THQ’s WWE SmackDown games have long been a major part of the publisher’s line-up. Interest and the subsequent quality of Vince McMahon’s brand of “sports entertainment” have declined rapidly in recent years, and the associated video games have followed in step. Every year, we are promised a better version of the game with all of the series’ age-old problems fixed, yet the end result always seems to be the same. WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 does little to buck the trend.

New features in this year’s SmackDown are pretty thin. Headlining the new additions is the hot tag system, which is meant to boost the excitement of tag team matches, but fails dramatically. There’s the Road to WrestleMania mode, which provides in depth stories for a selection of wrestlers. Finally, there’s the create-a-finisher mode, which allows you to string together up to 10 different animations to create the ultimate move for your wrestler. For everything added to SmackDown 2009, something has been taken away. The 24/7 mode is gone, replaced by a barebones career mode, with the General Manager/Booker component completely eliminated. The WWE Legends characters have all been dropped, no doubt becoming exclusive to THQ’s new Legends of WrestleMania, which is set for release in March. Create-a-Pay Per View and Create-a-Belt are nowhere to be seen. Last year’s headlining feature, the superstar styles, has been replaced by the wrestler abilities.

In spite of the cuts and changes to the game modes, one could be forgiven for mixing this year’s game up with last year’s, as very little has changed inside the ring. The animations still look crappy and the game’s pace is still too fast. Fighting control feels a little tighter, particularly with regards to grappling moves, but the game still focuses more on stomping holes through your opponent, as opposed actually wrestling them. Each wrestler now has a signature move, such as John Cena’s Five Knuckle Shuffle, which acts as sort of a secondary finisher. The power of finishing moves has seemingly been toned down, as it can often take two or three to finish a match if you get the upper hand early. It still takes a couple of matches to get the gist of the control system, and a couple of hours to really nail the timing for reversals and counters. The AI has seen some very minor improvements; on Legend difficulty for example, your opponents will now store their signature moves and use weapons when they are able. Still, the only really noticeable difference between the difficulty levels is the frequency of reversals and counters, but a heavily improved slider system can enable players to set a difficulty level that’s a little more pleasing than the default settings.

It’s a pretty telling sign that Yuke’s has run out of new ideas for the SmackDown series when tag team matches are headlining the product. In recent years, the tag team division of the WWE has catered towards the lower end of the spectrum, providing a ground for talent both up and coming and on the way out. The hot tag system is meant to recreate the alleged drama of the tag team match, where one guy gets pounded until he eventually drags himself to his corner to tag in his fresh partner, who beats everyone up and wins the match. When you’re the non-legal man (the guy standing on the ring apron), pressing and holding the taunt button will help you to build momentum and get the crowd behind your team. A little fire meter will start to appear beneath your regular momentum meter, eventually indicating that a hot tag is available. When the tag is completed, you’ll be granted with a short quick time event, successful completion of which will have you take out both members of the opposing team, along with a momentum boost.

SmackDown 2009 also has the usual selection of gimmick matches. There are common main event types such as the cage match, backstage brawl and ladder match, as well as the ridiculously over-the-top sort, like the TLC match, Hell in the Cell and Money in the Bank matches. This year’s main new match type is the Inferno match, where the ring is set alight, and players must try to set each other on fire (!). This requires getting the fire up to a certain temperature (basically by wailing on each other), and then dragging the opponent into the flames when they’re groggy. Also returning this year is the gauntlet match, which lets you fight a consecutive series of opponents.

The Road to WrestleMania is SmackDown 2009’s replacement for its usual story-centric career mode. To make for what THQ claims is a more authentic experience, Road to WrestleMania is limited to only a small number of the WWE Superstars so that full voice acting could be provided in the story scenes. It’s a questionable move, because voice acting has never turned out well in these games, and this year is no exception. Most wrestlers are yelling at the top of their lungs during the TV shows, but softly spoken and thus decidedly non-threatening in the game.

Players have to run through about three and a half months of WWE shows with John Cena, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Triple H or the team of Batista and Rey Mysterio Jr. Storylines were written specifically for the wrestler to reflect events that would likely happen to them on the show. Realistically, it’s just a series of about 13-15 matches with the occasional gimmick or rule change thrown in – for example when playing as John Cena, you’ll go up against MVP and a few of his cronies who’ll have stipulations such as Cena requiring a five count for a pinfall victory. There’s a particularly large number of unlockables available in the Road to WrestleMania, which are usually awarded for doing certain tasks (like performing your finisher on x number of opponents, or making someone bleed) or going down a specific path (Triple H has alternate Evolution and Degeneration X paths).

Career Mode is the replacement for the usual open season mode, allowing you to play as any one of the WWE or ECW superstars, as well as wrestlers of your own creation. Depending on which wrestler you select, you’ll be set on a path for one of the many WWE titles. Once there, you’ll be given a list of opponents that need to be defeated in order to become the #1 contender for the title, which will grant you a match against the champion at the next pay per view event. Rinse and repeat until you’ve won all of the titles and are admitted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Your wrestler will receive stats boosts depending on the quality of the match you wrestle (rated in stars) – which is vital to training up your created wrestler. Unfortunately, you have to train up each and every wrestler you create, which is obviously far too time-consuming. THQ has said that they intend to release a patch so that it only needs to be done once. Performing certain tasks in a match or throughout your career will unlock various wrestler abilities, which are similar to last year’s superstar styles. Each wrestler has six abilities out of a possible twenty.

The Create-a-Wrestler mode is seemingly unchanged from last year, apart from a few changes in attire. Create-an-Entrance also returns, with a few new pyrotechnic features and screen filters. However, the Create-a-Pay Per View and Create-a-Belt modes have bitten the dust, so you won’t be able to design your own events, or create a title to use in fights against your friends. Replacing these features are the Highlight Reel, which allows you to take some footage to a fight and edit it for sharing with friends, and the Create-a-Finisher mode. Making a finisher is limited to moves that can be performed standing face-to-face with your opponent, but you can still make some pretty cool stuff. You get ten motion slots which you can use to set up the move, or do a whole bunch of showboating, with the sequence ending when the opponent hits the mat. It feels a little underdone in this year’s game, but certainly has potential for expansion in future games.

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 shows many of the signs of a series that has gone stale. The core game is still somewhat enjoyable, though still suffers many of the series’ long term issues, like ridiculous gameplay pace, unrealistic match flow and low quality animations. Yuke’s appears to be scraping the bottom of the barrel to get new features, while happily removing useful features from previous games. Road to WrestleMania seems like a bit of a copout, while the career mode feels rather detached. There’s still a bit of promise, particularly in the create modes, so let’s hope that Yuke’s and THQ can spend the next 12 months delivering some new features and gameplay upgrades that people are actually going to care about.