This is my first attempt at a review, any feedback would be much appreciated (bad grammar aside, and I know it's bad), this is something I've wanted to get into for sometime now, and this site is one of the few good ones so here goes!

Looks can be deceiving, SmackDown! vs. RAW 2009 on the PS3

Game play
I'll be honest the game play is pretty smooth, the AI is completely customisable, you've the basic Easy, Normal, Hard and Legend difficulties, then you can go into the little detail about how much the computer reverses specific types of moves and how much damage others do. Although this is cool it's been around on the SvR series for a few years now, so not really anything new. Controls are the same as previous years and still operate smoothly, the struggle submission system si somewhat improved although the number of submissions is still rather limited, no ankle lock tap outs, come on THQ!

Matches are still a bit glitchey the old choke-slam via the sternum is back, as is the power-bomb trough the table attempt as it slides away somehow along the floor leaving me frowning somewhat like the baby that's just had it's candy stolen, the chair attacks are somewhat limited...so far there's the over head strike, the overhead strike and did I mention the ever so popular over head strike, erm, what happened to the chair shot to the gut? That stuff was awesome, I used to hit the finishing DDT to a chair after that. Setting stuff on fire is still pretty cool, although I'm not sure where the characters get the matches when their wearing wrestling trunks, referee involvement?

Game modes, Road to Wrestlemania, it's short, but there 6 times with very few choices to make the path different, but it's barley noticeable, each road will take about an hour or so to do depending on difficulty and personal ability, and the matches with predetermined finishes are somewhat annoying, 2:30 in I got for a pin after a pedigree, he kicks out, bloodied and 3 body parts in red, a second pedigree follows after a spine-buster, kick out, what?!?! 5:00 minutes someone runs in and gets me disqualified even though I've won up-teen times already, well thought out guys. Career mode, honestly this seems like a after thought, Road to Wrestlemania is done the developers are looking and think, wait, what about the created wrestlers and non-mainstream guys/girls? The game is due out in 2 months! Pick a title, play 3 maybe four matches and get a number 1 contenders match, if you win, which you really should, you get a title match, which you should also easily win, no story, you just claim one title after another, for no reason other than to get them all like pokemon.

Create-a-whatever, create a superstar is back and 95% the same as last year, a few more things have been added and the stupid photo thing at the end is gone leaving a full body pose of your created guy or gal, a small improvement and the only one. Create a move-set is exactly the same as last year, well a few moves added and a few others taken away, but once again is just a means to a end. Create-a-finisher, the amazingly hyped up and video made looking awesome new mode, except you, well I, seem to be unable to make half the things that they did online, like anything off the turn-buckle, behind or whilst they're on the floor, only front facing, and so far nothing fast acting like a RKO or Shelton's Paydirt, all in all, this mode was a bit of a let down for me, especially given the hype it received.

There is a highlight reel, but so far I've not really experimented with it.

Graphics
No improvement what so ever on last year, I wouldn't be surprised if they used the exact same character models, and going straight into game play graphics after a video introduction, really not the best idea as it really shows how bad they are in comparison, then again this is a game and I'm being a bit unfair comparing the graphics to real life, however the graphics still look very cartoon like, the blood pouring out of your opponents head looks rather cool and the sweating men grappling each other sometimes makes me wonder about the developers, a little to much attention to detail there, but for a sports game the graphics are on par with Pro Evolution Soccer and Fifa '09, so for a sports game, their pretty good, especially when you consider the side of the roster, the environments and weaponry.

Fun factor
Unfortunately this game just isn't that much fun, the highlight reel doesn't work in a ECW "Extreme" rules match so you can't the best bits of your best matches, the amount of time it takes to create one wrestler, get their statistics up, go thoroughly through their move-set, entrance (which you can use tracks saved on your PS3, I found this out with a huge smile on my face) and potentially two finishers, I missed a few days at University! I have to do this for each guy and girl I want to create (there is a patch coming out the rectify this I'm told so might not be able to complain for much longer.....blast!). The Road to Wrestlemania mode hasn't much to offer compared to previous games and career mode is just a joke, I built my stats up to about a 65 average and I jus can't go through it any more, it's bored me.

Lifetime
Weeks at best in my opinion, I almost took the game back after a week until I found out I could use my own tracks for entrance music, now it's to late to get a trade in, fallout 3 and Pro Evo 2009 are still the most played games on my PS3 and they came out before hand

Closing thoughts
The game feels somewhat incomplete, some parts feel as though they are added more as after thoughts just to please the gamers that have been around since SmackDown! On the PSX, most aspects of the game, namely the Road to Wrestlemania, are aimed at the WWE kids generation same as WWE, not something I can really complain about, it's a business, it does what's best to make money, but since the game carries a 15 rating (UK reviewer here), it doesn't make much sense to me. The stats for a created wrestler seem to be a bit silly, there's no way to really predetermine your stats, unless you want straight 100's, which as a older gamer I don't want, I'd rather realistic stats for the wrestlers I create. Overall the game is a bit of a disappointment, the series has been on a slow decline since Here Comes the Pain on the PS2 and I'm only worried that the series will continue on this slippery downwards slope over the next few releases.

My verdict, rent it, but only if your a fan of WWE or the SmackDown! series, if not, don't touch it

My gods, they're still making these games?

Work on your grammar. It became hard to read after the second paragraph. Aside from that, even though I disagree with you final assessment (I thought it was pretty damn good, much better then last years shit-fest), it was a solid effort.

As an aside, for whatever reason when I make an entrance for my CAW, it won't let me use my own music even though it said I could. The words are just grayed out. I had the same problem with '08 as well. If anybody with the 360 version could PM me instructions and help this poor tard out, I would love you forever.

Not a bad review, but you don't need to give Mr. Full Stop the cold shoulder. Your first and second paragraphs in particular could be broken up into more sentences. It helps stop your writing look so cluttered.

I don't own this game myself, but I have a mate who does, and it gets played damn near every time I'm over at his place. I'm not a wrestling fan, but I can't deny the fun (and humour!) of the tag team matches. Perhaps there is a little something in there for everyone.

Or maybe it was the booze.

I liked your review well enough, but I can't stand wrestling. Big oily men grab at each other to try and see who gets on top first! /innuendo

Thanks for the feedback, I knew the grammar would come up, it is my weakness, but will improve if I do another, even if I have to proof read it numerous times

Since I didn't see a "post your introduction here" thread anywhere, I thought this would be as good a place as any to dive into the pool. I'll try not to be too obnoxious.

I've been playing this game quite a bit, and despite all of the bile I'm about to spew, I'm enjoying it. The controls are tight and intuitive, the AI is less dense than in years past on the harder difficulties, and the ability to club John Cena in the head with a flaming 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire is incredibly satisfying. (The latter is especially true after you've slogged through the patriotic pigpen that is his Road to Wrestlemania story.) The create-a-wrestler mode really hasn't changed much from last year's game despite a few new parts, but it doesn't really need changing apart from the lifting of a few niggling restrictions on logo placement. I can partially understand the need to keep renderings of naked people away from the younger members of the online community, but the fact that those of us old enough to know better and who don't play online have to suffer for it is rather irritating and insulting.

I agree with sms_117b that Career Mode is basically an afterthought, but its most glaring flaws were never mentioned. The main point of it is to take created wrestlers through a series of matches in order to build up their stats and unlock abilities such as stealing your opponent's finishing move, hiding behind the referee, and even recovering a bit of health when you're in the red. This is fine in theory, but there's really no rhyme or reason to any of it; you just play through a bunch of unrelated matches until your stats are as high as you'd like them to be. The key phrase here is "a bunch," since the rate at which your stats build is atrociously slow, at best, and you probably still won't be happy with the results even after you've trudged through an in-game year. All of this brings me to the Big Bad: at the moment, this is the only way to build created wrestlers' stats and grant them abilities. The fact that it can take ten to twelve hours to get through one in-game year of this dreck with one character is depressing enough; why would anyone want to bother making the maximum of thirty? (To be fair: I say "at the moment" because, the day before they released the game in the U.S., THQ announced that they would release a patch before the end of January that would give you free reign to assign stats--and, hopefully abilities--once you drag yourself through Career Mode one time. For some, that may still be too much.)

For qbert4ever and anyone else wondering about entrance music on the 360: the game uses playlists to handle custom music. For every song you want to use as an entrance theme, you have to use the 360's music player to create a separate playlist containing only that song. Once you start the game and go into Create-an-Entrance mode, choose Music and then User Playlist. Any and all of the playlists you've created should appear.