By Ernest Medina,
Video Game Correspondent

Hit your theme music, walk down to the ring, and get ready to battle it out with the WWE’s best in the latest version in the SVR series.  Compete with over 60 superstars or create your very own and challenge for the WWE championship.

Sound: The actual song list that you will hear when going through the menus is probably the best put together.The mix of superstar theme’s and pay-per-view song s are awesome. All of the wrestler’s themes really get the mood going before a match, just like in real life.

The commentary during matches have always been a bit weak and while 2010 is a little better, you will still hear many lines repeated over time. All of the voice acting for wrestlers that show up during the “Road to WrestleMaina” mode are their real life counterparts, which is very nice; though sometimes the lines feel weakly delivered.

Graphics: Not much to say here. All the wrestlers look good, the crowed looks fine till you get a few rows back, then they all look like paper cutouts copy and pasted a hundred times. There have been no changes to the look of weapons or the ways tables’ break, which is disappointing.

If you make someone bleed, you will see the blood start to actually fall down their face as the match progresses and it can get on their chests and on your fist if you hit them; but they always start bleeding from above their left eye and it never really seems to cover their whole face. And, apparently, there is only one referee in the WWE, because it’s the same guy no matter which show you’re on.

Gameplay: For veterans of the SVR series, you’ll notice some changes. Quick grapples are still the same, but now, with strong grapples, you are able to switch between stances. For example, if you hold R1 and up, you will do a collar and neck tie-up and from there you can execute up to four moves and a submission (by clicking the right analog stick, you can do one submission for each of the four stances). If, from there, you press R1 and the left stick, you will immediately switch to a headlock stance without breaking flow.

When your opponent is on the ground, the move list has been limited to three moves, one for the upper , middle, and lower part of the body (again, by clicking the R3 button, you can do submissions in each of these three spots).  Another addition is being able to turn your opponent around when they are lying on their back (to putting them on their stomach) and when they are against the turnbuckle (turning their back away from it).

It’s a simple addition that can make executing some finishing moves a lot easier, because the game can be very picky about where you are standing and what position your opponent is in is you have ground finishers.  The “Road to WrestleMaina” mode is back and is as good as last year, this time featuring original storylines for Randy Orton, John Cena and Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Edge, Mickey James, and your Created Superstar. Speaking of creating, the create mode has seen some changes.

The “create a superstar” is roughly the same, but now has a weird point system. You have 48 point that use can use to give your created superstar glasses, jackets, among other things. Why this point system exists and why 48 points is beyond me. Another change to the created superstar is the ability to distribute the points you earn to power up your superstar yourself. Anyone who played last year’s game will be very thankful for this change and you earn points no matter what mode you are in, not strictly career mode like last year.

You can now use highlights from you matches to create a custom intro movie, but you can only use highlights from the same match for one movie. If you have five saved highlights, and they’re all from different matches, then you’re screwed. You can now create a Top Rope (Diving) finisher, but still not a back, turnbuckle, or ground finisher.

A new addition to the created mode is the “create a storyline”. With a handful of actions that can go on during a live show ( a contract signing gone bad, someone being run over in the parking lot, ect) and the ability to type in your own lines, many will find this heaps of fun to mess around with, if only to see how outlandish they can make their storylines.

But the absolute BIGGEST add on is the ability to upload your created superstar, storyline, intro movie, and finishers online and make them downloadable to the world. This is a GODSEND. Never again will I have to look up someone’s instructions on how to create Hulk Hogan, then follow it, step-by-step, taking up to an hour of my life and occasionally going “That doesn’t look like the picture…”

If you’ve been playing the Smackdown series since the Playstation days, you probably already own this game.  If you’re a wrestling fan and you’ve been hesitant, go buy it. If you’re not a fan but are curious to see if you like it, then give it a rent.

Final Score: 8/10