Smackdown VS. Raw 2010 (DS) Review

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 11.15.2009

The latest in the Smackdown VS. RAW series is out including on the portable consoles. Jeffrey Harris checks in with his full review of the Nintendo DS version.



Title: WWE Smackdown VS. RAW 2010
Publisher: THQ
Developer:
Genre: Sports
Players: 1-2
Rated: T For Teen

I love pro-wrestling games. Fire Pro Wrestling Returns on the PS2 is among one of my favorite wrestling games of all time. But to me, nothing on the next-gen consoles has come close to surpassing the THQ/AKI games on the N64. Be it the WCW/NWO games, Wrestlemania 2000, and No Mercy. Those are among my absolute favorites. THQ continues releasing the popular Smackdown VS. RAW series with the 2010 edition. We recently got a chance to play and do a write-up for the Nintendo DS version. Now I've played the Smackdown games on PSP, and they are a decent portable translation of the console versions. The DS it seems a lot more problematic.

The Graphics

The game features 3D rendered CG graphics which generally can be hit and miss on the DS. The wrestlers and character designs look decent but unspectacular. They are pretty good for a portable gaming console. I think for the DS though, this isn't necessary and they could've gone for a more animated sprite look like the Fire Pro games to get more out of the gameplay. The problem is that they all look the same basic size when wrestling each other. So there's clearly a downgrade on the DS version.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.0



The Gameplay

What sort of kills the game is that the matches and wrestling action itself is a massive drag and not to mention a bore to play. The box exclaims streamlined controls for quicker and responsive gameplay. That's a pretty much a lie. The controls and button commands are unfortunately very slow and poorly responsive. There's not strong fluidity and smoothness to the controls. Previous Smackdown games on the DS were stylus based which was even worse.

Grappling in this game blows. It's extremely hard to pull off weak and strong grapples in the matches. Sometimes you don't even know when you are grappling. This also makes it harder to initiate your finisher when your finisher meter is full. So finishers are hard to pull it off. This again puts a huge damper on the gameplay and fun factor in wanting to play the game. There appears to be no running grappling or grappling moves off the ropes either.

Striking in this game also sucks. Each wrestler appears to have only one standing strike and one running strike. That's about it. There's not much you can do striking wise. It gets annoying when you want to strike with CM Punk and he only does the same freaking high kick. It makes the gameplay and wrestling action stale very quickly. There's not much you can do or much variation with your wrestlers. It curbs making the action and gameplay more like a "real" pro-wrestling match.

Another annoying factor in the gameplay is the constant use of mini-games. It seems whenever you want to do something in a gimmick match a mini-game starts. Its sort of a drag especially in the game match. Other Smackdown games work in mini-games but its a more fluid use while the mini-games here cut to sort of like a cinema before initating the mini-game.

The Rating: 5.0 out of 10.0



The Sound

The game features strong sound effects and music. I was actually surprised how well they were able to incorporate most of the music and theme songs for the wrestlers' entrances. So that turned out pretty well.

The Rating: 8.0 out of 10.0

Lasting Appeal

Despite the poor quality of the gameplay, there are a lot of different modes and variations to choose from. There are multiple match types like the ladder match, cage match, TLC match, ambulance match, tables match, and more. The gimmick matches however aren't all that fun. If you are a fairly moderate gamer, there's not a huge level of difficulty to any of the wrestling matches. You can buzz through them fairly quickly. CPU AI is weak. The game also utilizes a collectible card system. As you win matches, you can collect various cards which you can store on your bottom DS screen. The cards essentially work as a power-up system for your wrestler. They do various things like letting you use your opponents special move (you never needed a power-up to do this in previousl Smackdown games), blocking your opponents finishers, or neutralizing counters. The problem with this new dimension is that your opponents also have the ability to use these power-ups. Unfortunately, when they use one you are never quite sure what they've done to you.

The game features a story mode, but it forces you to use a CAW at first. Another annoying aspect of the gameplay. For a DS game, there's a decent amount of wrestlers to choose from. You start with 30.

The Rating: 5.0 out of 10.0



Fun Factor

The game unfortunately as far as pro-wrestling games go just doesn't do it for me. It's not very fun to play or engaging. The wrestling is boring and an extreme drag. The controls are funky, herky jerky, and slow. However, the variety of play and amount to do in the game might appeal to some younger gamers.

The Rating: 5.0 out of 10.0



The 411

The DS version of WWE Smackdown VS. Raw 2010 fails to be a relevant or valuable addition to the series. You are probably better served with sticking to the console versions or even the PSP version. Also, try seeking out the GBA version of Fire Pro which is awesome. DS's are still GBA compatible.

Graphics	7.0	Decent 3D graphics for the DS.
Gameplay	5.0	The controls are dull, delayed, and not fluid, smooth, and responsive. The game gets pretty boring after a few minutes rather than sucking you in.
Sound	8.0	Decent sound FX and actually incorporates the wrestlers' entrance themes.
Lasting Appeal	5.0	The gameplay sucks, but if you want there's multi-player options, season, mode, exhibition modes, and playing against your friends.
Fun Factor	5.0	As far as wrestling games go, this is nowhere close to the Fire Pro game that was released on Game Boy Advance.
Overall	6.0   [ Average ]

Screenshots
All 14 WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 Screenshots