WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 landed on November 9, 2008, the tenth game in a series built on the WWE promotion. Yuke’s developed it. THQ published it. TOSE oversaw the Nintendo DS version. The game shipped on PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii and Xbox 360, with a Legacy Mobile Device release also listed. It is the fifth game to carry the SmackDown vs. Raw name, the sequel to SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, and the second of three games to feature the ECW brand.
It is also the first game in the series released during the PG Era.
Buttons During the Walk to the Ring
The pitch this year is superstar control, and the headline feature is interactive entrances and victory scenes. Instead of watching a wrestler walk to the ring on a canned loop, you press buttons during it. That is the whole idea. It is a small idea, and it is the one the game leads with.
The PG Era detail is a first for the series. WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is the first game to ship under that banner, and that is the whole of what the source establishes about it.
Inferno, Tag Teams and Four New Modes
The mechanical additions are real. SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 introduces the Inferno match. It revamps the tag team match. And it adds four new modes: Create-a-Finisher, Road to WrestleMania, Career, and multiplayer season.
That is a lot of new material on paper. The four new modes, in the order the source lists them:
- Create-a-Finisher
- Road to WrestleMania
- Career
- Multiplayer season
The Inferno match and the tag team overhaul sit outside that list because they are match types, not modes. Both are welcome additions to the package.
Create-a-Finisher Is the Whole Argument
Create-a-Finisher is the best thing in SmackDown vs. Raw 2009. A wrestling game lives or dies on whether the moves feel like the moves, and letting players build their own finishing sequence is the one feature here that stands out from the annual update.
It is not a gimmick bolted on for the back of the box. It is the mode that turns a roster update into a game with a point of view about what wrestling is: a set of recognizable, repeatable, personally owned moves. Every wrestler on television has a finisher. Now so does yours.
Road to WrestleMania is the structured single-player path, with a story attached. Career mode covers the long haul. Multiplayer season is there for the people who never play alone.
Split Screen, Third Person, and What the Game Is
SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is a fighting game and a sports game at once, played in third person, with single player, multiplayer and split screen support. That combination is the series’ whole identity, and this entry does not deviate from it.
The split screen matters. A wrestling game is a party game in most living rooms, and the ability to hand someone a controller and settle an argument in the ring is part of why the series works. The interactive entrances feed the same instinct. They are not deep. They are a way to make the moments between the matches feel like yours.
The problem is that the moments between the matches were never the complaint.
The Roster Update Problem
Here is the honest read on SmackDown vs. Raw 2009: it is a good game in a series that had already been good for several years, and the additions are real but narrow.
The Inferno match is a spectacle, not a system. The revamped tag team match fixes something that was broken, which is worth doing but is not the same as adding something new. Career mode and multiplayer season are structures, not ideas. Create-a-Finisher is the one addition that changes how the game plays rather than what it contains.
That is not a disaster. Annual sports and fighting games live on this model, and the model works when the core is strong. The core here is strong. The wrestling feels right, the modes are numerous, and the package is complete.
But the PG Era branding is doing more work than the design is. The game is the television show, faithfully rendered, and if the television show is what you want, this delivers it. If you wanted the game to push past the show, this does not.
What 6.6 Out of 10 Means Here
The published critical aggregate for WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 sits at 6.6 out of 10 across nine outlets. That number is fair, and it is fair for a specific reason: the game is competent everywhere and exceptional in exactly one place.
A 6.6 is not a bad score. It is the score of a game that does its job. The four new modes are real content. The Inferno match is a genuine addition. The tag team revamp addresses a long-standing complaint. Create-a-Finisher is the kind of feature that other wrestling games should have copied.
What holds it at 6.6 rather than pushing higher is ambition. SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is the tenth game in the series and the fifth under this name. The only part of this one that reaches past maintenance is Create-a-Finisher. Everything else is upkeep.
The interactive entrances are the clearest example. They are the headline feature, and they are cosmetic. You press buttons during a walk to the ring. That is not a mechanic. That is a cutscene with a prompt.
A Year in a Long-Running Series
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is a solid entry in a series that had settled into a rhythm. Yuke’s built it, THQ shipped it, and it does what a wrestling game is supposed to do: it puts the television product in your hands and lets you run the matches yourself.
Create-a-Finisher is the reason to own it. Road to WrestleMania gives the single-player side a shape, and the revamped tag team match finally makes a long-broken mode work. The Inferno match is fun once and forgettable after.
What it is not is a step forward. The PG Era branding is new. The roster is new. The design underneath is not.
It was succeeded by WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010. That is the right frame for this one. It is a year in a long-running series, not a high point in it.
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