- Title: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008
- Platform:Xbox 360
- Publisher: THQ
- Developer: Yuke’s
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: Pro Wrestling
- Pros: Custom entrance music; simplified controls; lots to do; fun gameplay
- Cons: The roster sucks; inconsistent graphics; not a ton of changes over last year
Features
The list of modes and match types has only seen two notable additions. The new 24/7 mode is an attempt to put you more in the real life shoes of your wrestler rather than the storyline driven world we see on TV. Rather than story cutscenes and traditional wrestling fluff, you have statistics and milestones you’re supposed to reach in terms of popularity or skill levels before you can move on to a title shot. It seems pretty strange to take the focus off of the story when that is literally the only thing that makes pro wrestling stand out. The new match type is the ECW Extreme Rules match where there is no DQ, no countout, and you can do whatever you want to your opponent as long as the pinfall happens in the ring. Good times. Other than these two additions, though, the modes and match types are pretty much the same as last year.
Gameplay
SmackDown has always had decent gameplay and 2008 is no different. Unlike last year where you had a choice of whether to use the classic controls or the new right stick centered controls, you are stuck with the new controls in 2008. That isn’t a bad thing, though, because Yuke’s learned from what worked and didn’t work before and have created a surprisingly intuitive control scheme from it. The most important thing to note is that everything has been simplified. No longer do you have to hold several buttons to Irish whip or do other things. Irish whip is the B button. Your finisher is now the Y button. You can also now run in any direction rather than just straight forward by holding the left bumper and moving the left stick. Grapples are mapped to the right stick and can be modified with another button. It is all pretty easy and straightforward. New this year is the addition of fighting styles for the different types of wrestlers. There are high fliers, technical wrestlers, hardcore, showmen, powerhouses, and more and each fighting style has unique special abilities that can turn the tide in a match. The fighting styles and abilities associated with them serve to balance out the roster so that anyone can beat anyone else at any time, just like the real WWE. Also new this year are some tweaks to the weapon system. You now have a choice of a handful of objects you can pull out from under the ring, and you can do things like set barb wire 2x4s and tables on fire.
Graphically, SD vs. Raw 2008 suffers from the same problems as last year. Main event characters look decent, but midcard or lower characters are ugly. And the entire game looks like a hussied up version of a PS2 game. Presentation is a lot of the attraction in both real life and videogame wrestling, and these SD games need to step it up in the future because we deserve better on systems as powerful as the 360.
Sound
The sound is a mixed bag. On one hand, you have most of the real life theme music for all of the wrestlers along with the ability to use your own songs off of your hard drive. But on the other hand, we have bad commentary and flat sound effects.
Bottom Line
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 is not a bad game by any means, but it is also not a significant step forward for the series so it is hard to recommend for fans that likely already have last year’s game sitting on their shelf. The biggest problems come in the form of an incredibly weak roster, lackluster presentation, and a shift of focus away from storylines in the main single-player modes. The game plays just fine, though, and multiplayer both online and off is still very fun. But I just expect more from yearly update games like this. If you are a big wrestling fan, however, the custom soundtrack options is likely to be more than enough to entice you to pick it up. I would suggest renting it first, though, to see if it is worth the cash if you already have 2007 lying around. And lets hope that next year we finally see the series evolve rather than staying stuck in its PS1 and PS2 past.
