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Review: WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2007 - Xbox 360

by Steven Williamson on 21 November 2006, 23:00

Tags: THQ (NASDAQ:THQI), Sports

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Wandering around in your underwear is actually great fun.



If you enjoy wandering around in your underwear and you’re built like a brick s**t house you could have been a wrestler you know.

SmackDown vs. RAW 2007 boasts a huge variety in game modes, including a story mode with multiple branching storylines, a general manager mode and an in-depth create mode which allows you to construct your own superstar, entrance scene, move-set and championship titles. There are dozens of game types that you’ll encounter such as tag-team, ladder matches, cage fights, royal rumble or last man standing. The possibilities are practically endless meaning that Smackdown vs. RAW 2007 has huge replay appeal and with over 30 different wrestlers to choose from, including Triple H, Kurt Angle and the Undertaker or even some of the legendary wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan or The Rock fans of wrestling will be kept entertained for a long time to come.

Each wrestler has their own stats which are relevant to their real life strengths, such as speed and agility with a mark given out of 100 for their overall performance. Controlling the wrestler’s attacking techniques is extremely smooth and responsive thanks to the new analogue stick grappling system and despite there being dozens of athletic movements on offer, the way the controls are mapped to the joypad make it extremely easy to pick up.

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Grappling is carried out totally via the right thumb stick and by tilting it in any direction you’ll perform the grapple moves for that chosen wrestler. Once you have the opponent in a strong grapple (executed using RB and the right thumb-stick) you can pull off a variety of moves such as hoisting the wrestler in the air and throwing him to the ground. You can also drag your opponent around or outside the ring in order to put him in position ready for one of the nastier techniques, such as slamming his head on the side of a wall or setting him up for a somersault corkscrew leg drop (thanks wikipedia). I’ve never played any of the previous games in the series, but yet within the first hour (and after watching the video tutorials) I was able to perform most of the standard moves.The more I play SmackDown vs. RAW 2007 the more moves I keep finding, meaning that gets better every time I pick it up. You can reverse any attacking moves by pressing the trigger at exactly the right time (a marker appears at the top of the screen to tell you when) and there’s a fair bit of skill involved as you have only a fraction of a second to get it right.

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As you beat up your opponent you can see his health deteriorating by keeping an eye on his body icon at the top of screen. The icon shows you which part of the body you have damaged the most and helps you to decide whether to store or execute your finishing manoeuvre. Each wrestler has a unique finishing move which can be viewed before you choose your character and by holding the opponent in a particular grapple and filling a meter (through pulling off successful moves) you can execute that wrestler’s particular 'finisher' which leads to a short cut-scene and inevitably leaves your opponent flat on his back.