“One! Two! Three! That’s it!”… the shrill sound of a ringside bell brings you back to reality. The referee grabs hold of your arm, and thrusts it into the air while a distant voice booms your name over the stadium speakers. The thousands of fans in the stadium roar almost in unison and your vision is momentarily blurred by a spectacle of blinding flashes. You can hear the pounding of your heart pulsating in your head, while slowly the grim reality of the pain coursing through your body ebbs into your consciousness once again. Your vanquished opponent groggily staggers out of the ring in shame, leaving you to bask in the hard-earned triumph that is yours and yours alone. Today there was blood and pain for your efforts, but tonight you will have fame and glory. The multitude of supporters chant your name as if a mantra to all that is heroic and noble - their tribute to the power and presence of one of the greatest wrestling legends to ever stand in the arena. This is your moment. This is your victory. This is your calling. You are a superstar.

Oooh yeah, dig it!

If you are familiar with the WWE Smackdown vs. Raw gaming franchise, then please skip down to the conclusion of this review, otherwise read on to get to grips with one of the most popular wrestling franchises the gaming industry has ever known.

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 (“Smackdown 2009”), as the name implies, is the 2009 offering to the well known and established wrestling entertainment’s gaming franchise. 2009 goes a step beyond the normal fare, by providing more emphasis on tag-teams, and also the inclusion of a co-op storyline “campaign.”

Players take on the role of a WWE superstar and the game essentially plays out in a series of wrestling matches staged in an assortment of arenas. The variation in gameplay is mostly through the different match modes, which range from standard pinfall matches to tables-ladders-and-chairs (TLC). The aim of the game is to pound your opponent(s) into submission and then achieve the winning condition, be it a standard pinfall, or something a little more extravagant like grabbing a belt suspended in the air.

It’s going to be a SLOBBER KNOCKER

Smackdown 2009 offers players the option to play in exhibition matches, careers, tournaments, and the Road to WrestleMania storyline “campaigns.” In the latter, players take on the role of one of five WWE superstars (including Triple H, The Undertaker and John Cena) and are faced with the standard stock matches in a story-driven campaign. Each wrestler comes with their own unique backstory with tailor-made cutscenes coupled by some plot twists here and there designed to add in some obligatory WWE drama, and you have the option of skipping the clips and introductions without impacting on your gameplay experience. The matches themselves are reasonably mixed up, and on the rare occassion, players will also be faced with choices to make which affect the path taken to attain the championship.

Career mode is similar to Road to WrestleMania mode, but allows players to play as any wrestler or diva, or to create their own, and fight their way to a title without being tethered to a storyline. In order to win the title players will have to score sufficient star ratings in each match to qualify for the title-match (which if successfully completed will unlock more options and game modes). The general lack of variety in solo play, however, will soon cause the game to feel stale and frustrating, since most of the matches play out in much the same way.

In exhibition mode Smackdown 2009 offers a much healthier assortment of match options which helps to ensure that the monotony is reduced. There’s the choice to play in ladder matches, TLC’s, hell-in-a-cell, and many more, but new to Smackdown 2009 is the Inferno Match, where you have to drag your opponent into the outer-ring flames to win.

When creating a wrestler, there are countless combinations for your superstar or diva, ranging from accessories such as bunny ears and paper bag masks, to adjustments for height, weight, and body type. In addition, Smackdown 2009 offers Create-A-Finisher and Create-An-Entrance modes (and yes, for those wondering, there’s a zombie style for your superstar or diva’s entrance). If this wasn’t already enough, there is also a Highlight Reel editor which allows you to cut your own 30-second sequence (complete with controllable camera angles) with the end result being uploadable online.

Are you not entertained?

Despite everything on offer to WWE fans, there are still a few gripes about the performance of 2009. Saving a game in the Road to WrestleMania mode requires no less than five inputs. That’s right, you have to click five buttons, not counting the control stick navigations in between. By the time you’ve gone through all the “do you want to save” prompts and saved your game, only the most steadfast of players will be left without a strange feeling of uncertainty about whether or not they really should have saved! Another problem is the drawn-out loading times in between sequences. If you’ve got the storage space, then install this game to your Xbox hard-drive to reduce loading times.

Also, don’t beat yourself up if you find the start menu confusing. There is not any easy way to dive straight into the action with this title because the menu is - to say the least - ambiguous. There’s so much on offer in Smackdown 2009, but unfortunately the menu is frustratingly nondescript and counterintuitive in its presentation, and it should take most people a few fumbled navigations to find the precise option that they were looking for.

The sound is a mixed bag - the canned audio can become repetitive in matches (and sometimes even inaccurate), but the trademark music is just as good as the real thing. Unfortunately, the graphics suffer from a similar problem, with the video sequences looking very realistic and the in-game sequences struggling sometimes from poor definition.

Control-wise, not too much has changed in 2009. The targeting still isn’t controllable, but seems to be a marked improvement from past editions. Another plus is the useful sort option for selecting a wrestler at the beginning of an exhibition match, helping to quickly narrow down your search for specific wrestlers. The inclusion of active gameplay tips provide control instructions during the game, which is especially handy for newcomers.

What matters about the game, is how you play it.

The single player aspect is entertaining for a short time, but the game really comes to life in its multiplayer. In all of my Xbox 360 gaming, not much else has ever come close to rivaling a 4-player ladder match in intensity. Smackdown 2009 is most definitely best played in multiplayer, where its full value shines through as a game that - much like its television counterpart - never pretends to be anything more than simple and mindless entertainment. On this promise it delivers to your expectations, and I can confidently say that, like the wrestlers on television, 4-player WWE just never seems to grow old.

And that’s the bottom line…

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 is not much of an improvement from previous editions in the series, and is not really worth the purchase if you own one of the recent predecessors. Sporting only a few extra features, and some graphical and gameplay tweaks, this could easily have passed for a patch to 2008, and this will swiftly become apparent when you start to play the game. If this is your first foray into the WWE franchise, then it is definitely worth a purchase if you have two or three friends to compete with, since the 4-player ladder matches are well worth the price of the game on their own, otherwise I’d give this one a skip.

The Good: 4 player Ladder matches; sticks to the winning formula; character customisation; Ric Flair’s six-pack!

The Bad: Confusing menu; painful menu interface; not much is new; Ric Flair’s six-pack!

Purchase: