I had a whole review ready to put up but when i went to backspace someting I was clicked out of the writing section and it made me go 1 page back and I lost eveything. The worse part is I was right at the end. I'm just gonna shorten it up for ya.

Road to Wrestlemania is fun and it is the mode that gives you cutscenes and an interesting storyline that branches off. Since you are only limited to certain superstars, THQ added Career Mode which does not help. There's no sotryline or cutscenes, you just go through the year winning belts. There are hidden challenges that not only give you nothing, you don't know exactly waht to do. A challenge would just say: Taunt your opponent ? times. You find out what it is after you complete it. Another bad part, its the only way to take your created superstar and raise their attributes. And on top of that, you raise stats by performing certain actions in the ring. It does suck cause you can't get your stats to where you exactly want them, and that's what destroys the whole create a superstar thing. Create an entrance and moveset are still there. PPV and Championship are taken out, with Finisher put in. Create a finisher is good for the most part, it could use a few more animations though. Also, to get abilities for your CAS, you have to unlock them in Career mode, and they don't tell you how to do that either.

Roster Editor is good, I just wish you could change peoples stats and abilities. Highlight Reel is good and it makes the online experience better. Stables are changed up a bit, there are no more team attributes, but there are team finishers. Exhibition is still here with new matches like the inferno and gauntlet matches, and the hardcore match is now falls count anywhere. Tournament mode is still here and is the same as last year. The roster is good and will get better when the downloadable wrestlers come out. Now I just want to talk about the gameplay. First off, the stamina system is still here, yet when you start the game its off, the controls are the same, square is strike, right analog stick is grapple, triangle is finisher, same old, same old. A problem I have is when I go for springboard moves is that they always try to stop and it gets kind of annoying. The AI also reverses and tries to escape Ultimate control graples and the ground and pound feature. Another thing I don't like is the out of ring camera angle. Its hard to irish whip your opponent in the direction you want, especially when you want to get them on the table.Other than that you'll have to play a few matches to notice any differences. And I can't go through a review without mentioning the new tage team feature. When you're playing with your buddy in a tag match and he's the illegal partner, he won't get bored just watching you. He can pull down the rope, grab the ref, grab the opponent, and even tag himself in. And the illegal partner can build up a hot tag, which could mean the end of the match. This is a feature that is long awaited and finally has debuted. Expect this to stay around for a while.

Closing Comments

At the end of the day, Smackdown vs RAW 2009 is a fun and full game. You have plenty to do with all the different match types, and that's what makes WWE's games special. You can play a table, ladder, cage or falls count anywhere match and you could make it a tag team, triple threat, fatal 4 way, or just stick to the one on one choice. You have so many options and that's what sets apart WWE games from the rest for the past 9 years. And on the final decision on whether or not you should at least play the game, I say yes. Every wrestling fan should get this game, this is the ultimate wrestling experience for a video game. Either buy it or put it on your christmas list, this is definitely a game you should try.

Scores

Presentation- The case is nice and the manual is better than last year.The menus are pretty cool and there's not much of a problem with anything. The presentation gets a 10.

Graphics- Graphics have improved since last year, and the only bad thing would be the crowd. 9

Sound- The song tracks are great, and the commentating is wonderful, I just don't like the announcing at people's entrances. It sounds like the announcer has something more to say when they're done. 9.5

Gameplay- This is an overall good experience, there is similarity from last year, but its no big deal, but with career mode and having to build up created superstars, its not so good. 8.5

Lasting Appeal- RTW should fill out some time, going for bonuses and all. Career mode isn't that good, but with downloadable content it should make you keep going back to the game.8.5

Final rating(not an average)- 9. The main problem here is career mode and building up your superstar. But you should definitely buy it.