WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 Xbox 360 Review

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010

Xbox 360 Review
Developer:
Publisher: THQ
Released: October 2009

THQ is back at it again this year with the release of their latest entry into the WWE Smackdown vs. Raw franchise with WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010, and needless to say, this may be the best one to date.

All of the stops have been pulled out this year, as THQ has truly gone above and beyond expectations in terms of the stuff that they have added into the series for the first time.

The game in terms of the gameplay has been tweaked a great deal to make it the best playing wrestler since the days of the Nintendo 64 to be quite honest.

The gameplay is extremely fluid this year, allowing you to pull off one move to another with great ease. For rookies to the franchise, you will see a brand new training facility pop up once you turn on the game, giving you the ability to earn achievements and learn the moves. FOr those who know what they are doing though, you can jump right into the action.

Things have not changed too drastically compared to the way the game controleld a year ago, it is just that everything feels a lot smoother. You will immediately begin to notice this with the variety of the moves you can pull off, the ease of them, etc.

In regards to the game modes, you get pretty much all of the standard stuff from a year ago, and so much more.

The Road to WrestleMania has returned this year with six new storylines featuring HHH, John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge, and HBK. Each of these storylines is well over 25-hours and is an absolute blast. For the women’s fans out there, you also get a diva storyline this year with Mickie James being featured.

There is even a storyline for Road to WrestleMania that will feature your created superstar so you do not have to pick from just the set six guys.

As stated, all of the stuff from last year has returned, but things have been cranked up a notch with tons of new additions.

My personal favorite in terms of new additions is the ability to create your very own storyline, and then take that storyline and allow people around the world to play through it. All wrestling fans have dreams of being in control as the booker, well here is your chance guys. The storyline designer features a calendar with all of the shows, allowing you to set up scenes for the storyline, matches, etc. You get to control everything here, from locations, camera angles, and much more. Again, even if you are not the creative type, you can go nuts and take advantage of this mode by downloading other people’s storylines to play.

Adding further to the ability to customize pretty much everything, create-a-wrestler has received a huge upgrade. There are a wide variety of new things you can do this year, including changing the attire color of the real WWE superstars. On top of that, there is also the addition this year of creating your own entrance video so you don’t have to always steal another wrestlers, this year you can actually make your very own.

You can even come up with your very own logo for your wrestler this year with the intuitive paint tools that the developer has added in. The great thing about all of this is that you can take these things online with you, where last year you could not have certain things on your wrestler to play with online. So if you want to start an alliance and want to create your own version of the nWo logo, go for it, the tools are all here.

WWE Rivals is another cool new mode added in this year, allowing you to basically easily create alliances and enemies with the superstars, so again, if you want to create a new DX, this is the mode where you can do it and watch it all play out before your very eyes.

Match types have pretty much remained constant with a few additions this year, including the championship scramble, as well as a revamped Royal Rumble which is an absolute blast to play.

The audio and visuals have also received a major upgrade, especially the visuals thanks to the new blood effects and damage effects that will take place during matches. If you drop a wrestler on a ladder, you will not only imagine the pain you have just inflicted, you will see it with the amazing new detail added in.

The real pride and joy of this game is the way in which it takes the online community and brings everyone together to enjoy WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010.

The easy ways in which you can fight for belts, download other created wrestlers made by people, download created storylines, etc. really adds a great deal of longevity to the game.

There is so much fun to be had with WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 that honestly, by this time next year, you may not even need the next one. A must-buy for wrestling fans!

Graphics: 9.0 Great animations, blood effects, crowd detail, entrances.

Final Score: 9.0

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