It's been a while since THQ announced the next-gen and final bow of the top-selling SmackDown franchise earlier this year. It's getting closer to Survivor Series, which means that the year's almost done, and before gamers know it, the Royal Rumble will be setting up two months of storylines leading to Wrestlemania 23 in the Motor City. Of course, all of this means that wrestling game fans will be logging in major hours on what has now become the only choice for sports entertainment.
We've put in our time on both Xbox 360 and PS2. Pretty much, at this point, the Xbox 360 version has phenomenal graphics and great detail, while the PS2 version, oddly, has shorter load times than its next-gen cousin. We have a retail of the 360 game, which is already out in Europe, although we're taking our time to try it out once the worldwide servers get nice and populated, instead of judging the experienced based on what could simply be lag between international games. We've been playing the final gold master disc of the PS2 version while waiting on the PS2 retail to drop before getting online with it, because its spotty online record with past games is really giving us pause before we give any final verdicts.
So far, however, it's safe to say that while the 360 version offers achievements and will potentially have more reliable servers over Xbox Live, the PS2 game is no slouch and should still be a solid title for the guys in line around the country smarting over the cancellation of the PS3 version. There have been some issues with a couple of PS2 titles and backwards compatibility, but hopefully this one will work. The core gameplay mechanics are the same for each system, and it seems that the biggest difference is graphics, and hopefully the online experience is high quality for both.
Just in case you haven't read our previews, the biggest new addition is the grappling mechanic. Instead of using a strong grapple modifier and tapping a button and using the D-pad, players will be able to use the right analog stick for their moves. It makes grapples much easier to pull off, and makes the game much friendlier for the sort of people who absolutely despise wrestling and dismiss this genre as a crappy fighting game. Still, SmackDown vets who hate the new controls can still revert to SvR 06's controls.
In addition to new grapples, there's the environmental hotspots. After engaging in a strong grapple, players can pull an opponent to a specific spot in the ring and pull off specific moves. For example, players can clear off the Spanish announcers' table, pull out the monitor, and strangle their opponent with it. They can also do the old arm-damaging slam into the outside ringpost. It's all at the cost of stamina, though, and certain moves take off more than others. It's a slightly imbalanced mechanic, as certain moves drain way too much stamina and don't do enough damage. Still, it's pretty thrilling to have more control over what were previously just cutscenes in which the player couldn't interact.
