The Bouncing Articles: Smackdown Vs. R.A.W 2009

The Bouncing Articles

By:

The Bouncer

             I was not looking forward for this. Get ready guys. This is not going to be pretty. We are going into Smackdown Vs. RAW 2009.

Unlockable wrestlers

            This is my first complaint. In the previous game, we had Bret Hart, Roddy Piper, Terry Funk, Rick Rude, and a lot more. Who do we get now? Here is a list of all the unlockable (unlockable isn't a word?) wrestlers for this terrible game:

Layla

Jillian Hall

Tazz

Snitsky

Tony

The Masked Man

Zack Ryder

Vince McMahon

Ric Flair

The Boogeyman

Curt Hawkins

             Is this our “legends list”? The only legends that I can probably be okay with is Ric Flair (since he was in the HoF, but was actually on the roster), Tazz (who didn't wrestle anymore), and Vince. I know that Snitsky is a future legend, but that still doesn't count. Anyways, THIS IS IT!!!! Some people are wondering who the hell Tony and The Masked Man are. Let me explain. They couldn't afford to get any credible people, so they just add these two random characters in. More on those two later. I don't know why we would have to unlock people that were already on the roster. The is also downloadable (not a word either?) content, which is a JOKE. We paid for the game, so why do we need to pay more? Also, at the beginning of this DLC, if your friend didn't have it, you can't play with him. Later on, they added an extra download for that, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Anyways, Vader, Earthquake, Evan Bourne, Ted DiBiase, Charlie Haas, and Doink were unlockable. I bought it. I wanted more legends in the game, but out of curiosity, why wouldn't their theme be in it?

Replacement for GM mode

             What was one thing I praised the past two games for? GM MODE!!!! I almost didn't buy the game because it lacked it. What do we get in return? The WORST game mode in the entire series. It is funny how people can actually say that this replaces GM mode. Well, it is career mode.

             Here is how it works. You get any wrestler (most of the time a CAW), and you start his career in the wrestling business. The problem with this is that it is TEDIOUS. You have to play ALMOST every match. The matches you play have to be long to get big stars and advance to the next title. You also have the ability to hold every title that fits your gender.

             Now as if that isn't bad enough, this is what CAWs are actually revolving around. This is how u (oh yea, I just used “u” instead of “you”) get your overall rating up. THAT IS EXTREMELY TEDIOUS. Then, instead of getting the classes, you get abilities. I believe this is the game that threw the weight class system out of the window. Here are the different abilities:

Dirty pin

Durability

Springboard

Outside dive

Possum Pin

Specialty in a match (either ladder, cage, and table)

Object specialist

Bloodshed/Hardcore resurrection

Kip-Up

K.O

Lock pick

Move theft

Evasive Dodge

Referee shield

Fan favorite or taunt theft (can't have both)

Hammer Throw

Submission

             Well, I put the dodge in bold because that is the one that forgets about weight class. The Great Khali can do a forward roll in this game type. Need I say more? Speaking of which, they gave him abs in this game. ANYWAYS, there is a certain criteria to unlock these abilities. You can only have six, so you have to choose wisely. The problem with that is, WHAT IF YOU UNLOCK SOMETHING ELSE? If you get an ability that you don't want and you would like to replace it, you have to start career mode ALL OVER AGAIN. Not only that, but your overall starts back at the beginning. You have to play through all of these matches all over again. This also affects online play. It sucks being a regular WWE star online since you cannot customize their overalls.

Match types

             They took out special referee, 6 man tornado tag, 6 man elimination tornado tag, & triple threat tag team. Instead of that, we get gauntlet and inferno. Tag team matches got a little more advanced. Disappointment.

Road To Wrestlemania

             You play as a face that gets screwed out of something in EVERY SINGLE STORY. They are all boring and terrible. This is the replacement for season mode. Also, I will add here that the create a title mode was also taken out. PPV mode and tournament mode were also omitted.

Overalls

             Who got the highest overalls? At a 95, we had John Cena, Undertaker, and Randy Orton (who got Kennedy fired). Do I need to say more?

Create a finisher

             Have you ever wanted to have a ridiculous finisher? Did WWE not have enough crazy finishers? Well, now you can make a finisher that will no doubtingly take your opponent down to red. I call this the “chokaholic”. Here is what it does. You lift your opponent in the double chokeslam position and just choke them. After that, end it however you want. THEY ARE IN RED BY THE TIME IT IS DONE!!!! It is instantly a win for you when you use it. These finishers are ridiculous. When do you ever see anything close to somebody kicking their opponent 9 times extremely fast with one leg followed by a slow motion sweet chin music? How often do you see ANYTHING that resembles that?

Actual game-play

             I like the signature store system. Other than that, there is little to no innovation at all. It is pretty much the same thing as “last year's game”. Try getting on the turnbuckle in a chamber. You have to climb the entire cage to do it (or was this the game where you couldn't climb the cage?).

Online (not a word either?) experience that will make you yank your hairs out

            I didn't play much online in the other games since singleplayer had a lot to offer. I thought that maybe singleplayer in this game was meant to be terrible so that we get lured into the multiplayer part of this game. This is the WORST game to use Xbox Live and PSN in. The gaming community is just terrible. This is when I noticed how terrible the gaming community is. There are different types of people online, like the glitcher.. There are so many glitches. For one thing, if you use the evasive roll at a certain spot near the announce table, you can get into the crowd (oh yea, they took out the ability to fight in the crowd in this “great game”). Also, you can actually FREEZE your opponent. Then there is of course the springboard glitch, where if you are Irish Whipped into the corner, you can just do a springboard move instead of being out (I am not sure if that is a glitch or not). You can put the entire match at a halt by just grabbing the referee. The glitches are just terrible here. The ones who don't glitch either spam rolls and spears, double/triple teams, or uses the chokaholic. There are a lot of other things just terrible with online play in this game, but I will just end up going on a huge rant, putting this article over 3,000 words, which I wouldn't want to do.

The Bouncing Q & A

SQ: Which signature move would look better as a finisher?

SA: I would like to go with Sheamus' Irish Curse backbreaker. It use to be his finisher in ECW, but I think it was changed to a finisher that can put someone through a table, for Cena's match. It is not like he put Cena through a table with that move.

             Well, that is it. Next review will be a little bit brighter since 2010 is nowhere near as bad as this terrible game. Remember, if you have a reasonable question that you would like to ask me, what are you waiting for?

GOODNIGHT!!!!

Comments

1. Comment #1

   Might I ask.. are you not playing on the hardest difficulty when you use the "Create a Finisher" finisher? Because I remember from experience and just playing this game a few hours ago that my Create a Finisher did absolutely nothing to an opponent on the hardest difficulty.
   
   I do agree with most of your other points with them taking out Tournament mode and GM Mode has killed all of the WWE games since 08.

   Posted by Riptide (S2) on Tuesday, February 14, 2012

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