WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008 User Reviews

the new era
from york, SC, usa

Jan 12, 2008

Well if you can, here is the final copy

As mostly everybody who's ever touched any sort of console such as the original Play Station or the Play Station 2, or even the infamous Xbox and Gamecube consoles knows about several classic games. However, because it's not exactly the most popular game series in the world, any sort of wrestling game usually is counted out, or in other words, an underdog of the patented video game world filled to it's golden brim with technology. But a few curiously boring years ago, a franchise of World Wrestling Entertainment, World Wrestling Federation, and just general wrestling games was born. Beginning with the anonymously infamous Smackdown ! The first in a very, very long line of completely and totally full hand contact wrestling entertainment games. Which have made quite an infamous name for themselves with famous, bone breaking, slobber knocking wwe, wwf, and or tna superstars knocking the living hell out of their opponents, and then rubbing it in, and hard as well. Anyways, the most recent in this line of famous games is the now well known Smackdown vs Raw series, compiling these current games excluding the game I'm reviewing. The Original WWE Smackdown vs Raw, then came the next in the line. WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2006, but that was followed up with what is considered to be the literal "New Era" of WWE sports entertainment video games. No pun intended on the section of that involving the 2nd half of my username. But the newest in the line of the extremely successful video game series. WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, which came with a "Mr.Perfect" package of ECW Superstars, Legends, Arena's, and Weapons, plus the patented ECW Extreme Rules Match. There's also the brand spanking new WWE fighting styles feature, featuring in itself the following in game characteristics, or in other words, the names of the styles. Brawler, Powerhouse, Dirty, Submission, High Flyer , Showman, Hardcore, and finally, Technical. If you would like to see a little more in depth, take a long and most importantly, good look at this very exclusive video showing you the fighting styles of WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008.

Now, isn't that footage just amazing, let's take a look at some of the bigger and more in depth points of each feature now

Hardcore - In this feature, you get to bust open your hardcore personal with a steel chair by pressing R1+Triangle with a stored fighting style icon or, one of my definite favorites, you get a full momentum meter when you are bloodied by an opponent, this does not work if you bust yourself open with the first feature I mentioned, and finally, you get special attacks depending on what kind of weapon you have if you press the the right analog control in any direction you wish whilst holding the selected item of your choice

Brawler - This is also one of my more favorite fighting styles in WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, mainly being because it's easily and definately one of the more respected and classic fighting styles to ever grace the stairway to World Wrestling Entertainment, anyways, the main features being the ability to press the x button when near the upper body of your downed opponent and quickly go to work on their head, and finally, you can press R1+Triangle with full momentum and quckly enter a state where you are impervious to all kinds if strikes for about half a minute, in addition to that however, you're opponent cannot reverse any of your own attacks, bingo

Dirty - Ahh, the epitome of many current WWE Superstars themselves such as Randy Orton or even Edge himself, what they can do in real life, can now easily be done with this brand new fighting style in WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, one of this fighting style's best features is the patented super dirty move, which is done by tapping R1+Triangle when in possession of a stored fighting style icon, then your superstars will perform his or hers signature dirty move, asta la vista baby, also there are well documented abilities of grabbing the referee and shoving him at your opponent by tapping x when near him and x again and arguing a call or ignoring a robe break by tapping L1 in either situation, it may be R1, but I'm not so sure

High Flyer - Another one of my easily favorite superstar fighting styles, it is like the dirty fighting style, it is just simply jam packed with amazing features and abilities, one being the evasive roll, by pressing the left analog control in any direction with a combination of L2 or L3, either way it doesn't matter, both work to be honest, next there is the turnbuckle leapfrog, which is done by running at your opponent when they are groggy in the corner, and press x, your wrestler will then leap to the top rope and perform a splash, and/or jumping leap of your choice, and finally, you can do a leap off the second rope if you lean the left analog control stick towards to ropes and press the x button, as for this style, that's it

Technical - This fighting style is in an elite class of superstar fighting styles with limited abilities, the primary ability of this one is the ability to become technically sound and reverse all of your opponents attacks for a limited amount of time, besides that, you may also notice that occasionally, your superstar, must be technical like Carlito, etc, will automatically reverse the attack, this may also be and effect of the technical superstars fighting style but currently, I am completely un aware

Powerhouse - This is the most dominate force in the world of professional wrestling but not so much in the game as it has few abilities and they're so bad they're not even worth using, one is the ability to "throw" your opponent off you during a pin attempt, I believe this is done with the x button but I cannot be positive to be honest, anyways, if you have a stored fighting style icon and tap R1+Triangle with it saved with a powerhouse superstar, your superstar will enter the patented "rampage" mode where he becomes "stronger" and reverses all grapple moves for a little over 20 seconds, his grapples also become irreversible for that short amount of time as well

Submission - These superstar fighting style, though unfortunate as it is, has the fewest abilities, so I'll just point out the main one for now, if you have a stored superstar fighting icon and pull off a submission move, tap R1+Triangle during the submission and it will become an ultimate submission, which a moderately damaged opponent will most likely tap out to, I suggest you try it out on created wrestlers, but either way, it really doesn't matter to be honest, anyways, onto the last category, finally

Showman - Finally, the most classical WWE Superstar fighting style in the game, it's main features include being able to perform the patented turnbuckle taunt by tapping the control pad in any direction when on the turnbuckle, not near it, second, you can also steal your opponents finisher or taunt, but at the moment am am currently unaware as too whether you use the analog control or something else, just stat tuned, k ?

Anyways, let's take a look at one of the best new features, E...C...W ! Specifically a small look at the ECW Extreme Rules Match, courtesy of somebody on youtube

And as you can clearly see, not only does ECW invade this years version of the exclusive Smackdown vs Raw series, it brings Blood, Sweat, Tears, and the just plain hardcore wrestling action provided by the very best. In this match type, you may quickly find out that many superstars such as the Sandman or Tommy Dreamer can use their fighting style icon as a finisher and set nearly any weapon on fire, specifically the table, the barbed wire stick, and the cane, which is also one of the newer weapons this year along with the weapons that the crowd can hand you like world champion ship belts that they most likely bought themselves or as guitar just so you can blow your opponents heads to smithereens, also, they brought the extremists themselves along with ECW this year as you can now play with famous ECW superstars such as Sandman, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer or even Terry Funk whilst you can also play with the so called "new breed" with such superstars as Elijah Burke or Cm Punk or even Marcus Cor Von, it'll depends, your the player so obviously, it's your choice. Anyways, lets move onto something else, one of the best new features, the brand spanking new struggle submission system, this time, you control the pressure, the length it's held and much, much more, just take a look at this very exclusive video

Now, isn't that just a simply sick feature, anyways, lets move onto the best new feature, 24/7 mode, in this mode, it's like an advanced version of Gm Mode or Season Mode, it has you playing either as you created WWE Superstar in a career mode like storyline to walk the road and enter the verge of the WWE hall of fame, noted that the WWE Superstar version is exactly the same to be honest actually, also, there is the gm mode in 24/7 mode, where you pick to be either Tommy Dreamer off of ECW, Teddy Long off of Smackdown, or Jonathon Coachmen or in other words the Coach off of Raw, pick your General Manager along with the brand he comes with, draft rosters or keep them the same, set champions, make matches, manage morale, contracts, ratings, and the rest of that important whatnot, here's an exclusive look at the first and last cut scenes of Gm Mode, noted that these are the only cut scenes in this mode for 24/7

Also this year is the revamped version of challenge mode, or in other words, this year's hall of fame mode where you go through the list of important events in WWE history and by attempting them, you could probably change history, some are easy, others are hard, also, noted that defeating gm mode is one of the challenges in hall of fame mode, it will also net you Vincent Kennedy Mcmahon, the chairmen of World Wrestling Entertainment, as a playable character, finally, I'll end this long review of Smackdown vs Raw 2008 by listing some of the newer superstars, there is JTG, Shad, Mvp, Jeff Hardy, ECW Superstars and many, many more, whilst the game is still missing many popular superstars such as Deuce and Domino, Bid Daddy V or even Brian Kendrick and Paul London, this game may be loaded with wonderful features but there is still something I can't leave out, Audio and Graphics, so I'll start out with the Audio, it is very pleasurable during entrances or in cut scenes as the talking is smooth, but what kills it off is commentary, here are some very important points about that

If a move is performed during the middle of a line of commentary, well, actually, this only occurs with specific moves which are currently unknown at the moment, anyways, the commentary will stop right in the middle of itself really annoying the player

If a superstars finisher is performed, example: Sweet Chin Music, then the commentators may call it Pedigree or something else, this needs to be fixed, and fast

Also, I noticed that some lines are said by every group of commentators, one being the infamous "Are you telling me that The Great Khali intimidates you ?" "No, I'm just glad I don't have to be in the ring with the man

Finally, if you are in a match managers or even without managers, the commentators may bring up somebody that isn't even in the match, like Matt Hardy or The Great Khali, it really gets irritating

Next, lets move onto graphics, whilst they look exactly like last year's, thats not completely true, for example, the ps3, those graphics are absolutely amazing, I mean look at this

You would honestly sound mental if you did not think that looks as realistic as possible, of course it's not that realistic but it's ok to exaggerate with this game, as it's sometimes just seemingly that good, while they are pretty shockingly good, we can't count the PS2 out, here's a pic for or as an example

Now that may not exactly be "Oh My God" worth, but they are still good, just the same choppy and edgy goodness from last year, with an especially exclusive bonus of zest added to the mix, at least we can look up towards next year when THQ and Yukes will hopefully deliver much, much better to the point where graphics do count, anyways, thats it and enjoy the game.

WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008

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