Great wrestling game, with tons of things to do.
General/Summary: First of all, let me point out that I JUST bought my first 'next-gen' game console a couple of weeks ago (PS2), meaning that the last wrestling game I played before this was WWF Smackdown! 2: Know Your Role for the original PlayStation. Now, for all you 'PS2 veterans' out there, you'd probably think that someone like me, just fresh from the old PS1 days, would take one look at this clearly superior PS2 wrestling game, & give it a 5 out of 5 across the board, right? Yeah.....yeah, I thought so, too.....noooooot exactly. See I bought this game for 3 reasons: it's the latest WWE game, I heard that it got good reviews, & Bret Hart is an official, unlockable wrestler [Finally! no more CAW searching for that 80's Michael Jackson long, oily, & curly hairstyle, & that stupid skull with wings on it!]. Like every other WWE gamer out there, I'd hoped that all the problems from the last WWE game I played would be fixed. I, going from Smackdown! 2 to Smackdown! vs. Raw, should have been the most impressed, and I was.......but not completely. The gameplay was pretty solid, not too hard at all to pick up. This time around, THQ pretty much ignored the novelty of 'hardcore' wrestling (only about 6 or 7 weapons in the game, & only 2 backstage areas), & focused more on the novelty of WWE Divas (menu models & bra-&-panty matches). The much-awaited feature of actual voice-overs came too little, too late (it would have been much more appreciated in the days of Austin, The Rock, & DX), & wasn't even done properly (wrestlers recording the VO's in front of a mic in a studio, clearly not told to pretend that they were in front of a world TV audience & tens of thousands of cheering/booing fans). There are more match types & player configurations than ever, & WWE continues to pay homage to its Superstars of yesteryear, this time with the likes of Jimmy Snuka, Bret Hart, & Legion Of Doom (R.I.P. Hawk). The list of moves & variations continues to grow, & the battle for a complete & satisfactory Create-A-Superstar mode rages on. However, when you ignore the extra, not-as-important features, & focus on the actual gameplay, you've got a near-perfect pro wrestling game, that'll definitely be enjoyed by single players, & especially multiple players.