WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009

 PlayStation 2
User Score
7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 54 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 54
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 54
  3. Negative: 6 out of 54
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. BAPACop
    Jul 7, 2013
    0
    There are so many things wrong it's hard to decide where to begin. The controls seem to be intended as context-sensitive but fail miserably; holding left on the control stick and pushing X can mean either getting out of the ring, tagging in your partner, bouncing off the ropes, or picking an item off the ground. The game usually picks whatever is most inconvenient at the time. Second,There are so many things wrong it's hard to decide where to begin. The controls seem to be intended as context-sensitive but fail miserably; holding left on the control stick and pushing X can mean either getting out of the ring, tagging in your partner, bouncing off the ropes, or picking an item off the ground. The game usually picks whatever is most inconvenient at the time. Second, Career mode demonstrates that the developers are utterly incompetent; not only does it completely ignore the basic concept of a difficulty curve (everything is entirely too easy until the Championship, at which point the difficulty gets stupidly-high) but they apparently can't even do a simple conditional check (none of the balance settings in the Options menu are used). Finally, while the AI can reverse your attacks 95% of the time you'd be hard-pressed to do it yourself; my video recordings show that the reversal prompt is visible for, on average, 4 frames. That's 0.06 seconds. For comparison, the average human reaction time is approximately 0.2 seconds. As if making it literally impossible to hit the prompt wasn't bad enough, I used an emulator to slow down the game to 5fps and it turns out at least 50% of the screen prompts are simply lies and pressing the button while the prompt is on-screen does literally nothing. To summarize, this game is an unplayable mess.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

6
#6 Best PS2 Game of 2008
30
#30 Most Discussed PS2 Game of 2008
2
#2 Most Shared PS2 Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Games Master UK
    86
    A competitive effort, but the prospect of DLC seals it for the next-gen. [Dec 2008, p.57]
  2. IGN
    70
    A fun game that falls short of its potential. The Roster Editor is a welcome addition, Create-A-Finisher could be deeper but is a great first effort, the Inferno Match is over-the-top but fun, and Road to WrestleMania is one of the best story modes I've seen in a wrestling game in years. However, I can't shake the feeling that I'm playing last year's game when we get down to the nitty gritty match mechanics.
    Read full review
  3. 1UP
    91
    To all the SmackDown haters out there: If you're going to jump back in the ring, this is the year to do it. Both of these exciting new additions, along with the aforementioned improvements -- and the upcoming downloadable content -- make SVR09 this year's grapple-game champ.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »