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GamingRing's Final Build Impression
Guess what we got in the mail while we were in Tampa?
I hope you enjoyed our coverage while we are in Tampa for the review event that THQ held, I absolutely had a blast seeing the future of the wrestling industry up close and personal. It is a surreal experience to see WWE hall of famer Jerry Briscoe greet you right when you get off bus for the event. It just shows you that no matter what your age is, if pro wrestling is in your blood you are hooked for life. The next couple of days Charles will be editing/uploading all of the footage we recorded from the event. Between us, we recorded over 3 hours worth of footage of the event, and interviews with the superstars. So look for that to come your way in the very near future. While at the event I had the opportunity to be interviewed by WWE.com for a feature they are doing on this years game. So look for that in the near future as well. I will say this, it is a lot easier being the interviewer than the interviewee.
I really did not get too much in the games themselves and my overall impressions of them in the last article I wrote so I figured I would do that now. Last year after the event, THQ gave us builds of all of the different builds of the games, this year however that did not happen so we were a little surprised at that. When I got back home I saw that while I was gone I received a package from THQ which contained the PS2, PS3, WII, 360 and the PSP builds of the games. I have not had the opportunity to try any of the PS2 or the PSP versions of the games just yet I plan on doing so later this evening and I will have a report on what my thoughts are then.
So that leaves us to the WII, DS, 360 and PS3 versions of the game which I did have an opportunity to play while at the event and at the last event I went to with THQ a few weeks ago.
Nintendo Wii: Lets start off with the Wii, now keep in mind this is not a full review just my over all impressions of playing the games themselves and what stood out in my mind about the games.
The Wii version while not as graphically advanced as the 360/PS3 builds definitely does a good job in that department. However, I will say this while I did have fun pulling off the taunts and entrance animations with the Wii remote and nunchuk controller I just found the controls not as responsive as I would like and after awhile I felt I was just flaying around wildly with my arms trying to get my character to do something. I don’t know it just didnt feel intuitive to me. Maybe it’s because I am not the biggest Nintendo Wii supporter on the Gamingring Staff but that is how I feel about that. I do like that finally that you will be able to play your friends online in this game and from what I hear all of the DLC will be available for the Wii as well as the 360/PS3 once it is released. So thats good for all of you millions who do own a Wii.
Nintendo DS: I actually had a lot of fun playing this game it is a completely new gameplay experience over last year. You utilize the stylus and dpad to perform moves on to you opponent that once I picked up on how to handle the controls I had a good time with it. The game features a larger roster than last year and the graphics are actually pretty impressive over last years game. I also dig the old school titantrons that are in the games for the superstars. It is very much like what they did on the N64 WWF No Mercy game with the entrances. I did not have a chance to play with the create a superstar mode or the newly redesigned season mode which I hear features a role-playing approach with you being able to interact with other superstars/entertainers and upgrade your abilities.
Sony Playstation 3: The game feature set pretty much mirrors the 360 version. I did find out that in the last interview I held with Bryan that a mistake was made and the PS3 version only utilizes 37 layers in the create a superstar mode. Graphically the game is better than last year but it is still not quite up to the level of the 360 version. Some people may actually prefer the PS3 graphics over the 360 version but from everything I have seen and played it is still not quite there yet. I will say this and I know Gamingring Co-webmaster Charles Shane will disagree with me on this one but I actually like the PS3 controller and the controls over the 360 version. Everything else though both games are identical. So regardless if you pick up the 360 or the PS3 version you are still buying the best WWE Wrestling game on the market today. I mentioned this on the podcast and the WWE.com interview that WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 is the definitive WWE Wrestling game. It’s better than Here Come the Pain, it over shadows WWF No Mercy and it takes it’s rightful place as the best WWE wrestling game of all time.
credit - Mike Regan, GamingRing.com
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