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July 11, 2008 - You're about to read about some really cool stuff in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009. This week, I got to participate in my first Inferno Match, figure out how Fighting Styles work this year, create my own finisher, and try out all of the new tag team features THQ's been talking about since WrestleMania. However, there's one tidbit that should really setup what THQ's going for in this installment of the franchise.
For the first time ever, you can enter the wrestling ring via the steel steps.
If you're a SVR hater, you might scoff at that little addition, but fans of the franchise should take note because it's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the polish being put into this title. After an hour and a half of playing and creating, I was digging my time with SVR 09, but it wasn't the match types that were making me cheer inside. I was marking out for the way the ropes sagged as Jeff Hardy put his weight on the taught lines. I was marking out because flicking the left stick skips the current track playing over most menu screens in favor of another licensed tune or wrestler entrance theme. I was marking out because load screens now display the stats you've racked up as whichever wrestler is on the screen -- your win/loss record with Triple H, your most played match type, etc.
I could go on -- and as you can see below, I obviously will -- but the gist of what you need to take away at the broadest level of SVR 09 is that THQ and Yuke's have taken the gameplay and controls that you now know backward and forward from SVR 08 and shined 'em up real nice. Don't worry though, they apparently haven't turned them sideways or stuck them up your candyass. The character models look more defined than ever, the championship belts fit snugly on character waists and appear polished as well as heavy, and the action seems to be a few frames faster, although both the PS3 and Xbox 360 will run at a solid 60 frames per second.
Now, even though SVR 09 keeps the left stick to move, right stick to grapple scheme we all know and -- most of us -- love, that's not to say that nothing has been added. When you get dropped by a superkick or what have you in this year's game, you'll still be instructed to tap a button repeatedly, but when you pull yourself to your knees, you'll be able to hold down R2 and L2 to enter a guarded state. Basically, if someone wants to kick you while you're guarding, you'll be able to reverse the strike and get up cleanly. If for some reason you can't get up and your opponent is stomping your corpse over and over again, the game will only let you take the punishment for so long before it generates a reversal that pushes the bad guy back and gives you the chance to get to your feet. There are other nifty tweaks and additions to the control scheme, but we'll chat those up when we get to them. For now, let's talk about the Inferno Match.
Ever since the Undertaker and Kane stepped into the ring at Unforgiven 1998 and ring hands set fire to a barrier around the squared circle, the WWE fan base has dreamt of participating in a videogame version of the Inferno Match. This year, THQ's delivering that vision. My inaugural bout in the flaming fight pitted my CM Punk against the one and only Matt Hardy. The entrances progressed as normal -- Punk trotting to ringside in his T-shirt (which hugged the champ's body and looked more realistic than ever) and Chicago-inspired trunks before wringing his hands in the middle of the ring; then, without a load screen, Matt Hardy's music blared and Version 1 ran to the ring -- and I got to see Punk pacing Matt as the fire round ringside illuminated his face.
The first thing you'll notice is that SVR 09's Inferno Match takes advantage of the fact that it's a videogame. Rather than have some lame metal halo around the ring that actually houses the flames, the actual ring-rope sides of the ring are on fire. You pull off body slams and other moves, and, as the bodies impact, the flames shoot up.
Think Go to Sleep is a gruesome looking finisher in real life? Take a gander at it as flames explode around Matt Hardy's impromptu dental work and the screen shatters like broken glass -- the broken glass bit is the new visual that goes off at the moment of Finisher impact and looks pretty damn cool.
As you're pulling off these moves and the ring's belching towers of fire, a smaller box in the lower left corner is tracking the heat of the ring. It'll start at a bone-chilling 300 degrees and work its way up as the moves get more and more devastating. The rising flames also mean the screen's getting redder and redder. Anyway, when the pyro gets to a balmy 500 degrees, that's your chance to shove your opponent into the hellfire. To do this, you'll need to pull off a strong grapple and then work the enemy to whatever side of the ring you want with the left stick.
If you're the dude getting dragged to the fire, you'll have to be on top of your face buttons to get out before you're lit up. When the strong grapple starts and you guys begin inching forward, your controller's face buttons will pop up near your HUD and you'll have to tap the buttons that are lighting up. If you pull off the taps quick enough, you'll break the hold and save yourself from third-degree burns. If you fail to keep up, the buttons will disappear as your opponent goes for the final shove into the fire and then the buttons will pop back up for one final command. Miss that move, and you're extra crispy.
What happens when you go up like a brother of the Undertaker? The camera cuts to your dude rolling around ringside on fire -- a rolling/freaking out animation that stays on a disturbingly long time -- before fire extinguisher fog blasts in from the sides to save the day.
There are other caveats to this match, such as the fact that you can't bounce off the ropes when the temperature is at its highest, the ring'll stick around that 500 degree mark for about as long as a momentum meter would flash, and so on, but one thing I can tell you is that this match is eye candy. Sure, it's goofy to see Triple H rolling around on fire, and it felt a bit sluggish moving a grappled opponent to the flaming ropes, but the fire growing and the roaring sound after every big move is a brilliant touch.
I've played these games for a long time, and the close up on CM Punk rearing back on the Anaconda Vise as flames grew behind him might be one of the coolest shots I've ever come across.
Even though I only got a brief taste of SVR 09, there seems to be a lot of nifty tidbits like the Inferno Match, and I'd personally put the refined Fighting Abilities in that category. Last year, THQ and Yuke's debuted Fighting Styles -- a grouping of abilities that gave benefits to the characters based on how they acted in the ring. This year, the developers are dropping the styles but keeping the abilities. Look at it this way: last year, Randy Orton was a Dirty Superstar. This meant that he had access to a bunch of dirty abilities such as removing turnbuckle covers and pushing the ref into opponents, but he didn't have access to the abilities that were in the Hardcore Fighting Style. This year, every Superstar will have six abilities. This means that single grappler can have the ability to remove turnbuckle covers as well as the ability to bash himself over the head with a chair to regenerate limb damage. These abilities are now independent. There's no longer a title you have to worry about.
Breaking the abilities up seems like it's going to amplify the individuality that Fighting Styles introduced. During my demo, THQ talked about trying to make this game feel more like WWE programming than ever before and the Fighting Abilities are a big part of that. For example, when was the last time you saw a match end in a simple Boston Crab or arm-bar submission hold? If a wrestler puts someone into a hold that isn't his or her finisher in real life, it's not likely the opponent is going to tap. For years, that hasn't been the case in SVR. If you wore the legs of Shawn Michaels down, he'd tap to the simplest of leg holds.
That's not going to happen anymore.
If you don't have the Submission Specialist ability, you can't make someone submit to a plain old hold. Now, don't get me wrong -- John Cena's no Submission Specialist but his STFU will make people submit because it's a Finisher/Signature move. That fact is universal, but nobody's submitting to a figure four unless it's a Finisher/Signature or the person pulling the move off is a Submission Specialist.
If you haven't caught on in your years of reading IGN's SVR coverage, THQ is pretty good at keeping secrets. The company says that there are "big, big features" that it hasn't announced for SVR 09, but that didn't stop us from getting the dirt on a few more of the 20 Fighting Abilities. Possum Pin's one of the abilities, but it's been tweaked a bit from last year; this time, you have to spend a stored finisher to pull the move off. There's the Dirty Pin (using the ropes for leverage), Hardcore Resurrection (the aforementioned beat-yourself-up-to-heal move), Object Specialist (a proficiency with items from under the ring), Lock Pick (a one-button press that gets you out of submissions), Steal Taunt, and Steal Finisher.
Beyond all those abilities were three that we found especially intriguing. Kip-Up is the tried-and-true Shawn Michaels move of kicking up from your back to your feet. A Superstar with this ability will only be able to do the move once per match and only when he's racked up critical damage. Once the guy pops up, he'll have a full momentum meter and be momentarily damageless. The next ability we really dug was Fan Favorite. We didn't get to see it in action, but what will happen is the Superstar will begin taunting and clapping in an attempt to get the crowd going. If the opponent doesn't stop the Superstar, the crowd will get in on the claps, they'll become deafening, and the foe will cover his ears and be open for an attack. The last "big one" we got to hear about was Resiliency. This is kind of an always-on attribute that won't be deployed by a button press but should definitely affect the way the game plays. In previous years, schooling the Hurricane was the same as schooling Triple H. If you knew your moves, you could dominate different guys in the same way. THQ's looking to fix that with Resiliency, a Fighting Ability that makes a main eventer feel like a main eventer when you're wrestling him. A Superstar with this ability will need more bang to knock on his buck.
Now, to put down these main eventers, you're going to need some killer moves, and this year you'll get to make your own with Create-A-Finisher. As I'm sure many of you are aware, I was a two-time Backyard Wrestling Federation Champion before landing on IGN's doorstep. My title reigns were marked with drinking laundry detergent and a terrifying move known as the Greggy Guillotine -- a fireman's carry that spun out into a Stone Cold Stunner. I actually stole the move from the character creation found in N64's WrestleMania 2000, and I have been heartbroken every year since then to find it missing from the SmackDown series.
Finally, my virtual Gruesome Greggy can pull off his very own finisher.
Create-A-Finisher presents you with more than 500 animations to slot in up to ten steps that will make up your masterpiece. When I clicked on step one, I was taken to a list of all the available moves. Tapping R1/L1 cycled through move subcategories such as blood-drawing maneuvers, taunts, holds, and more, while the right stick rotated the green guy demonstrating the moves as well as zooming in and out. Of course, there is no such thing as a DQ in the BYWF, so I choose to start the Guillotine animation with a swift kick to my opponent's groin. For step two, Gruesome Greggy yanks the foe into a fireman's carry. Step three spins the bad guy out into a Diamond Cutter position, and step four finishes the cutter.
Sure, it wasn't the stunner -- only a few dozen of the 500-plus moves were available in the build I was playing -- but it was still awesome looking and a cinch to set up. With the move running next to my four-step layout, I decided the kick wasn't swift enough and jumped back to crank the speed of the blow up to 150 percent. With the brutal combination complete, I jumped in and named the move -- you can choose from a set of pre-assigned names if you want to hear the announcers say it or create your own title -- and saved the creation. From there, it was as simple as assigning it to an actual or created Superstar.
Our final touchstone in our WWE afternoon was the revamped tag team match. Although the company's keeping a lid on all the bells and whistles under SVR 09's hood, THQ's had no problem promoting the double team finishers, hot tags and more that this mode features. For our bout, we teamed up with a developer to become the Hardys (EXTREME!) and went up against Rey Mysterio and Mr. Kennedy. Jeff and Matt came out as a team and under the Hardy moniker, while Rey and Ken entered solo.
As Jeff, the match began with me perched on the apron watching Matt work. Since it announced that SVR 09 was overhauling the tag match, THQ has said that it's going to make the inactive tag team member still feel like they're part of the match. From my quick taste, it appears to be working. While Matt wailed on Rey, I could stalk around the two sides of the ring that touched our corner, I could jump to the arena floor, I could crawl into the ring, and I had a number of offensive moves I could pull off when the time was right. When Matt whipped Rey at the ropes, a button tap had Jeff yank the rope down so that Rey went flying. If Mr. 619 got too close to Jeff, I could use the right stick to grab the munchkin and hold him so Matt could get in a few shots -- however, I ran the risk of Rey reversing when I tried this and belting me in the jaw. If Matt decided to be selfish, I could also use the right analog stick to force the tag and get my time in the limelight.
Tag teams are nothing without teamwork though, and SVR 09's got a wealth of options. There's a ton of double team moves -- think Jeff and Matt's copyrighted crotch/leg drop thing -- that can be set off by one player initiating a strong grapple and the other guy just grappling normally. On top of that, there are around 20 dedicated tag team finishers -- such as the Twist of Fate followed by the Swanton Bomb. Some of those double team finishers will be self-explanatory when you're rolling with an established squad, but if you're pitting Wrestler A with Wrestler B and the two aren't connected, you'll have to pair them from the main menu -- a lot like the old Create-A-Stable -- and assign the finisher there.
Thankfully, tag teams will share a momentum bar, so there's no need to worry about tagging in a partner and losing your power. On top of that, the new Hot Tag seemed pretty cool. I let Jeff get beat on a bit by Kennedy, and then began holding the D-pad. Slowly but surely, the onscreen momentum meter began to burn and finally erupted in flames. When this happened, I just had to get Jeff on our side of the ring, and the camera jumped to a beleaguered Jeff making the weary, last ditch dive to tag in Matt. Like a ball of brutality, Matt leapt into the ring, took out the legal man, and then swung at Rey on the apron. As this happened, a button prompt appeared on the screen. If our partner piloting Matt hit the proper button, Rey would go down. However, our partner missed the prompt. Rey nailed Matt and ended the Hot Tag antics.
When I read the message boards or check the comments on an SVR story, I almost always see someone criticizing THQ for "putting out the same game every year." As a fan, you and I could argue the fact that there's always new arenas, wrestlers, modes, and more, but there is some truth to the criticism -- THQ constantly builds on what makes its games good. Although I've only logged a little more than an hour with SVR 09, this title seems to be building in the right ways. There's a more appropriate amount of echo in the ring announcers voices; there are four different crowds that will show up in the game's arenas; when a ref's counting a pinfall or ring out his voice now sounds as if it's coming from inside the ring and there are no more big, hokey numbers that pop up on the screen; and when Superstars such as the Undertaker perform finishers that end in a pin, the game's going to make the move flow so that the sequence doesn't end in a rope break. The character models look sharper than ever, the entrances are grand, we don't even know all the features yet, and there's going to be downloadable content.
I am legitimately excited about this title, and I don't see how fans of the franchise couldn't be.
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