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For
those not in the know, professional wrestling is as much about
ridiculous storylines as it is about fighting. There is
backstabbing, extortion, romance and drama - kind of like an
incredibly exaggerated version of EastEnders where everybody
plays the Mitchell brothers and any situation can be easily sorted
with a quick scrap. With the fights being so orchestrated, it can be
difficult to imagine exactly how  it could become an interesting
interactive experience. However, wrestling games have been around
since the 8-bit days and in recent years have become increasingly
refined, namely in the THQ published titles for the current home
consoles, including the GameCube’s WWE
Day Of Reckoning series and the Xbox’s WrestleMania 21.
The latest of these titles to hit the PlayStation2 follows in the SmackDown!
Series, SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006. With the previous
PlayStation2 titles receiving a lot of praise from fans of the show,
will the 2006 edition live-up to expectation?
Being
an official product of WWE, no expense has been spared during the
production of SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006. The presentation is
good during Menus and the game features all the official artwork and
music from the show. SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006 features several
different modes, the most prominent being Exhibition Mode, Story
Mode, General Manager Mode and Online Play.  Exhibition Mode is just
a single match based on your own preferences, and there are loads to
choose from; a Cage Match to the slightly bizarre but very
interesting Fulfil Your Fantasy Pay-Per-View Match. Story Mode
allows you to fight through a season as one of the WWE Superstars.
Story Mode changes dramatically depending on which show your chosen
wrestler is featuring on. For example, the SmackDown! storyline
features a mystery for you to investigate, which predictably
involves you fighting in matches, whereas Raw involves a Superstar
world tour, which involves? More fighting! New to wrestling games,
General Manager Mode allows you to attempt to gain more fans for
your show by scheduling fights and organising advertising in events
along the season timeline. General Manager Mode is a game mode that
could be loosely compared to the management mode in the FIFA
series in that, although not incredibly detailed, is a competent
game in its own right. Online Play is also a new addition and allows
players to compete against other gamers around the world as well as
allowing the trading of user created Superstars.
Create-A-Superstar
is probably to best loved part of the recent wrestling titles and SmackDown!
Vs. Raw 2006 is no exception to this. There are literally
millions of possible wrestler designs available as almost every
possible element can be edited; from facial features and hair styles
to clothing and accessories. These wrestlers also have statistics
that can also be edited through the acquisition of Experience Points
earned by winning matches in Story Mode, preferably with the
official Superstars. The created wrestler starts with low statistics
and it is very difficult to play the story through  without resorting
to the easiest difficultly setting, however as long as experience
earned through one of the show’s story is invested wisely, you
should have no problem using you very own wrestler for the alternate
story.
SmackDown!
Vs. Raw 2006’s wrestling system is based mainly around
grapples and strikes - executed by pressing a direction on the D-Pad
and either Circle or Cross respectfully - and their counters. Most
moves can be countered with a swift press of the L2 and R2 Buttons
and although challenging at first, becomes almost second nature
after a few hours of play. Square and Triangle are used to negotiate
the climbing of ladders etc. and the whole system is simple to use
and works well. But to stand any real chance of pinning an opponent,
you must perform one of your characters Signature Special Moves. In
order to unleash these, you must fill the Momentum Meter by
successfully landing blows and grappling with your opponent, as well
as taunting your adversary and playing to the crowd - then storing
the Special Move. However getting hit and having your moves
countered reduces the Meter meaning only by  playing well will you
stand a chance of pulling of one of these powerful attacks. This
system also works exactly how you expect it to and fits in well with
whole system. The actual wrestling seems fine in general, however,
when you are knocked to the ground, your character will lay there
for what seems to be a very long time. This allows a competent
opponent to rack-up almost minutes of combos without any user
interaction and can become frustrating as it detaches you from the
experience.
As
well as selecting the show of your wrestler you can also select
their morality. Being bad allow you to use dirty moves but incurs
boos from the crowd, however, playing good allows you to fill your
momentum meter quicker by getting the crowd behind you. Knowing how
to play each wrestler in this way is essential to victory as using a
dirty move with a good wrestler incurs a penalty as does playing to
the crowd with a bad one.
In
general the graphics in SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006 are in
general very good. The wrestler models look very polished as do the
backgrounds. The crowd is also animated well enough  to create to
illusion of it being all 3D. However, the models do suffer from
polygon cross-pollination when performing certain moves a little
more than they really should in a title of this calibre. But in
general the graphics are above the average PlayStation2 standard. SmackDown!
Vs. Raw 2006 also features very good sound, with most wrestlers
voice-acting being done by themselves. The intro-music is also the
official tracks and really does give the game that genuine polished
feel. The fact that SmackDown Vs. Raw 2006 is an official
product of WWE is evident during play and will appeal greatly to WWE
fans.
Because
THQ have almost conquered the console wrestling title market, this
game succeeds. The game developers knew exactly what they wanted to
do after the last edition of SmackDown!, and they did it
well. From some angles this title does seem like a remake of the
original SmackDown! Vs. Raw more than even a simple
refinement, and non wrestling fans may not find this title to be
particularly interesting, but the level of modification of the
accepted system is so great, that to a WWE fan, SmackDown! Vs Raw
2006 is unparalleled as a wrestling simulator.
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