The WWE SmackDown series of grappling based action has been around for quite some time now; the first title appeared on Sony’s original PlayStation console in the late 1990’s and was easily the most pick up and play wrestling game released at the time. Sequels soon followed on, all with some significant improvements mainly to the roster and season mode, the third game in the series marked its then next generation debut on Sony’s PlayStation 2 console with SmackDown!: Just Bring It. Fast forward several more years and we now find that the dominant WWE SmackDown series has made its debut, its ‘exclusive’ next generation debut I should say on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console. This has really been a long time coming for owners of Microsoft’s first Xbox console with the releases of WWE Raw 1-2 and WrestleMania 21 failing miserably in comparison to the long running SmackDown series. The latest release in the long running franchise brings some new features to the mat; which are way over due, but are much more than just welcome additions as these new features certainly add more variety and depth to proceedings.

Gameplay

SmackDown’s gameplay has always been highly regarded, perhaps only rivalled by that of the classic No Mercy on the Nintendo 64. Needless to say SmackDown 2007’s gameplay has had some reworking done to it, it’s not that the old way of playing was bad it’s just it never really had any significant changes since its days on the original PlayStation. For those of you that have been playing SmackDown consistently over the years then you can breathe a sigh of relief as you can change the control type to the classic SmackDown control setup through the options menu. Though I think everyone should really give the new gameplay mechanics a try as once you understand how they work then it seems much more fluid and intuitive to control your Superstar.

Basic movements are now controlled with the analogue sticks and the D-Pad is used to perform the taunts that each Superstar has. Walking is controlled with the left analogue stick and grappling is controlled with the right analogue stick. To strike an opponent you simply press the X button, there are four variations of striking and grappling; moving the left analogue stick up, down, left or right while pressing X will perform different striking actions – a similar method applies to grappling with the movement of the right analogue stick in the same four directions resulting in different quick grapples.

To lock-up with your opponent, you need to get into a strong grapple; to do this you must hold the right bumper and move the right stick up, down, left or right. Each strong grapple situation has four unique grapple moves assigned, so again moving the right analogue stick up, down, left or right once locked-up in a strong grapple will perform one of the four grapple moves. If you find you are the one taking a beating then you need to counter; to counter your opponents attack’s you need to pull the left trigger at the right moment usually just before you get hit – you counter an opponents grappling moves with a pull of the right trigger, again it’s all about the timing but this can be more difficult to time right if you’re already locked up in a strong grapple situation as you have to guess the timing. To counter an opponents finishing move you must press both the left and right triggers at the same time that your opponent attempts to perform his finishing move on you.

One of the more impressive new features are the new ultimate control moves, I will use The Undertaker as an example – If I want to perform and control The Undertaker’s chokeslam then I would hold the right bumper and move the right analogue stick up to initiate a strong grapple, instead of performing one of the four grapple moves as mentioned before; you can press the right analogue stick in, then if you’re playing as The Undertaker, he will start the chokeslam move, but you are the one in control – moving the right analogue stick up and holding will then lift your opponent in the air in the chokeslam position, to finish the move you must move the right analogue stick down to slam your opponent to the mat or with your opponent still held up in the air walk over to the ropes and chokeslam your opponent to the outside of the ring, perhaps even set a table up outside before hand to chokeslam him through. There are a total of four ultimate control moves for each Superstar, one for each strong grapple; so entering into one of the four possible strong grapples and pressing the right analogue stick in will initiate one of four possible unique ultimate control moves. These new ultimate control moves drain your stamina rapidly though, so don’t take too long to finish the move, you can see your stamina bar under your Superstar’s momentum meter when performing an ultimate control move.

Stamina is also a new addition to SmackDown 2007, and its basic purpose is to slow the pace of the action down. It does this very well, but for SmackDown veterans who are used to running around everywhere and laying the smack-eth down on every one they see – then it will become infuriating at first. Your Superstar’s stamina slowly depletes as you run or perform grapples, the basic idea is to keep an eye on your Superstar’s stamina and not to let it deplete completely; pressing and holding the B button will regain your Superstar’s stamina, your stamina also regenerates automatically if it is empty and you are on the floor trying to get up, it won’t regenerate all the way by its self, usually it will regenerate just enough for you to get back on your feet. Stamina can be disabled in the options menu.

Also new to SmackDown 2007 are the interactive environmental hotspots. These hotpots can be found almost everywhere. The ropes, turnbuckles, steel ring steps, steel ring posts, announcer’s tables and more are all environmental hot spots. To use an environmental hot spot you must first get your opponent in a strong grapple and then use the left stick to drag your opponent to the desired environmental hot spot i.e. the steel ring steps, once you drag your opponent to the steel ring steps the environmental move will begin and a box will appear on your HUD which shows you what you can do to perform the interactive move. Basically moving the right analogue stick up and then down will result in your superstar slamming the opponents head off of the steel ring steps; moving and holding the right analogue stick up will move your opponents head away from the steps and then quickly moving the right analogue stick down will result in much more force when slamming your opponents head into the steps.

You perform your Superstar’s finishing move by pressing the left bumper; you first need to earn a finishing move, this is done by taunting with the D-Pad and of course inflicting pain on your opponent, if you repeat the same moves constantly your momentum meter will deplete. Once your momentum meter is full it will flash for a short period of time, meaning you have acquired a finishing move, you can store your finishing move to use later by holding the left trigger and pressing the left bumper then when you have your opponent in the correct position you can perform your finishing move by pressing the left bumper. If you earn two finishing moves then you can perform your opponents own finishing move on them, you must be in the correct situation and holding the left trigger and pressing the left bumper will result in your Superstar using your opponents own finishing move. Then if you’re convinced you have done enough damage and want to end the match then with your opponent on the mat move the right stick down to pin your opponent for the 1-2-3. The control method seems quite complex but after some practise becomes natural and intuitive.

Graphics

SmackDown has always been considered a good looking game, but now it has the visual flair and extra attention to detail to match its addictive game playing experience. Some of the wrestlers look so much like their real-life counter parts, it’s just a bit too good, but I’m not complaining. Just watch Kane’s entrance and you’ll see what I mean – I picked Kane as for those of you that do not have the game could download the demo from Xbox Live marketplace as Kane is in the demo. The Xbox 360 version of the game also includes a sweat system, great... It’s not as over the top as it may sound but it does its purpose I suppose and does look all the more better for it. I’m more interested in making my opponent bleed, which is also great and as your bloody opponent walks dazed around the ring leaving his trails of blood on the mat – it’s then time to give him the finger and deliver the Stone Cold Stunner for the win.

One thing I didn’t expect to see and it’s a nice touch by Yukes to include it (are you ready?) and that is D-Generation X’s entrance, which is in the game and is spot on.

Sound

The WWE is all about over the top entertainment so that being said, all the Superstar’s entrance music is there for their entrances and the majority of the Superstar’s in the game have had their voices incorporated into the season mode – which works really well. Anyone who has seen Mr. Kennedy’s entrance or seen his segments in the game’s season mode would be suitably impressed with the overall authenticity that having the voice-overs brings to the experience of working your way through the season mode. Commentary is also in SmackDown 2007, but is already outdated due to Tazz who has been commentating on ECW for the past several months – yet he is still commentating in the game on the SmackDown brand along side Michael Cole while good old “J.R.” Jim Ross and the Jerry “The King” Lawler do their part for the Raw brand at the announcer’s table. The commentary is acceptable at best, but it’s certainly not the best. The announcers cut off as they’re talking at times instead of keeping it flowing; it is consistent enough though in what they come out with most of the time but it seems to want to keep too up to date with the action – resulting in them stopping mid-sentence and talking about something else. There are some moments in the game where the commentary becomes inconsistent for example in a Royal Rumble match, say I eliminate Kane then 2 minutes later J.R. or King will start talking about Kane as if he’s still in the ring. Other odd moments in commentary are with the Diva’s, they do acknowledge them as Diva’s but as many lines get repeated then some of those lines have “he” instead of “she” in them. Which just seems unacceptable that little things like that aren’t sorted, one would have thought that voice recordings with “he” in them would have had a duplicate recording but with “she” as well. Anyway, the only other thing to bring up, though it’s not really a complaint as there is nothing that could be done other than not have them in as wrestlers in the game – basically Jerry “The King” Lawler and Tazz are playable in the game; the only problem is it seems a bit weird if you have Tazz in the ring wrestling on SmackDown yet he’s also sitting over at the announcer table talking about himself; the same can be said for Jerry “The King” Lawler when playing at the Raw arena. For the most part though the commentary does its job and some variety is added as the commentators go off course and talk about being in different areas, though many things do get repeated in the longer matches.

Longevity

The overall longevity of the title will certainly increase due to the online multiplayer modes and as many of the achievements are linked to multiplayer matches such as defending your championship belt 50 times or winning 50 matches in a row – then the achievements will certainly keep people coming back and giving fans an excuse to keep playing it. Playing through the season mode multiple times with different Superstar’s and your created wrestler is a must for hardcore fans just to see the different scenarios and voice-overs. You even get to pimp out your own luxury locker room; the locker room is accessible from the main menu as well as during season mode – in the locker room you can change almost everything to make it how you want it to look. In the locker room you can also check updates and messages on your computer and mobile phone as you will receive regular messages during season mode from the general manager and other WWE Superstar’s. The General Manager mode returns where you choose to be the G.M. of either Raw or SmackDown and then it is your job to make matches and get higher ratings and overall more fan interest than the opposing brand. The longevity hopefully gets expanded even more with downloadable content from the Xbox Live marketplace. Hopefully this new content, whatever it may be, comes sooner rather than later.

Overall

I do not think that WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2007 is the best in the series; SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain has always been highly regarded by me and I’m sure many others. Though SmackDown 2007 does brings plenty of new features to the table with the new analogue control system and environmental hotspots, add to that the inclusion of Xbox Live multiplayer and the ability to trade created wrestlers online then you really do have the full package. The only real downside is that the online play can become unstable with 4 wrestlers. Though 1 vs. 1 matches play perfectly for the most part and to be honest 1 vs. 1 are the best type of matches to play as many match types are best suited for 1 vs. 1 like the Buried Alive and Last Man Standing matches. Though having up to 3 players online can be good too especially special referee matches, even more so if you’re the referee in a match, just imagine the amount of fun and torment you can cause if you’re playing as the referee. The lag issues overall do ruin the experience online as many people will want up to 4 players, hopefully these issues will be addressed with a patch some time soon. One of the other great things about online play is being able to defend your created championship belts online; these include singles and tag-team championship belts. Probably the best thing about online play is the fact that every single match that is playable offline is playable online, minus the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber which are not playable online, but damn that is a good selection of match types and loads of possible variations to each match type.

If you like watching WWE programming but have never really followed the WWE SmackDown series of video games then you’ve been missing out, but whether you like watching WWE or not the SmackDown games have always been great fun for their multiplayer. My only concern with SmackDown 2007 is that it feels aimed more at the hardcore SmackDown gamers and WWE fans, which never used to be the case – this is perhaps more to do with the new analogue control system, which is good but I wonder if people who just want to play for a laugh will be able to get into it as quickly as they would do with the older controller setup? Even though SmackDown 2007 may not be for everyone it is an excellent addition to the long running series and to finally be able to say that we have a good wrestling game on a Microsoft console is fantastic. For those of you pondering about purchasing WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2007 then you can find a playable demo on the Xbox Live marketplace, which is sure to help you make your mind up.