SmackDown vs. RAW 2006

Reviewed by John Burrell Jr.
July 8, 2006

Developer: Yuke's Media Creations Publisher: THQ Platform(s): PSP, PS2 Number of Players: 1 - 6 ESRB Rating: T forTeen Website: Click Here

Screenshot from SVR 2006 . Courtesy THQ.

The lights dim, the music hits, pyro ignites and the crowd goes nuts. These are all the things that go down right before someone gets beat senseless in the squared circle, whether it's on SmackDown, RAW, or the recently reformed ECW. It's the dream of all WWE fans, to experience that feeling of thousands of fans screaming for them as one of the Superstars from these programs. Now with the addition of all the new stuff from this year's iteration of the SmackDown vs. RAW series, this dream is closer to reality than ever before.

I've have played every wrestling game that has come out since the good old Nintendo days, so it's safe to say that I've seen wrestling games grow up. This game takes the cake in the pantheon of great wrestling titles. Switching the name to SmackDown vs. RAW was the first step in moving the series into a more simulation style of game, and SVR 2006 has taken that to a whole new level. The stamina system helps the realism especially since you can no longer keep doing power moves that wear your opponent down really fast. The strategy added to the matches by this new feature makes the game much more enjoyable. It also affects how people make their created wrestlers move sets in that the power moves are less prevalent. This way, you can see a lot more moves that focus on one body part to set up for what their finisher affects.

The momentum in the matches is swapped around all the time just like in real matches by use of the fantastic new momentum system. This brings a realistic and unpredictable flow to the matches. The General Manager mode brings a Madden-like franchise mode into the mix. You have to schedule the matches for respective brand, draft and sign your superstars, and manage the budget to beat out the other show for fans to win the GM of the Year award. In this mode, you play out a whole year all the way up to Wrestlemania, setting up rivalries, trying to avoid injuring your wrestlers, and controlling the outcome of all the matches to try and get the highest ratings week in and week out. This is probably the most enjoyable of the new features as it adds a new dimension to just wrestling.

The many pros without question outweigh the cons on this one. The new GM mode gives you more than your typical wrestler would. The amount of superstars gives you plenty of match ups to have. With all of the variants, the amount of match types equal to 100. Better voice acting than last the last outing, more realistic matches, easier to use create-a-wrestler, three levels of bleeding that allow for your guy to bleed so profusely that it actually drips from his head as moves are performed, not to mention the addition of online friends list and four player matches (allowing for you to form tag teams with other online players to rule the ring and win belts that can be made by players and put up as prizes for winning matches). Although there are all of these great additions SmackDown vs. RAW 2206 has one weakness. The fact that the online portion has no voice chat is horrible.

SVR 2006 gets a medium Evo Factor only because it's a yearly series where great games like this one are just the beginning. The many pros will definitely cover up the one Achilles' heel of this title, but I have word that the 2007 version will have voice chat (only confirmed for X-Box 360 so far).