WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009'' (sometimes subtitled with ''featuring ECW'') is a
professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...
video game developed by
Yuke's Yuke's Co. Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer based in Osaka. It was established on 26 February 1993 by Yukinori Taniguchi. The company is best known for developing the ''WWE 2K, WWE'' video game series, based on the professional wrestling ...
and published by
THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...
for the
PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
,
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...
,
PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...
,
Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
, and
Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...
s; with TOSE overseeing development for the
Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
version. The game was first released on November 9, 2008 in North America. It is the tenth overall installment in the video game series based on the
World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...
(WWE) promotion, and the fifth game under the '' SmackDown vs. Raw'' name; named after the promotion's
Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...
and SmackDown
brands A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
.http://www.thq.com/news/?id=115 Retrieved February 16, 2015 It is the sequel to 2007's '' SmackDown vs. Raw 2008'', and the second game to feature the promotion's
ECW ECW may refer to: Professional wrestling * Extreme Championship Wrestling (originally Eastern Championship Wrestling), a professional wrestling promotion that operated from 1992 to 2001 * The Alliance (professional wrestling) (originally the WCW/E ...
brand. ''2009'' introduced the
Inferno match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...
, a revamped tag team match, and four new game modes: "Create-a- Finisher", "Road to WrestleMania", "Career", and multiplayer season. The game was succeeded by 2009's '' WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010''.


Road to WrestleMania

The Road to WrestleMania (RTWM) mode debuted in this game, replacing the popular Season mode from previous games. It was then featured in every new game in the series, before it was removed for
WWE '13 ''WWE '13'' is a professional wrestling video game developed by Yuke's and published by THQ for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. It was released on October 30, 2012, in North America and November 2, 2012, in United Kingdom. It is the fourteenth ...
. This mode allows the player to play through personalized storylines for John Cena,
Triple H Paul Michael Levesque (born July 27, 1969), better known by the ring name Triple H, is an American business executive, actor, and retired professional wrestler currently serving as the chief content officer for WWE. He is widely regarded as on ...
,
The Undertaker Mark William Calaway (born March 24, 1965), better known by the ring name The Undertaker, is an American retired professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Calaway spent the vast majority ...
, Chris Jericho,
CM Punk Phillip Jack Brooks (born October 26, 1978), better known by the ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler, sports commentator, actor, and retired mixed martial artist currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Best known for ...
, and a tag team storyline for
Batista Batista is a Spanish language, Spanish or Portuguese language, Portuguese surname. Notable persons with the name include: * Batista (footballer, born 1955), Brazilian football player * Dave Bautista, American actor and professional wrestler, also ...
and Rey Mysterio.


Gameplay


Match gameplay

One of the game's most prominent features is the enhanced tag team match. Additions in the match include new ways of tagging the player's tag team partner such as the hot tag, which can help save the player in the match if they are in trouble, and the forced blind tag, where the illegal partner can tag his or herself into the ring. The legal player's tag team partner has more of a part to play in this match and will aid the player by holding an opponent on the ropes while on the apron (pictured), and pulling down the ropes for an opponent who is dashing towards them, sending them out of the ring. Teams will now share their own momentum meter, attributes and double team finishers. ''SmackDown vs. Raw 2009'' is the first WWE video game to include the
Inferno match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...
, a match where the player has to set their opponent on fire. It is similar the real life match which takes place with the ring surrounded by fire coming from gas fed pipes. To win the player must increase the temperature of the ring by performing more devastating moves. As soon as the temperature reaches 500
°F The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined his ...
(or in the EU version 300
°C The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...
), the player can then begin to set their opponent on fire. To set a person on fire, the player raises the temperature to the maximum and drags the person towards the ropes, provided that the opponent is badly injured. However, this match is not available for the Nintendo DS or Wii. Several matches absent in previous games also returned to the series. The backstage brawl, where players can battle in either the locker room or the backstage "Gorilla position" with a variety of weapons at their disposal, returned and replaced the parking lot brawl match featured in the last game. The Gauntlet match also is a newly featured match selection in the Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 series where one superstar takes on three others one immediately after the other. The General Manager mode and Create-A-Championship were removed from SmackDown vs Raw 2009. Both the Wii and DS versions now include new match types, such as the Steel Cage and
Ladder match A ladder match is a type of match in professional wrestling, most commonly one in which an item (usually a title belt) is hung above the ring, and the winner is the contestant who climbs a ladder and retrieves the item. The ladder itself becom ...
, with the DS version also featuring
tables Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table data ...
and TLC matches. Fighting styles, a major feature from the previous version, were removed. Some abilities used there were kept and enhanced with each wrestler possessing six out of twenty different abilities that would aid the player in specific areas. New to the game is the inclusion of signature moves, moves secondary in importance next to their finishing moves. When in full momentum, the players can choose to store a signature move instead of performing a finishing move which they can perform later. A new semi-auto targeting system was implemented into the game, which will generally automatically target a particular wrestler the player wants to attack but can also be controlled in-game by the player. Japanese company TOSE took over from Amaze Entertainment in development for the Nintendo DS version. Unlike the previous year's game whose gameplay was focused exclusively on the handheld's
stylus A stylus (plural styli or styluses) is a writing utensil or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example, in pottery. It can also be a computer accessory that is used to assist in navigating or providing more precision w ...
, this year's edition instead uses by default the D-pad for movement and the left shoulder button for finishing moves. The DS version's gameplay is now similar to that from the other consoles with full movement control around the ring for the wrestler and a stamina meter to build up for a finishing move. Grappling, attacks and submissions would still be controlled by the stylus.


Game modes

Road To Wrestlemania: In this new mode, players can choose from five superstars to play as in single-player storylines:
Triple H Paul Michael Levesque (born July 27, 1969), better known by the ring name Triple H, is an American business executive, actor, and retired professional wrestler currently serving as the chief content officer for WWE. He is widely regarded as on ...
,
CM Punk Phillip Jack Brooks (born October 26, 1978), better known by the ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler, sports commentator, actor, and retired mixed martial artist currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Best known for ...
,
The Undertaker Mark William Calaway (born March 24, 1965), better known by the ring name The Undertaker, is an American retired professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Calaway spent the vast majority ...
, John Cena, or Chris Jericho. The storylines featured in the mode are tailor-made to fit the chosen wrestler's character with each cutscene made exclusively for the wrestler. *As part of the game's new emphasis on tag teams, a co-operative storyline was also included in the mode, in which players can take the parts of Rey Mysterio or
Batista Batista is a Spanish language, Spanish or Portuguese language, Portuguese surname. Notable persons with the name include: * Batista (footballer, born 1955), Brazilian football player * Dave Bautista, American actor and professional wrestler, also ...
. For the first time. the Wii version also includes the Road to WrestleMania mode, replacing their equivalent Main Event mode in the previous edition. Career Mode: Unlike the Road to WrestleMania mode, all superstars and divas featured in the game are eligible to play including wrestlers created by the player in Create-A-Superstar mode. The main aim of this mode is for the player to fight their way up the rankings for a particular title of their choice, in match types that they can also choose. After each match, the player's character is awarded attribute points based on the style of wrestling the player used. Nintendo DS: Fully inspired by the TOSE-developed game, '' Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime'', the Nintendo DS version has an
RPG RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...
element to their season mode. Players will be able to roam around the arena, improve their characters through the training room or WWE Shop and interact with superstars to start feuds. The player is given missions to complete in order to become a champion. Created wrestlers will be eligible to use this career mode.


Create modes

The series features a new Create Mode: The Create-A-Finisher feature. In it, the player has the ability to chain a selection of up to 10 out of over 500 animations to make unique finishing moves along with the choice to speed up or slow down the animations. Created finishers are limited to moves starting with both wrestlers standing face-to-face The Create-A-Finisher feature is not available on the Wii or DS versions of the game. The other major new addition to the game's create modes is the "Highlight Reel", where players can record the last 30 seconds of an ongoing match, and edit the clips together afterwards with custom camera angles and added visual and sound effects. Players can save up to 20 files and can upload them for online users to see, custom reels can be used as an entrance movie for a created superstar. The mode is featured only on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Both Create-A-Finisher and Highlight Reel have replaced the Create-A-Belt feature, which was taken out due to its lack of support from fans. The Create-A-Superstar mode is in the major consoles, but now features physics-based clothing items that will sway around realistically such as loose clothing and necklaces. About 70% of the parts in the mode are now 3D with about 25 to 30% of the mode featuring new content. For the first time, the Nintendo DS version features a limited version of the Create-A-Superstar mode. A roster editor has also been introduced to change the wrestler's brand, face/heel disposition and titles for exhibition matches. The game's Create-A-Stable mode has also been incorporated into the editor under the Team Management name. The Create-An-Entrance mode has now been extended to feature created entrances for tag teams. The Wii version features a Create-An-Entrance mode like the other versions except a limited created entrance for tag teams. Instead, utilizing the Wii Remote and nunchuk, it features interactive entrances and victory celebrations, such as posing or beating down an opponent post-match. Successful poses during the player's entrance give them more momentum and bonuses at the start of the match.


Online features

The Wii version now includes online gameplay as well as rankings.
Voice chat Voice chat is telecommunication via voice over IP technologies—especially when those technologies are used among players in multiplayer online games. Users might use either a VoIP engine system that is built into the game, or a separate pro ...
functionality for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were confirmed. Also note that if a tattoo is used on a created superstar, he/she will be prohibited from playing online. However, online play is not available for the PlayStation 2 version.


Development

The in-game commentary in the major console versions feature three announcing teams like the previous version but is considered to have a more
play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...
aspect this time. According to THQ, loading times for the game have been reduced by 50%, affecting such areas as wrestler entrances.


Soundtrack

The soundtrack consists of a mixture of entrance theme songs used by the wrestlers (many of which are composed by WWE's music director Jim Johnston) and the following licensed songs. You can also give any wrestler their own entrance music from any audio file saved on your console's hard drive, although this feature is restricted to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game, as the other consoles have no capability to save MP3s or other format sound files, and this is not the first game to include the feature on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as the previous game, ''WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008'' was the first game for both systems to allow the feature. P.O.D. contributed with two of their songs, "Addicted" and "Booyaka 619", featured in the game's soundtrack.


Marketing and release

Production of the game was officially announced on March 27, 2008, by ''
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'' and THQ. IGN released their first video game trailer and
screenshot screenshot (also known as screen capture or screen grab) is a digital image that shows the contents of a computer display. A screenshot is created by the operating system or software running on the device powering the display. Additionally, s ...
s for ''SmackDown vs. Raw 2009''. The trailer featured The Hardys ( Matt and
Jeff Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...
) in a tag team match against
Randy Orton Randal Keith Orton (born April 1, 1980) is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and actor who is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw (WWE brand), Raw brand but is currently out of action due to a back injury. H ...
and
Mr. Kennedy Kenneth Anderson (born March 6, 1976) is an American professional wrestler. Anderson is known for his tenure with WWE from 2005 to 2009 under the ring name Mr. Kennedy, and his work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as Mr. Anderson from 2010 to 2 ...
at the SummerSlam
pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...
and the new tag team match features were explained. A commercial for the game was released in October, starring
Triple H Paul Michael Levesque (born July 27, 1969), better known by the ring name Triple H, is an American business executive, actor, and retired professional wrestler currently serving as the chief content officer for WWE. He is widely regarded as on ...
along with John Cena,
Batista Batista is a Spanish language, Spanish or Portuguese language, Portuguese surname. Notable persons with the name include: * Batista (footballer, born 1955), Brazilian football player * Dave Bautista, American actor and professional wrestler, also ...
,
Big Show Paul Donald Wight II (born February 8, 1972) is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as an in-ring performer, and as a commentator for its web television show, '' AEW Dark: Elevation,'' under ...
,
Hornswoggle Dylan Mark Postl (born May 29, 1986) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE under the ring name Hornswoggle. He debuted in WWE in 2006, allied with Finlay. Hornswoggle won the Cruiserweight Championship in it ...
,
Lilian Garcia Lilián Annette Garcia (born August 19, 1966) is a Spanish-American ring announcer, singer and podcaster best known for her time with WWE. She is currently announcing for the Professional Fighters League (PFL).Doyle, Dave"Former WWE ring announce ...
and
Kelly Kelly Barbara Blank Coba (born Barbara Jean Blank; January 15, 1987), known professionally as Barbie Blank and by her ring name Kelly Kelly, is an American professional wrestler and model. Blank has a background in gymnastics and cheerleading, an ...
. A demo for the game was released in October for the PlayStation 3 console, featuring the singles and tag team matches with Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Shawn Michaels and Triple H as playable characters. As with the previous game, a special collector's edition of ''SmackDown vs. Raw 2009'' for the PlayStation 3 was released, which includes the game, special steel cage packaging, and a
Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...
featuring matches from ''
Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...
'' and '' SmackDown'' shows as well as a behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the game. This release was exclusive to the North American region. A similar collector's edition was released in European regions, which features a special plastic ring, which has the same dimensions as a Blu-ray case. It also has the same Blu-ray disc as the North American release included in this package.


Reception

The game has received generally mixed to positive reviews from gaming critics.
GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
and
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gave it a score of 79.38% and 79 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version; 78.28% and 79 out of 100 for the Wii version; 78.14% and 78 out of 100 for the PlayStation 3 version; 77.44% and 78 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version; 72.90% and 72 out of 100 for the PSP version; 60% for the Mobile version; and 56.76% and 58 out of 100 for the DS version. Critics generally praised the Road to WrestleMania. ''
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'' was, however, more critical of the game, calling the gameplay "noticeably stale" from previous games and citing the Highlight Reel and Create-A-Finisher modes as limited. ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' gave the console versions 7.5 out of 10, lauding the game's graphics and the large number of moves, match types, single player modes and improved AI. Some aspects of the game's presentation were criticized, particularly movement animations, clipping issues and weak sound effects. While the reception for the Nintendo DS version was varied between critics, both ''IGN'' and ''GamesMaster'' criticized its touch-screen control scheme, suggesting that button-based control would have been more ideal.


See also

* List of licensed wrestling video games *
List of fighting games Fighting games are characterized by close combat between two fighters or groups of fighters of comparable strength, often broken into rounds or stocks. If multiple players are involved, players generally fight against each other. Note: Games ar ...
*
List of video games in the WWE 2K Games series The ''WWE'' series (currently branded as ''WWE 2K''; and formerly known as ''SmackDown!'', ''SmackDown vs. Raw'', or simply ''WWE'') is a series of professional wrestling video games based on the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. T ...
* WWE 2K


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wwe Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009 2008 video games Multiplayer online games Nintendo DS games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation Portable games Tose (company) games Wii games WWE Raw video games WWE SmackDown! 09 WWE video games Extreme Championship Wrestling video games Xbox 360 games Wii Wi-Fi games Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection games THQ games Yuke's games Multiplayer and single-player video games Tag team videogames Video games developed in Japan Video games with custom soundtrack support Mobile games Professional wrestling games ECW (WWE brand)