Secondly, Yukes’ have introduced four ‘additional’ fighting styles into the game to bring it to a total of eight overall. Now I may be completely out of the loop here due to my lack of knowledge on current WWE ‘affairs’ and they might be exceptional athletes in real life, but in the game they have all the personality of a haddock. You still have the legendary Ric Flair, Triple H, Shaun Michaels, Undertaker and Kane to choose from amongst others, but these are juxtaposed with wrestlers such as Carlito, Chris Masters and JTG. I haven’t followed WWE wrestling for a long while (think Attitude era with Stone Cold, The Rock and Mankind in their prime) and many of the superstars included for selection are alien to me. Raw 2008.įirst of all the most obvious difference is the change in roster. So what exactly has been changed this time around? Well, it’s a case of quantity not quality with Smackdown! vs.
Unfortunately Yukes’ latest Smackdown! offering not only fails to provide significant changes over last year’s effort, it seems to retain many of the flaws that prior games in the series have suffered from. That is why developers have to go out of their way to introduce something superior to last year’s effort to justify a gamer parting with their hard-earned cash. Expecting a gamer to fork out £40 every year on the updated version of a game they already have is asking a lot. There might be roster updates and ‘new’ features introduced every year, but the core gameplay mechanics never change. On the one hand they allow fans of a sport to emulate their heroes on screen and to interact with the sport they love in another dimension, but on the other hand once you’ve played one of them in a series you’ve played them all.
Sports franchise games have always been a sore point for me.