Game Review: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007

Publisher: THQ
Developer: Yuke’s
Genre: Wrestling
Series: SmackDown vs. Raw (Previously SmackDown!; it would become WWE in future)
Released: November 14 2006 (US) & November 10 2006 (UK)
Certificate: 16
Consoles: PS2, Xbox 360 & PSP

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 is the sequel to the outstanding SvR 2006. It’s the eighth game of the series in total, and the recipient of more hype than any WWE game yet. The announcement in March 2006 predates its release by more than seven months. In the end, despite the build-up, many feel the game is a shade inferior to the 2006 SmackDown. However, the entertainment value and feature set are strong enough that it’s still one hell of a wrestling title.

Description

SvR 2007 introduced the analog-based control scheme, whereby you moved the right analog stick in a particular direction along with R1 for further move options. In particular, the analog sticks played a crucial role in the brand new Ultimate Control Moves, which allowed you to decide between several variants of a similar move. So, let’s say that you’re preparing to hit your opponent with a suplex. Via the UCM, you may hit a regular suplex, or you may hit a delayed suplex, or you may use the ropes to hit a slingshot suplex in the manner of Cowboy Bob Orton.

This also extended to environmental hotspot moves, from Ric Flair-esque chops in the corner to slamming your adversary’s head into the announcer’s table, or raking his face across the mesh of a steel cage. Some argued that certain UCMs and environmental moves were a bit unrealistic, but they added more options and flexibility than ever before, and some – such as the infamous up-and-down straddling of an opponent on the top rope which leaves your enemy with pain in a sensitive area – were a lot of fun, as well as being mirror-images of real-life situations in the ring. Overall, they were definitely a positive addition to the games.

Otherwise, the gameplay remained largely the same, with the HUDs being modified slightly to resemble the logo of that year’s biggest show, WrestleMania 22. Stamina was slightly improved to allow for wrestlers who had taken a beating to slowly climb the likes of ladders and cages, and there were more grunts and groans than in the previous game. The other big change from a grappling standpoint had to be the option to take matches into the crowd for the first time since SmackDown! Just Bring It.

Within the extended crowd area at the top corner of ringside, you could use bonus weapons like fire extinguishers, endorse or tear up fan signs, use the speakers to inflict pain, and in the best part, hurl yourself off a balcony onto your opponent through a table in a huge ECW-style high spot. Since this area also had several environmental hotspots, one could have hours of fun just with the crowd battles alone if it were a Hardcore-rules match.

Speaking of match types, the Money In The Bank Ladder match was the big new stipulation clash in SvR 2007. The chaotic six-man free-for-all first seen at WrestleMania 21 had made it into the game, along with new ladder options such as ladder finishers and placing the ladder diagonally, allowing you to sprint up and knock away one of your opponents who were a second away from clinching the MITB briefcase. There were also new moves involving chairs and tables (you could now stack tables, which created a great visual for the likes of top rope suplexes).

Although we were down to just the Parking Lot and the Bar for Backstage Brawl, both settings provided plenty of fun as well as some surprises (one optional ending to the Parking Lot Brawl sees The Boogeyman emerge unexpectedly from the back of a car). The lack of a Diva-based match type frustrated some at the time, but in hindsight, it was the first step towards having women presented in a positive, non-sexual fashion which would eventually lead to the so-called Women’s Revolution in today’s WWE.

As for the roster: the current crew was a big improvement upon the line-up in the previous game, at least within the mid-card ranks, and the crop of 16 Legends was both generous and star-studded. Amongst the newbies, we had Bobby Lashley, Mr. Kennedy (who has a brilliantly-recreated entrance where he provides his signature bellow of “MISTERRRR KENNNEDDDYYY …), Finlay, The Great Khali, Umaga, the aforementioned Boogeyman, MNM, The Mexicools, Paul Burchill, Vito and more joining the usual suspects such as John Cena, Edge, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, Triple H and The Undertaker.

Within the retro ranks, we still had Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin and Bret Hart along with debuts for Dusty Rhodes and Mr. Perfect, and reappearances for Roddy Piper, Shane McMahon and (admittedly not a Legend in the game) Viscera, as well as all four faces of (Mick) Foley for the only time in a WWE game to date. There are some notable absentees such as The Spirit Squad. And Chris Jericho and Christian weren’t included as they had left WWE in 2005. But overall, this was a fantastic group of wrestlers, marking a then-series high of 67 playable characters, and arguably the best roster in a WWE game to date at that time.

Image Source: Gamestop

The arenas were updated in the usual fashion, but this time instead of having a classic venue, we were treated to the colourful Saturday Night’s Main Event venue, which had been revived prior to Mania 22. There’s also a debut appearance for the nWo version of the former WCW World Championship. And Locker Room now essentially has three rooms in one, with more customisation options than ever before. As weird as it may sound, deciding which wrestler poster to put on the wall of the Locker Room, or deciding between a tiger or a bear rug in the Championships and Trophies sections, were amongst the most fun that I have ever had on a wrestling game, just for the sheer (and surprisingly high) entertainment factor that these and other similar instances provided.

As for the Trophies themselves, there were more to attain in Season mode, and eight PPV events had their own, very cool-looking prizes to win. What’s more, you could walk around the complex from a first-person viewpoint rather than simply toggling between items, making the seemingly-pointless mode a win-win.

I mentioned Season mode just then; Season was the best overall mode since it began incorporating voice-overs, as you could now complete a full 12-month Season, albeit with a brand transfer midway through (actually, if you began the mode on Raw, you would play for longer than 12 months as you would battle through two WrestleManias). You could use most current characters, but not all of them, although everybody that you interacted with provided full voiceovers, as well as non-playable characters like Vince McMahon, who at one point calls Roddy Piper “a bastard” during a phone rant. Yes, you could receive voice messages on a mini-mobile phone between matches, which ranged from match announcements to feud progressions to full-on rants, as mentioned moments ago. The WWE Magazine and WWE website also allow you to check up on how the rivalry was developing.

Best of all, the stories themselves are, on the whole, very entertaining. Some, such as a campaign to take down various icons, are exciting. Others, such as Candice Michelle using her magic wand to transform characters, are harmless fun. But all of them are well worth playing through. Sure, the Season storylines in SvR 2006 may be of a slightly higher quality. But SvR 2007 literally has dozens of story options. And they’re all engaging on some level. So, this is an incredibly fun mode that you would be happy to play through over and over again.

General Manager mode returns with some improvements. You can now hire writers to pen long-term storylines, with certain writers favouring the likes of patriotic plots or underdog tales. There’s also the Power 25 to see how wrestlers between the Raw and SmackDown brands rank. And you could now use Heat and Velocity as warm-ups for the main shows. We still can’t create or view promos, sadly. But if you like GM mode in SvR 2006, you should love GM mode 2.0 here.

Rounding off the single-player modes is Challenge 2.0, albeit with only two levels of Challenges. Still, the tasks are, erm, more challenging and more creative than those in previous games. Strangely, one final Challenge sees you, as Mickie James, have to beat The Great Khali on the top difficulty level. The reward? Nothing. That’s right: nothing. What?

The create modes are the usual, although Create An Entrance has a more user-friendly interface. This includes the option to preview entrance motions. Also, you can now create spinner versions of title belts in Create A Championship. Online play is slightly better. All entrance themes now last just over two minutes if you wish to listen to them outside of ring intros. Of note, SvR 2007 is the first where one must research online to create wrestlers to a high standard. This dilemma would continue until the arrival of Community Creations in SvR 2010.

Finally, SvR 2007 is the first game on a non-PlayStation console, with it releasing on the relatively new Xbox 360. Xbox fans were delighted to have the game on their platform. Remember the weak Raw titles and the disappointing WrestleMania 21 game on the older Xbox console? Still, besides improved graphics, sweat and some additional loading screens, there aren’t any major additions for new-gen. Though the PS2 version is the first of the series to feature a large number of glitches. They include the wrong ring announcer and commentary team showing up before matches. Oops! Incidentally, the PSP version doesn’t feature any exclusive modes or features whatsoever. And plans for a PlayStation 3 version would sadly never see the light of day.

Elsewhere, the soundtrack is the best yet thanks to some great rock tunes, some of which are from WWE events. Listen to The Enemy by Godsmack (SummerSlam 2006), and tell me that you don’t want to kick somebody’s ass afterwards. The menus show the opening videos for both Raw and SmackDown on a loop, after again introducing the game itself. You can now manually spin titles during entrances, including the aforementioned created belts. The additional attires are disappointing, though, merely offering suits for Triple H and JBL, and the Masked Kane once again.

Oh, and the game features two different covers between the UK and US versions, as you can see above. Why, I don’t know, but is it a surprise that both still manage to extensively promote Triple H? And, bizarrely, with a photograph that appears to be several years old?

Analysis

Although WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 literally provided hours of fun, it’s understandable as to why it wasn’t praised as highly as SvR 2006. Despite the new control scheme, UCMs and environmental hotspots, the game overall offered less innovation than its predecessor. Whereas SvR 2006 changed the game (no pun intended), SvR 2007 is more of an update. The house receives a redecoration rather than a rebuild (actually, that analogy is appropriate given the Locker Room feature). Plus, in some areas there was no growth; it’s not like this was the game to, say, introduce Create An Arena to the series. And for PS2 users, the glitches were frequently a source of frustration.

That being said, the negatives are more than offset by the positives. The main one being: this was an unbelievably fun wrestling game to play. It has a superb roster, crazy moves during Hardcore and Ladder matches, the ridiculously-deep Locker Room and an outstanding Season. I know the rosters in WWE 2K games are much larger. But if I’m on a desert island, it’s far more likely that I would bring SvR 2007.

Summary

It isn’t quite as good as the all-time greats in the genre. But SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 was at the very peak of the next rung below. Did you watch WWE during the Ruthless Aggression era and yearn for the days of TV-14 WWE combat? Do you have dissatisfaction with the direction of the modern WWE 2K games? Or do you simply want to play a fun wrestling game? If so, you really should play WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007, even now over a decade after its release. It’s one of the best, and to me the most underrated, wrestling games ever. You will rarely have more fun playing a wrestling game than you will with SvR 2007.

(KENNNEDDDYYY!)

Overall Rating: 9/10 – Outstanding