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This year's Smackdown hopes to turn player interaction with wrestling games on its ear, but what about when you actually want to, you know, wrestle? Though not in the spotlight at the press conference, when we got our hands on the PS3 and 360 versions of the product, we were pleasantly surprised to see some changes not even hinted at earlier. The start screen is no longer the static, music-blaring menu. Instead, you go straight to an intensive training mode that was easy to figure out, to help confused new players or refresh those returning. This is something that has been needed for a long time, and it looks really easy to follow (and if you don’t want to bother with it, pressing start brings up the usual menu to dive right into the game).
As we started playing a quick exhibition match between Undertaker and HHH, we were struck by other changes. The HUD at the top showing your momentum is gone, now existing as a semi-circle around the wrestler’s feet. It keeps the screen clear and looking like a televised match, and also keeps your focus on the performers instead of the top of the screen. Furthermore reverses and blocks have been moved to one shoulder button, and your momentum flows differently too. We tried to save a finishing move to make it a signature move, but learned the hard way that signature opportunities now come before finishers and are easily transitioned to from one to the other.
Additionally, the camera movement is a lot better, and loading - the series' greatest fault for so long - was much shorter, though we should note this was just a demo build. And on top of the character models looking better than last year, damage shows up in new ways, such as red marks appearing on the wrestler's body as they keep taking a beating. For example, after we finally pulled off a chokeslam on the tricky HHH, his back turned realistically red from the heavy impact.
Though we only played on the "next-gen" versions, special mention should be made for the Wii and DS editions. Though seemingly not keyed in for the huge community input of the big brothers, both Nintendo games will have a more hardcore approach from years previous. Gone are the waggle/stylus controls, as the Wii allows for Classic or Gamecube controllers, and the DS will use d-pad and face button input. Not only that, but the Wii version will be very feature-rich compared to last year, and the DS version boasts a deep story mode and the first-ever ambulance matches in the series’ history. Nice to see THQ finally step up their game on these consoles.
Above: Screen from the Wii version
Despite the focus of the conference on the stunning additions to player input, accessibility and community features, we're glad to see that the game underlying all those community features has improved as well, if not by the same astonishing leap. Despite coming in expecting another barely changed Smackdown with iterative improvements like last year, we came out more excited for a Smackdown, or any wrestling game, than we have been in years. We just hope that these big features can stand up to real world use when it goes live in a couple months.
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Aug 27, 2009
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Henry Gilbert is a former GamesRadar+ Editor, having spent seven years at the site helping to navigate our readers through the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation. Henry is now following another passion of his besides video games, working as the producer and podcast cohost of the popular Talking Simpsons and What a Cartoon podcasts.
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