The gaming concept that is “professional wrestling” is one of the more frustrating for those of us who happen to be savvy gamers and wrestling fans. The notion of exclusive brand licensing combined with the ill conceived notion that wrestling fans are Cro-Magnons incapable of cognitive thought processes have perpetuated what we know of as American wrestling games. Many of these American wrestling games cannot even be considered playable, or if so, not much fun. The more recent ones like Smackdown vs. Raw 2006 are indeed fun and they do create a realistic reproduction of pro wrestling, but they still fall short of the kind of depth that a hard core gamer expects.

As a result I am of two opinions when it comes to Smackdown Vs. Raw 2006. On the one hand I really had a lot of fun playing it. Even though the game is overly simple and lacks significant depth, it really and truly is fun. In order for it to be fun though, I had to throw up my hands in certain areas. I had to ignore the paper-rock-scissors counter system and pretend I was really watching a wrestling match instead of actively participating. Once I detached myself from the competitive need to win the matches (the game promotes this by giving substantial if not impressive rewards just for participation) the lack of depth becomes less of a deal breaker. So it’s fair to say that on the one hand, under the right circumstances, Smackdown Vs. Raw 2006 is a really fun game and does a good job setting up a realistic wrestling match.

But there’s still that other hand. And that hand says wrestling games should have more depth. The back of the game box touts that the game’s “revolutionary momentum system adds increased depth with less complexity” but I contend that they’re missing the point. It’s not a perfect comparison, but for a moment consider a game like Soul Calibur (pick your version it doesn’t matter). In this game you can play using nothing but random button presses for a reasonable looking match or you can really dive into the game’s depth. Every character has a defined set of moves with different strengths, weaknesses and timings.

Why is this so hard to implement in a wrestling game? It’s apparently not for Japanese developers because they’ve done it. The depth doesn’t exist in terms of high, medium or low attacks necessarily, but how and when you use a particular move in a match as well as how the crowd is reacting to your spectacle are both concepts that add depth and have actually been implemented in other games. It would be pure delight for the moves to have meaning beyond just being one of four directions. If an opponent is not tired, performing a big move should be a lot easier to counter than a smaller move. Let move reversals be context sensitive. How great would it be if a difficult to perform move was reversed into an equally impressive move? You shouldn’t even be able to execute these moves until you’ve worked on your opponent with other simpler moves. And I’m not talking about the finisher move. All moves should reflect their difficulty to perform by being easier to counter or requiring a more tired opponent. They should deplete stamina and cause damage to varying degrees as well. Most of all, these concepts need to be apparent to the gamer so he can know how to change his strategy. 

But let me get off my soapbox so I can go over some of the reasons why Smackdown Vs. Raw 2006 is my favorite of the Western wrestling games I have played thus far. One thing the PR folks and I agree on is that the game has the best season mode ever. On this point I could not agree more. First off you can pick from many of the existing Smackdown or Raw Superstars with individual story lines. Second, like I said before, you receive rewards whether or not you win the match so your Superstar will gain skill and the season will advance even if you don’t win every match. The dialogue and voice acting are well written and well acted respectively. There is a great deal of believability (to an extent expected in a wrestling game) in the locker room type cut scenes that makes me glad. All in all, it’s a great reproduction of the television spectacle.

The stamina system is an improvement over what’s in Day Of Reckoning on the GameCube. In the PS2 version, you do use up your stamina but also have the ability to press a button to recharge it faster than normal. This ability to take a breather and get your stamina back has been present in Eastern versions and keeps the stamina system from being completely broken. The only thing that irks me about the stamina system is the CPU’s apparent lack of awareness of the feature’s existence. Normally, this flaw is not readily apparent, but in one particular elimination match I got eliminated third leaving two CPU players to finish up the match. It was entertaining to watch, and I was having some fun roughing up the other eliminated wrestlers outside the ring, but at a certain point both CPU wrestlers still competing had no stamina left. Rather than one or the other taking a breather, they waited until they had just enough energy to perform a single move, executed it and then promptly fell over. The match ended several minutes later, but I wasn’t there to see it because I left the controller on the coffee table and did something else for like 25 minutes.

Character generation in this game is now on par with the state of the art for Western wrestling games. There is a wide variety of builds to choose from and customization is extensive. The costumes however are basically pick-from-list though. There are many to choose from, but you can’t go really buck wild and design your own suits.

The graphics are great for the system in question. But after playing the Xbox 360, I wanted to stab myself in the eyes to rid my brain of the horrid low definition imagery. But that’s a statement of how good the Xbox 360 looks, not how bad Smackdown Vs. Raw 2006 looks, because it really does look good. The characters in the game are exceptionally realistic to their real life counterparts and they animate well too. It looks as if they’ve even fixed the silly armpit-stretching problem that occurred whenever your superstar would raise his arms above his head to hype up the crowd. I can say without jest, that I am pleased with the way this game looks.

I tooled around with the online mode and it felt like trying to make a fire by rubbing two sticks together, my personal definition of primitive. I understand that the game system itself lacks an integrated online system, but that just means that all games suffer equally compared to their Microsoft competitors. The cumbersome interface and the lack of human interaction are really the only things I can report in a negative light about the online mode though. There was very little lag, if any, and the game play was exactly the same as playing single player, but with a more unpredictable opponent. The whole experience was hard to stomach for me, having experienced XBox Live for the original system and the newly revamped Live for the 360. It’s hard to even get up the courage to go online with anything else.

Last but not least, you can connect your PS2 to your PSP and copy all of your saved game information. Then you can play your current season, or use one of your Create-A-Wrestler Superstars when you take the game on the road with the PSP. You can even transfer which game options and characters you’ve unlocked using either system. The two games are identical in the way they play, the only significant difference being the polygon count. This means you never have to go without your wrestling fix. It really is a fantastic way to use the connectivity between the two systems. I just wish the PS2 wasn’t already on its way out with the launch of the 360 and the inevitable release of the PS3. Hopefully, they will carry over this connectivity concept over to the next generation Sony system and we’ll see other innovations like this.

So it seems as though THQ’s and Jakks Pacific’s latest foray into the wrestling genre is not without fault, but at the same time not without progress. Their games are getting deeper if at a snail’s pace. They are still fun, if simplistic, and at the end of the day that’s what matters most to most gamers.