SMACKDOWN vs RAW 2010 - Review

After all the hype the game was released by THQ on October 23rd.
"It's your world now" the hype proclaimed.
It was all about creation. From creating your own wrestler, designing outfits, entrances, moves and to enhance the character by refining their superstar abilities. All very much like creating a character in a book.
Added to this a player can share their creations online within the WWE Community.
Drawback to this is that the character that has been carefully built comes with some missing bits - like entrance music and superstar abilities.
But having built a character no one wants their creation tampered with which is not an unreasonable thought. But not to have the superstar abilities is an oversight that no one can rectify.
Also, the game comes with glitches that should have been ironed out before THQ released the game.
Play with too many created wrestlers and the game freezes.
Some moves result with the wrestler wandering around with a broken arm.
Some hairstyles disappear and reappear during play.
It seems to have a problem with two shades of orange - entrance freezes or just doesn't load.
Simple solution is to not have an entrance; don't use orange; use a different hairstyle and remove moves that leaves the wrestler with a broken arm.
But why?
So how about the game play itself?
Well, in a few words 2010 is just a rehash of 2009. So, nothing new there except that on the 'Road To Wrestlemania' storylines there has been an added story for created wrestlers and one for female wrestlers.
In the past THQ have been far more innovative and creative in producing their Smackdown vs Raw games. The career mode has taken different paths but this time around they have chosen to repeat themselves.
On the plus side it has to be said that on the creative side they have almost surpassed themselves. Truly is the creator player's world now. At long last they have brought in a tool that puts the Highlight Reel to some use by allowing the player to create their own entrance movie.
This should have been brought into play long before now.
Downside is that uploading the character into the community does not come with entrance movie and there is no point in downloading it seperately as the two cannot be married up.
On balance the plusses and minuses equal each other - but I don't rate it as highly as gamer mags and sites do.
Just play and enjoy - it's what I do.