '07 (I think). I also like the plethora of customization options in the menu which allow you to tweak the balance of everything (reduce the effect of finishers, increase the effect of high-flying moves, etc), though I've barely gotten into them just yet.

The create-a-modes continue their growth, create a wrestler continuing its' record of Best Create A Character to date. Create a finsher seems a little cheesey, allowing you to strectch your finisher out to a mini-show in itself, but used conservatively, allows you to re-create most any long-forgotten, or newly discovered finisher that doesn't come stocked. Create an entrance is a nice touch too.

One last minor complaint: the career mode, which is where you can wrestle with your Created Wrestler to buff them up, seems a bit unweildly. What I mean is that there is a lot of information being thrown at you, but most of it goes unexplained. For example: When you finish a match, you get a Star rating for the match(out of five) that allows you to move on to championship matches. This rating is accompanied by a point total that seems to correspond well to the rating (with well-defined, constant goals for number of stars (>999 pts for 5 star in every match, etc)) and a list of medals (Things like "Board of Directors" and "Squash Match" which are accompanied by a silver or gold medal (I haven't seen a Bronze)). Problem with this is that there is nevr any explaination of how you earn these medals, or how many points they are worth (or even if they are good things or negative; is it good to win a "Squash Match" where the CPU opponent never lands a hit on you, or should I be purposely 'putting on a show' in a more pro-wrestling simulator kind of way than the traditional fighting game, "beat the living daylights out of him" mentality. So I get these medals, and these points and these stars and then they increase your CAW's stat points. Not in the traditional "You have earned 3 stat points, where would you like to put them?" way, but where your points are assigned automatically. Now, there is no explaination of this either, so I don't know if these points are based on what I did in that particular match (if I get a good jog around the ring, do I increase my speed more?) or if they are tied to a cumulative tally of stars, or of points, or of medals. And if they are tied directly to my actions in the ring, how in the world do I increase my 'Technical' stat? I feel like I've tried everything, and it's been stuck at like 49 for the last ten matches while everything else is up to almost 80. Is that a result of how I play? Or is it a programmed deficiency based on my experience level (points or stars or medals)? The game and manual never attempt to explain this (unless I missed something). As you may have gathered, I'm big on the CAWs and I want my wrestlers to be on an even playing field with Undertaker and the like when they meet up in exhibitions against human opponents; so being able to tweak my character's stats is important to me. If these are tied to in-ring actions, I think that's awesome, and a defintely more realistic direction than "You have earned three stat points for beating that guy up, now you can put them in Speed, even though it was a hardcore match and you just stood over him and wailed on him with a chair the whole time"; it would just be nice to get a high-level explaination of how to earn each stat.

All together, easily the most complete SvR game for the PS2, and a big step from SvR 2006 (and '07, which I've played some with my brother but do not own (I really despised the stamina bar and the ladder match))

I just got this game it completely sucks!!! You cant even do what they said about co-op career mode on it! And reg. career has no storyline at all its very similar to the 2008 wii version. But the exibition is fun but do not buy this product.