This article originally appeared in Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter #1121 from Dec. 12...

By Greg Parks, PWTorch columnist

A few months ago, I polled my friends to ask them what they thought of the Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 video game and what improvements they'd like to see in the 2010 version. The new game came out in November and recently, my friend bought "Smackdown vs. Raw 2010" for the Playstation 3 system, spending the better part of the last two weeks playing it. With that in mind, here are some improvements my friends made and suggestions for the next game they had, and whether or not their requests were followed through. It is, after all, the holiday season, and if you're looking to purchase the game for yourself or a loved one, these reviews may help.

One of the main problems my friends had with the last game was that it took so long to build up a create-a-wrestler. No more. One friend deemed that it was "immensely" easier to do so, and that building up wrestlers can be done outside of career mode. Also, create-a-finisher has improved slightly, with it not being relegated to front grapples, as it was last year: Top-rope moves can also be used. There are also more animations and more range for finishers that can be chosen from.

Another complaint was the relatively bland backstage brawl feature in the last game. This game has improved somewhat, as there are different locations that brawls can take place in now, such as Mr. McMahon's office or the interview area. Also, the addition of the Championship Scramble match earned a "thumbs up" from my friend.

Speaking of matches, the glitches of the Elimination Chamber match, relating to the corners and turnbuckles, have been fixed. This was a major concern when SVR 2009 came out: You couldn't whip someone INTO the turnbuckle, and you couldn't climb the top rope. In this year's version of the game, while those have been amended, they took away the ability to climb the side of the cage.

As for one-on-one human confrontations, the hard grapple was slightly improved from last year's, when often, it was too easy to telegraph and reverse. In general, reversals themselves aren't as "automatic" in the 2010 version as in the 2009 version, according to my friend. Artificial Intelligence was about the same, maybe slightly better. For example, too often, wrestlers controlled by the computer simply stand there after whipping someone into the ropes.

In my column a few months ago, I asked the guys what changes they'd like to see for the 2010 version of the game. One requested the return of "slobberknocker mode," but it was left off once again. Another wanted more variety in the ways to eliminate someone from the Royal Rumble match; he got that and then some. My friend described this year's Rumble match itself as "incredible" in terms of the improvements made to it. One of the things I like is that people who are eliminated don't immediately disappear on the outside; you see them walking to the back. It's a small detail, but fun to see anyway.

I first noticed this in the Rumble match, but it goes for all the matches, is that the energy meter is located below the wrestler's feet, and doesn't take up space on the sides of the screen. They also seemed to go back to basics in that it isn't crowded with information; simply the blue bar acknowledging how many/if someone stores a finisher.

Survivor Series matches is one of the few match styles that haven't been included with these Smackdown vs. Raw video games. Once again, the furthest the designers went was a three-on-three elimination match. This is likely due to the fact that only six men can be in the ring at a time, making "traditional" four-on-four or five-on-five Survivor Series matches impossible. One day, I hope to see it possible for more than six men to be active at once; not only will it make Survivor Series tag matches do-able, but it'll make the Royal Rumble more interesting as well.

One of my friends wanted better facial expressions in this game; they are slightly improved, but at a natural rate as the game advances from year-to-year. There are certain things, like graphics, that are almost a given to improve year-to-year as technology overall for these games improves.

Perhaps one of the biggest improvements was the availability of downloadable content. That would include downloading superstars from online databases of other users, downloading created Titan-Trons, highlight reel footage, and story modes from other uses as well. This year, you can also make Titan-Trons and highlight packages of matches, which is a really cool feature. One wonders how much memory it has to take to remember stuff from the matches like that.

The Road to Wrestlemania in this game features "classic" Santino, 59 percent funnier in the game than he is in real life. The storylines offered in the Road to Wrestlemania are just as good as last year according to my friend. I've seen a bit of a few Road to WrestleManias from this year, and while none compare to the awesomeness that was "Better than U-topia," they're still very good.

There's still only one tag-team storyline, which was an upgrade my friends were looking for this time. There's even a create-a-wrestler storyline, which is a good move. And they also have a women's Road to Wrestlemania story with Mickie James. The favorite of the Road to Wrestlemanias took my friend a while to think of, but he ended up siding with the create-a-wrestler one.

While the ability to download from other people is one of the better features of this game, it's also one of the biggest negatives that needs to be improved on. Specifically, you can't change characters that you download. You can't change (or add) their theme music, their entrance, their appearance or their attire. So if you find a create-a-wrestler online somewhere that you like, but would like to tweak a few things about, you aren't able to. You can build them up with better stats, but that's the only thing you can do with them.

The other music-related issue my friend had was not being able to add music to the main soundtrack that plays on the menus. When you're creating wrestlers or move-sets that take a lot of time, it can be grating to hear the same songs over and over again. Of course, if you take a break every little while and don't play it for seven hours straight, that can help solve the problem for the most part.

While you can't change downloaded CAWs outfits, you also can't really change outfits of those already in the game, either. You can change the color of their outfits, but you can't change anything else about their dress. Similarly, some characters are missing their full entrance attire. The game is lacking The Brian Kendrick's jacket, Dolph Ziggler's coat, etc.

Overall, it was given a big thumbs-up by my friend, who considered it "almost there" to being a perfect game. Not being a gamer myself, I occasionally watch when my friends and I all get together and they decide to play. I haven't seen a ton of this new game, thanks in part to some friends not being in the area as much.

Also, my one friend bought a PS3 to go with the game and only has one controller ($38 for ONE controller sounded absolutely ridiculous to me, but again, I'm not a video game guy). Anyway, from what I've seen, everything from the animation of the fans to the rest of the graphics are much better than last years. Even the songs that play in the menus, while I'm sure they annoy you if listened to non-stop for hours, are much better than last year's (thanks in part to the better songs used for PPV themes in the calendar year before the game came out).

The downside of the game is that, unlike DVDs, WWE can only put one out per year. That is, unless they try a different subject-matter such as the "Legends of WrestleMania" game. The fact that the Legends game bombed may make WWE think twice the next time they have an idea for a second game in a year.

WWE always sells well with their SVR games, but they'd have to come up with a unique concept to establish a second one. Unless they go retro and put out a game featuring stars from other companies (an NWA game, AWA game, etc.) with rules and matches related to that company, there are few other options out there. And that game may not sell well as it probably won't appeal to the kids who are generally the ones the SVR games are aimed at.

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Greg Parks writes a full page feature column for Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter's online edition every week. He also covers Smackdown live every Friday night at PWTorch.com. He has contributed to PWTorch for more than ten years, dating back to WCW Saturday Night reports.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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