Take the fight outside the ring!
Pulling off all of these fancy moves is all well and good, but you also need to keep an eye on your own stamina otherwise you’ll be panting for breath and your opponent can quickly take advantage of the situation. It’s fairly annoying and repetitive having to hold the ‘B’ button constantly to restore your stamina, but without this function it would be a totally uneven fight if you’re playing against someone who is far better at the game; at least the stamina metre means that you should at least get some opportunity to fight back.
Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be many rules in the ring either (although you can pre-set some rules in the menu) meaning that you have free reign to poke your opponent in the eye, use foreign objects such as ladders, chairs and fire extinguishers to smash them across the skull, repeatedly punch them with a closed fist or even strike the referee if he’s giving you a hard time. Ultimately, the most fun to be had in SmackDown vs. RAW 2007 is using these below the belt antics in order to secure the win.
Click for larger imageIf you don’t fancy fighting in the ring, or just want to get out of the way of the refs prying eyes (if you’re playing a clean match) this new instalment allows you to take the battle into an area of the crowd. This adds more variety to the gameplay, where you can use a variety of objects to beat your opponent into submission whilst the baying crowd lean over the hoardings (some even passing you objects to use).
Click for larger imageThroughout my first wrestling experience I found the controls mapped well to the pad, the animations of the various wrestling techniques were smooth and realistic and the visual effects of pulling off a ‘diving elbow’ drop or an ‘arm breaker’ were extremely entertaining to watch. Playing with sweaty men wearing tight pants is not usually my thing, but the more I’ve played Smackdown vs. RAW 2007 the more I can see myself becoming a fan of the genre thanks to the pure entertainment value of the matches.
