If you jump right into a match, you’ll be treated to full-blown introductions and entrances. They use the whole arena to put you in the middle of the spectacle and do a fairly good job of recreating the experience from TV. They’re a bit long but you can cut them off whenever you want. The gameplay will be familiar to wrestling game fans, with a few additions. A lot of matches start off with a stare down or shoving match. In a stare down you’ll get that precious first strike if you time your button press well. Shoving matches work exactly like the kick meters in most football games. You press once to start it, again when the meter swings to it’s apex, and one more time at the target spot at the bottom.

But the most obvious addition is the “dirty” or “clean” option. You can choose what kind of ethical creature your wrestler is, and that choice will give you access to different moves. The more you play to your character’s ethical leanings, the more your dirty or clean meter will fill up. When it’s full, your good character will get a little tougher and your cheap character will get a new, cheap move.

Even with this new angle to keep the game fresh, playing against the computer has familiar drawbacks. The game’s AI has trouble with some moves, most notably Irish wips. You’ll often get tossed into the ropes only to watch your opponent either miss with the ensuing attack or just stand there and watch you run by. The computer also doesn’t take advantage of your situation after they’ve beaten you to a pulp. The AI is slow to use finishers and gives you far too much time to recover. The end result is that the game is a lot easier than it would be if the computer made better decisions.

There are, almost literally, tons of options in Smackdown vs Raw. The list of game modes is a mile long and, of course, includes the necessary bra and panties match. Unlockables seem to be the game’s best friend: Clothes, wrestlers, the list is long.

One new feature that’s completely frivolous but pretty cool is the create-a-belt mode. You can design a championship belt using a plethora of options. You can customize it almost from the ground up with different straps, jewels, etc. The bad news is that it requires a lot of your accumulated points to make a new belt and you might prefer to unlock other goodies.

You’ll earn most of the points for unlocking through career mode. You can use any wrestler, including one that you create yourself, decide if he/she will fight dirty or clean, then head out into the circuit. The story between matches is clumsy at best, with cut scenes that have long pauses in between dialogue. All the characters voiced their own dialogue for this game, which has been one of its selling points. That strategy seems about as wise as selling wrestling istelf based on the acting ability of its stars: Most of the dialogue reading is horrible. The pacing between lines is also a mess: It’s also hard to tell if you’re supposed to wait for someone else to talk or hit a button and be done with it. Finally, the story is extremely linear, taking you from one match and scene to the next, so if you’re looking forward to a branching, player-driven story you’ll be let down.

The other thing to keep in mind is the nature of the content. Even if you avoid bra and panties matches, the cut scenes show off the feminine assets of the WWE quite well and often. If you’re offended by Desperate Housewives or the idea of scantily-clad women in public or in locker rooms – or if you just don’t want the kids watching it – Smackdown vs Raw is probably not for you.

In the ring, your wrestlers look as good as any have in a game like this. The characters are detailed and have, mostly, unique physiques. It seems, however, that hit detection could always be better. There are too many instances where a punch lands from too far away, or it seems like you’re lined up perfectly with your opponent, but nothing happens when you go for a grapple or strike. Once the two characters are touching, however, most of these problems go away and animations work very well.

To go online, you can either create a profile or go in anonymously. You’ll choose from a few lobbies based on skill level, amateur to expert. You can create either a regular one-on-one match or a bra and panties match. After you play, it’s back to the lobby. That’s all there is to the online portion. No chatting, no other match types, no scoreboard of any kind. It’s about the absolute minimum offering possible that could still qualify as putting the game online. It feels like someone had to check off “online” on a list of goals but had no interest in making it worthwhile.

The bottom line is that Smackdown! vs Raw does everything other wrestling games have done but with a few improvements. It’s still not perfect, and without any part of the core gameplay being new in any way, the rest of it should be refined more by now. The hit detection is off far too often and the computer doesn’t play smart enough. The number of options and unlockable goodies make it a very deep game, which will make it just the ticket for wrestling fans despite it’s shortcomings.