For over ten years the Smackdown games have been dominant over every challenger (Backyard Wrestling,WCW Mayhem,ECW Anarchy Rulez) now a true challenger has risen in TNA iMPACT. Ever since Smackdown vs Raw 2006 it seems that Yukes hasn’t been able to take the SvR series to the next level with the previous two games in the series being disappointments. On the side of iMPACT the wrestlers from TNA were closely involved in the making of the game two of them who did alot were AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. Both of them even said that iMPACT was going to be the best wrestling game ever because of the Ultimate X match and an abundant amount of moves and the graphics. They got 2/3 right because the graphics in Impact are some of the best I’ve seen in a wrestling game and the attention to detail is amazing. With SvR it is the same game graphically as last year. The audio in ‘09 is a much needed improvement sinceone of the biggest complaints with the previous games was the announcing being repetitive and annoying, finally THQ has fixed it. Now there is a play by play style of announcing. Although one half of each announce team is calling the match the other is rambling on about something. Out of the announcers Joey Styles is the best and should be the main announcer. Music wise the game like last years version allows you to use custom songs for your wrestler’s entrance (if you have Zune media sharing on your computer) and they finally added the ability to skip songs with a click of the R3 button. Also the wrestler’s voice overs in the game have gotten better and believe able which lengthens the authenticity of the game. In Impact the sound is quite the opposite because the announcing get repetitive and it shouldn’t be with “The Professor” Mike Tenay calling the matches. The entrances are horrible as well because they only last for about 5-10 seconds while the music can sometimes not even be heard. The voice overs are okay but not the best I’ve seen. Gameplay wise, Impact still doesn’t have an advantage because you can only perform one of your wrestler’s finishing moves. So you won’t be able to do the Angle Lock, the Book End, Reverse DDT etc. While in Smackdown Vs Raw you can have two finishing moves and two signature moves. As usual in SvR you can set the options for the match like dq and ring out. But in Impact you don’t have much control since you can use a chair in every match and there is no rope break also there aren’t even submissions in the matches. But one of the few shining areas on Impact is that every move can be reversed and the moves look amazing. The bad part is that there are few moves to choose from when you are creating your wrestler (i.e. one-two choices per move) aside from SvR where there are may different choices. In Impact there is the story mode which has your wrestler beaten by LAX and left in Mexico with memory loss and from there you face caws and then a pro wrestler which can be annoying since sometimes you are facing the same guy from an hour ago. Still this isn’t the best story mode I’ve seen. However SvR has two types of career modes one is simply titled “Career Mode” in which you take a wrestler either created or pro and attempt to win all the titles including cruiserweight, intercontinental,u.s, tag team and eventually World Heavyweight. To become a number one contender you must defeat all the other challengers which is four per set. Also you have to get 15 stars to get a number one contender match so the longer and better your match is the more stars you will earn. This is mode is Guitar Hero to wrestling fans. But the real shining star of this game is Road To Wrestlemania and you have the choice to play as either CM Punk, Triple H, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, John Cena, and the team of Batista and Rey Mysterio which can be played cooperatively. The mode is completely original for all the wrestlers. An example of one is the Undertaker is attacked by “Nu School” consisting of Finlay and Santino Marrella and they reveal their leader to be The Boogeyman. Probably one of the most anticipated things about this game has been the Create A Finisher in which players could string together ten moves to make an amazing finisher but some of the moves people would want to make aren’t possible because they don’t have the moves which is disappointing, but since it was the inauguraledition of this mode THQ and Yukes will hopefully improve it with next years game.
Smackdown Vs Raw 2009
Hits
- Over 60 wrestlers with downloadable wrestlers
- Much needed improvement with announcers
- Joey Styles should announce every wrestling game
- Customizable entrances, wrestlers, and music
- Road To Wrestlemania is simply phenomenal.
- The much needed revamp of tag team matches
Misses
- No GM Mode!
- Career mode is not worthy of being in the game
- Watered down match types.
- No Legends
TNA iMPACT
Hits
- Great graphics
- Every move is reverseable
- Ultimate X is amazing
Misses
- Few customizable options
- Shortest entrances ever
- Repetitive opponents
- Bad story mode
- No Rope Breaks, DQ’s, Submissions etc..
Smackdown vs Raw 2009= 8.0 out of 10 TNA iMPACT= 6.0 out of 10
Verdict: Smackdown vs Raw 2009
Overall TNA iMPACT is a game that promised alot and didn’t quite deliver and was very restrictive. On the other hand Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 promised a revamp in tag team action, non-repetitive commentary, a better career type mode, downloadable wrestlers, and the create-a-finisher. They delivered on mostly everything except for the CAF. If you are a die hard wrestling fan I recommend Smackdown Vs Raw but if you are getting tired of the SvR you will not be pleased with iMPACT but it could be one of those guilty pleasure games ala Lost Via Domus.
