Review: WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2009 (Xbox 360)

My favorite gaming memories are the ones I experienced when I was sitting in my dorm room, half-bombed with my roommates playing WWF No Mercy. Wrestling games were the total multiplayer experience. It was often every man for themselves and more often than not, alliances were broken and deals were made so the best player did not always win. Or that feeling you get when you are doing a Royal Rumble and its on random and your buddy gets Stone Cold Steve Austin and then you run out as the Faboulous Moolah. Wrestling games were as unpredictable as they were fun and WWW Smackdown vs RAW 2009 may be one the best wrestling games to come out in awhile.

Fans of the WWE SvR series will notice that not a lot of changes have been made, but there have been some nice upgrades and tweaks to make the game very enjoyable. There are a ton of match options, rules, and match types that you can experience in the game and they make it very easy to choose which. Every match can be easily chosen and/or tweaked to your liking and this makes for a great overall experience. People had complained that the menus were not changed from years’ past, but it is not flashy yet it gets the job done. No one crucifies EA Sports when their menus have had little change in the past. A great tweak this year is the ability to change the AI of your opponents creating a truly customizable difficulty. Veterans of the franchise will likely turn it up for a challenge while newcomers will start out at retarded levels of intelligence.

Hit the jump for more »

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 – Career Mode Gameplay

Check out a nice steel cage match between Shawn Michaels (aka HBK) and Rey Mysterio. Looks pretty cool, but the menu system leaves a lot to be desired. Can’t they make it a bit prettier?

WWE Smackdown! vs RAW 2008 Preview

Check out this latest video about the latest wrestling game from the always fun SvR series. The graphics look even better this year along with the new grappling system. 2007 was pretty good; 2008 looks to be better than that.