Smackdown vs Raw

I remember all those years ago when wrestling games were good. I remember firing up my PS2 and slotting in Just Bring It and having an excellent couple of hours smashing badly modelled bodybuilder's faces into the ground. I remember being somewhat satisfied with the career mode, for the time is was in-depth enough (although looking back today it really is abysmal). Ever since then, every WWE game that has arrived for console gamers has been terrible. The same game has had a graphical revamp and a control system change every year since I played Just Bring It, and nothing much else has changed. They may as well have just released patches for the original version and left it at that.

The main disappointment has always been season mode. It strikes me as odd that a game based on a television franchise that revolves entirely around the story (lets be honest, the actual wrestling doesn't compare to UFC) would simply omit any type of engaging storyline! It doesn't take that much effort to make everything much more adventure-like, and yet every year there is a distinctly familiar feeling of disappointment on completion of the season mode. And every year there is a huge thing made about it on the big review sites. And every year the next instalment is touted to have 'a great season mode'. Bollocks.

So with the release of Smackdown vs Raw 2010, is it really worth going out and buying the same old recycled game with a few new superstars and an equally terrible season mode? I wouldn't say so. I'd say if you have bought a WWE game for any next-gen console then you already have enough Smackdown vs Raw, save your money for a different game that actually has some depth and work put into it.

Maybe I'm wrong, but if we all just sit and ignore the new instalment in this series then maybe THQ will get the idea. Include some new features - and make them ones that we actually want to use. Create-a-finisher? Why? Season mode - end of. The only way this game will ever be a gaming success is if it ceases to be a financial success and THQ are forced to listen.

I'm probably going to buy it anyway. I - like many people - cannot resist the urge to go out and buy it. I'll get it. It'll be crap. I'll trade it in. Unless they really have fulfilled a promise this time.

Leave the gameplay alone. Give me some kind of storyline. Please.

Follow? On the right hand side of the screen? You know you want to.