"Are You Ready Break It Down". Read This Great In Depth Review.
Now the graphics in Here Comes The Pain were pretty good. Now when Smackdown! VS Raw 2006 came out it had a 70% bigger polygon count. Now the graphics looked alot more realistic than Here Comes The Pain. The character models were superb except for some models (Randy Orton and Triple H). When you played backstage the lighting changed and it looked as if the graphics changed as well. Overall the graphics were really nice in Smackdown! VS Raw.
The sound in Here Comes The Pain was well done as well but now with the release or Smackdown! VS Raw the sound improved as well. The sound was nearly perfect in Smackdown! VS Raw from the entrances to the slamming sounds in the ring everything seemed perfect. Then when you actually play the matches you relize that sound isnt really all that perfect. Some times the commentary made no sense and got cut off. Then when you went in season mode the voice overs werent that good at all. The lip sinking wasnt good also. So overall the sound in Smackdown! VS Raw was alright but could have been better.
Now onto the most important factor in any game including wrestling games the gameplay. Now the gameplay mechanics in Here Comes The Pain were well dont but could get annoying alot of the time. For example in Here Comes The Pain the computer would only reverse 90% of the time and thats how he got your body to red. Now in Smackdown! VS Raw the A.I. has really been dumbed down alot. Making the computer really easy to beat. Now most people say that Smackdown! VS Raw wasnt a big improvement over Here Comes The Pain well to me it was a pretty big improvement. First the new pre-match mini games were all really nice but they got boring after the first few matches. Then you have the slap contests in the corner which did add something new to the table but I think it could have been used better and in more situations. They improved the royal rumble with brand new ring-out meters but the meters took to much space but were useful to some people. Story Mode was a pretty big let down this year as well. When you get a great storymode like in Here Comes The Pain and all its branching storylines and you compare it to Smackdown! VS Raw's storymode Smackdown! VS Raw 's storymode looks really bad. With only 3-4 endings to get it got pretty boring really fast. Then another new feature they add this year that was awaited by fans for along time is online. Man did they screw up badly on this as well. Now I understand that its their first crack at it and all but they could have had more than two matches (Single Match & Bra And Panties Match). So online wasnt really that big of a factor. But nothing beats the excitement and fun when you have some freinds over and play the game. With over 80+ match types how could you get bored.
So overall Smackdown! VS Raw is a really great game. If it just overcame some of those flaws like commentary ,voice overs, online, and A.I. it would have been the best Smackdown! game to date. Expect all those problems that I said to be fixed in this years Smackdown VS Raw 2006. Meanwhile if you cant wait go to your nearest game store buy this game for $20 call some freinds over and have fun. I hope you enjoyed reading this review.