WWE lays the smackdown on gamers

WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2008 for the Playstation 2 is affectionately known to some fans as Smackdown vs. RAW vs. ECW, because this year World Wrestling Entertainment has included their Tuesday night brand ECW. ECW, introduced in 2006, stems from the original Extreme Championship Wrestling that made its way to the professional wrestling scene in 1992. This time around, SvR '08 has new features, new game modes, new controls, new WWE superstars as well as old ones returning to the Smackdown franchise, new unlockables, and one interesting fact.

This year's Smackdown game is special because this is the first time that a Smackdown game has appeared on all seventh generation consoles. But - yes, there is a but - this year, some of the features that have been added to the game were not necessary.

New superstars and Divas:

Despite the existing roster in the game and superstars returning to the game from WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2007, making their debut in Smackdown vs. RAW '08 are: "The Silver Tongued Pugilist" Elijah Burke, "The Alpha Male" Marcus Cor Von, Cryme Tyme members JTG and Shad Gaspard, The Sandman, Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), CM Punk, Kenny Dykstra, WWE Diva Ashley, and ECW Vixen Kelly Kelly. Michelle McCool returns to the series after her appearance in WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2006.

Also returning is Jeff Hardy, whose last video game appearance was in WWE Smackdown! : Shut Your Mouth in 2002. However, his unlockable moveset was always available after Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth.

Available unlockable characters that add to the roster are: WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, who has not been a playable character since Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain as well as his son Shane, who returns from SvR 2007.

Legends:

Popular WWE Legends such as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Bret "The Hitman" Hart and Mick Foley return to the game as well as the debut of the ECW Legends Sabu, Tommy Dreamer and Terry Funk. But why is Shane McMahon classified a legend in the game? Shane is not a legend, even if he is the chairman's son. After a while, playing with the "Texas Rattlesnake" and "The Brahama Bull" will get a little stale.

Controls:

Anyone who hasn't even played Smackdown vs. RAW 2007 may want to pay attention to this: the controls in SvR 2008 are extremely different. The controls have had a serious change for what would be considered the worst: such as how to make your character run, how to grapple the opponent, and even the finisher button has been changed! If some of you Smackdown fans were a little frustrated with the controls, you are not alone.

Fighting Styles:

Each character is allowed two fighting styles. Of course, this could be considered a good thing because there are things in the game that would not look right, such as Batista doing an RKO, MVP doing Matt Hardy's V1 taunt. That is why certain characters can do certain things and why styles have been split up into eight categories: Submission, Brawler, Technical, Hardcore, Powerhouse, Dirty, Showman and High-Flyer.

The great part about this is that no one will ever look like they are out of character…unless it is a created wrestler. High-flyers can fake injuries and when their opponent is close enough, you can perform a Possum Pin.

Brawlers like Finlay can move to the upper body section of the opponent and with a press of the X button, they can pound their opponent's face into raw hamburger using the right analog stick, which is predominately what you use for almost all grappling.

Nice, right? Well, that is just the good part about that. The most annoying part of the fighting style system is the Submission fighting style and the Submission Struggle system. It is very hard to master and I do not think it is necessary.

The Game Itself:

For fans of the original ECW, the traditional ECW Extreme Rules match has been introduced to the franchise. Who does not love a good contest where superstars maim each other with anything that is not nailed down in a no-disqualification, anything-goes brawl?

At the versus screen before you go to your match, you can choose what four weapons will be under the ring. The weapon wheel for the ECW Extreme Rules match brings some fresh flavor to '08 as well. The only thing that would upset the player, I think, is the fact that the weapon wheel is exclusively for the Extreme Rules Match.

Hall of Fame mode gets a thumbs-up because the player can relieve 12 of the WWE's greatest moments such as the Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels 30 Minute Iron Man match for the WWE Championship, the Bret Hart/Steve Austin Submission match.

And now, the downfalls:

The graphics in the game do look realistic and the interface is good, minus the same glitches of all Smackdown games: the wrestler's body parts warping through each other and bad collision detection. And again: the PS2 makes Mark Henry look like he is not 400 pounds, but more like he is a starved orphan. Also, the sound quality is good, but the commentary itself is disappointing and still has the same malfunction as last year: the commentators confuse the wrestlers and finishers. (Jerry "The King Lawler" referred to one wrestler's finisher as a DDT.) Plus, there is no crowd chanting.

In the championship matches, the ring announcer is supposed to say, "The following contest is scheduled for one fall and is for the (enter title name here) Championship." But nope, what the announcer says is "The (enter title name here) Champion, from (enter hometown here), and so on and so forth."

Another disappointment is some of the finishing moves the Superstars have that are not theirs and that these finishers are locked. The moves that a majority of these Superstars have hade since Smackdown: Just Bring It- when the Smackdown games moved to the Playstation 2 and introduced wrestlers having two finishers instead of one.

For example, The Undertaker uses the Last Ride and the Tombstone Piledriver Pin. Upon playing as the Phenom, you will see that he is equipped with a choke slam instead of the Last Ride. Jeff Hardy's Swanton Bomb was locked and he was equipped with Mr. Kennedy's version, the Kenton Bomb as well as a move that is not his finisher, the Whisper in the Wind. Kane's fall forward power bomb finisher is not equipped, but a Tombstone that he does not use.

Overall, I would just like to say that WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2008 is not exactly the best of the entire series, but it is not the worst. THQ should not add any more features to the Smackdown games until they work out the current problems.

A good game, yes, but I am afraid this year that things have hit rock bottom. Gameplay gets five stars. Sound gets three stars because of the confusion and glitches. Graphics get three and a half because of the bad collision detection and Mark Henry's appearance. Basically, I give the game a total of four and a half stars.