WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007

The Good
The game contains a huge selection of characters, I think there are more than a hundred and all of them are real wrestlers from Smackdown and Raw. You can also make your own characters if you're not satisfied with the current offer. Each character also has his or her own special moves and finishers that make the character unique and there is a difference in weight classes. I really liked this because it isn't fun if you can't find your favorite wrestler in a wrestling game. I wouldn't have liked it if I couldn't play as Rey Mysterio for example.

The story mode is very original and I was really surprised by that. Once you pick a wrestler you get a story that connects all the matches you have to fight in to each other. You hear from the other wrestler's through phone-calls, text-messages, news from the internet or by reading WWE magazine. The story is also full of plot-twists and interesting events that kept me interested long enough to finish two different careers. highlights were the matches that happened in a cage or with a lot of wrestlers at the same time.

The music is also full of rock songs and sometimes a rap number, those songs fit very well with the whole "tough guys fighting each other" theme. The library isn't that big, but there is no music during the matches (this is used to prevent distraction, nobody wants to lose a match because they wanted to headbang for a few seconds), so you only hear it when you are busy with the menus or when you are walking around your locker room.

Here is what I want you to do; go to the computer in-game locker room and buy the Diva backgrounds, go to the table and go to the menu where you can select which backgrounds are active. Now make sure that you turn-off all the backgrounds except the ones the Diva ones. Whenever you go to a loading screen now there will be one of the beautiful Smackdown or Raw ladies on the loading screen, much better to look at than all those sweaty guys!

The Bad
Controls are a bit annoying; A enters and leaves the ring, X punches, Y runs, B does nothing and the right stick is used for all the attacks that matter. How you have to fight in a match is also very confusing; you have to damage your opponent as much as possible, when they had enough abuse you have to get them on the ground and use down on the right stick to pin them. There are also some moves the hints talk about like an "Irish Whip", but how you do them and what they do is never explained.

The bots are very annoying and although it's hard to believe, they are actually worse than those in Left 4 Dead. I said that the bots Left 4 Dead (2) sometimes stop working, but these bots never work; They always stand still in the ring, give the enemy enough time to get crawl back to their feet and never heal their wounds before resuming the fight. It was when I had to fight a "3 vs 3" match with two bots in my team that I lost my interest in the career because the bots ALWAYS CHEAT. When you pin the one in the ring, the two opponents that aren't allowed to be in will enter and help their partner, but the referee never stops them until it's too late.

Some of the matches have really weird names and make it hard to figure-out what they require you to do. There was a match in a cage that apparently required me to leave the cage, but I was just fighting the enemies normally, there was a match with six wrestlers in the same ring where there apparently were no teams and a big match where you had to pick a number that told you when you could enter the match. It's very confusing, but this is probably just something you need to learn.

The Bottom Line
People who love wrestling and the WWE will no doubt love this game, it's full of their favorite wrestlers who all have their own attacks and it has a pretty decent story considering this is a sports game. I watched a few matches and I consider myself a bit of a fan, but at the same time I do realize that people who aren't will end up with a sports game with clunky controls and very annoying bots.

The music is pretty nice and perhaps those people will actually enjoy the story, but it will probably not be worth it for them because there are better sports games (and fighting games) out there for them.