SmackDown! Versus Raw 2006 Review

By Graham Swann Published 10 November, 2005

Graham wrestles with his conscience.

Version tested: PlayStation 2

Reviewing games isn’t as rock and roll as it used to be. These annual updates don’t need much reviewing, seeing as they’re too important for any drastic changes to be made. It’s about protecting the franchise, innit? The easiest thing to do would be to sit down with a nice PowerPoint presentation that points out what’s different this year from last year, then make a few notes.

This year’s presentation on the new stuff in SmackDown! Versus Raw 2006 is the shortest yet. Which is good - PowerPoint presentations suck. But SmackDown! doesn’t.

The easiest bullet point to pick up on is the way it looks and how the wrestlers carry themselves. It’s obviously better. The ring entrances are now two, three or ten times longer, with presentation copying that of the TV shows well. The Undertaker doesn’t just plod to the ring with his music playing. He trots around the walkway, works the crowd, disappears into a haze of smoke and camera flashes (also new and better), taking ages and really milking it.

It’s great to see. At least, it’s great to see once. Then you skip it every time or better still turn the Entrances off completely at the Options screen to save on loading time. Which kind of sums up most of the changes in SmackDown! Versus Raw 2006 - they’re good, but so minor that if you turned them all off you’d be hard pushed to notice any differences at all.

Fear change

'SmackDown! Versus Raw 2006' Screenshot blood

Blood erupts after a certain level of facial beating (it's a South London simulator).

Also fiddled with for no particular reason or benefit is the energy bar system. Last year’s perfectly adequate Clean/Dirty gauge has been dumped in favour of a Stamina and Momentum set up. The idea being to reward players for pacing themselves and to punish lazy skanks who hammer the same move over and over again.

But it doesn’t make much of a difference when you play. Yes the Stamina bar goes one way, the Momentum swings against you and the little bars up top there tell you you’ve apparently got the upper hand, but this isn’t a new feeling - it’s already been happening automatically beneath the surface in SmackDown! games for years.

As ever, SmackDown! is still about simple counter-attacking and momentum building, with novelty match types letting you do it all in a cage or while racing to climb up a ladder.

This year, us lucky people are treated to... a new move! Pressing triangle and circle together pulls off a Power Irish Whip, which is nice, but hardly an exciting new world of innovation. The wrestlers still share virtually all the same basic grappling and attack moves. The end result of your button press may look different depending on who you’re playing as, but once you’ve learned how to wrestle, all the characters - even the sexy Diva ladies in their lovely bras - are controlled with the same set of button presses.

Whipcrack away!

'SmackDown! Versus Raw 2006' Screenshot buried

The Buried Alive match. Or Buried Dead, when that shovel hits.

It’s not up there with Virtua Fighter 4 or even Pit Fighter on the Nokia 6680 when it comes to depth and realism. Which is why those entrances and the convincing wrestler faces are so very important. If it wasn’t for the look of the thing, the façade of being ‘in’ the WWE would crumble away completely.

The online aspect has seen a large retooling, for the benefit of the 20 people likely to bother trying it. Most of the match types are playable online now, four people can dish out pretend violence at the same time and it’s possible to trade created wrestlers - so now the world can see your anatomically correct Carol Vorderman.

But when playing on your own there’s... exactly as much to do as there was in last year’s game. A few new backstage areas have been added to fight in, a handful of new match types are available (including the Buried Alive match, which is only marginally different from the old Casket match so kind of a letdown in the end), and there’s the joy of the Fulfill Your Fantasy Diva-stripping game; that’s just a new name for the Bra and Panties match from last year, so don’t get too excited. The aim is still to virtually molest your female opponent by playing rough and tearing her clothes off, only now there’s a bed and cushions up on stage so it looks more like she’s consenting to it.

There’s also a minor sprinkling of new wrestlers, but not many to bother TXT-ing UR home about. ‘The Masterpiece’ Chris Masters is in, ‘Useless’ Eugene (we made that nickname for him up ourselves) and a few other charisma-free new guys make up a lacklustre collection of mostly familiar faces. It’s a disappointing roster, but then so is the WWE’s these days.

The Career game is the same as it ever was, except now twice as long - and it’s still your usual tame WWE story with backstage cut-scenes and the odd bit of American slapstick comedy. It’s slow, big and not particularly thrilling, but remains a good enough way to give single players lots of matches to fight for ages.

Clever dog

'SmackDown! Versus Raw 2006' Screenshot cage

The camera doesn't cope well with fighting in enclosed cages.

So, those are the new things. As for old stuff making a comeback, well, there’s loads of it, good and bad. The poor old PlayStation 2 still isn’t capable of recreating even the basic intelligence of an average wrestler (about the same level as a dog, only with a slightly larger vocabulary). So when fighting a PS2-controlled wrestler, expect to catch them attacking empty spaces, endlessly climbing in and out of the ring, messing up with weapons and falling over. It’s pretty poor on occasion.

The line-up of ‘Classic’ old wrestlers is familiar too, the moves are virtually unchanged, and it’s all very much the same as it was before. Which means it looks polished and authentic, it plays in the same simple, semi-automatic fashion, and there’s a load to do especially if you’re a member of an active multiplayer ‘crew’.

But it is starting to spread itself a bit thin. If the SmackDown! series doesn’t start making proper innovations instead of these minor cosmetic tweaks year after year, there’s every chance we’ll get a little bored of it. For now, though, SmackDown! is still as good as wrestling games can get. And probably meant for kids.

7 / 10

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About Graham Swann

Read more articles from Graham by visiting the Graham Swann archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • petebritish #1 6 years ago

    Even my kids who love watching wrestling are bored with the style of this game(and the current so called stars). Why can't they do a deal with namco and use the Tekken or soul caliber engine but with a wrestling slant. Now that would a great game make....

  • ssuellid #2 6 years ago

    Curious to know how wrestling continues on TV and in games in the US without someone like Thompson kicking up a fuss?

  • jellyhead #3 6 years ago

    Because all the wrestlers are god-fearing, all-american patriots and you're a terrorist for suggesting that Thompson takes these games to court.
    They're heroes, man. :)
    / wipes tear

    Team America!

  • caligari #4 6 years ago

    I'm still confused as to if I should replace my broken PS2 (and long sold Gamecube) with ANOTHER PS2 or an Xbox.

    A certain new game by a certain company who made a certain ICO is swaying me back towards the PS2.

    That and the fact that I hear horror stories about the Pro Evo 5 controls on the Xbox.

    See how TORMENTED my mind is!? I'm posting irrelevant comments on the end of a Smackdown review...although I usually find these games rather fun!

  • w00t #5 6 years ago

    lol @ jellyhead

  • caligari #6 6 years ago

    Oh...I also wondered if anyone could post up a list of the Legends/Classic wrestlers available in this game.

    Still no Ultimate Warrior I'm guessing?

  • Aretak #7 6 years ago

    Warrior and WWE despise each other, so no chance of that.

  • mystic_mick #8 6 years ago

    7/10 This game is worth at least a 9/10. Why do you guy's hate WWE games?

  • Genji #9 6 years ago

    ...because they're crap?

    BOOO YEAH, LET'S GET IT OOOOOOOON

  • mystic_mick #10 6 years ago

    I agree with most of EG's reviews, but I feel that they just hate wrestling games. I wouldn't go as far as calling them crap.

  • ssuellid #11 6 years ago

    wrestling = sub prisoner cell block H plot and acting with less believable violence but more of it. Whats wrong with other soaps?

  • Sid-Nice #12 6 years ago

    Separated at birth.

    Bea Smith

    Steve Bruce

  • Rankin #13 6 years ago

    Ooh, a wrestling comments thread. This should be good.

  • DDevil #14 6 years ago

    Yes, I am buying this tomorrow. I do wish they would overhaul the game properly though! Still, I suspect this will be the last current gen Smackdown.

    I'm a sucker for wrestling games! (or just a sucker in general, take your pick).

    Oh and I'm one of the 20...

  • gaijin #15 6 years ago


    "recreating even the basic intelligence of an average wrestler (about the same level as a dog"

    suddenly some of the mopre crackpot theories circulating in the Dead to Rights thread the other day seem more viable...

  • tengu #16 6 years ago

    The quality of wrestling these days is pretty poor. none of the wrestlers have any real presence or charisma anymore (Except guys like HHH or HBK maybe).

    It's all become far too boring and 'by the numbers'. It's hard to care anymore.

    Er... I mean... wrestling is ghey!

  • mystic_mick #17 6 years ago

    Bea smith & steve bruce arn't in smackdown Vs raw.

  • Razzajazz #18 6 years ago

    Sadly, wrestling is no longer what it once was! The stars are all boring, and the plots, quite frankly, have become ridiculous even by WWE's high standards! I stopped playing the Smackdown series after number 2, and unfortunately, nothing really seems to have changed since then!

  • tobi #19 6 years ago

    7/10!!! you guys are haters!!!

  • kentmonkey #20 6 years ago

    Why is it the PS2's fault that the AI is so bad? It's not the console, it's the developers. This hasn't advanced in years and has been pretty much like the wrestling itself, getting more pizzazz but less enjoyable since 2001. I watch wrestling every week, have done for 5 years, and I don't know why I do anymore. In the last 6 months, I'd say I enjoyed probably 3 shows, out of approx 30.

  • matt31393 #21 6 years ago

    I am so sick of all you European assholes. You wouldn't know a good wrestling game ifit dropped in front of you. You have insanely high expectations and probably don't even watch WWE, so you have no idea what you even want in a game. The person that reviewed sd vs raw 06 is obviously too busy reviewing mario cart and playing with himself to care about a damn good game like sd vs raw 06...and you don't think many people are gunna go online? are you in special ed?
    Edited by 1 at 10/11/05 @ 18:43

  • frod. #22 6 years ago

    ssuellid - They get away with absolute murder (sometimes literally in storyline terms) partly because nobody in the U.S pays any attention. Its still largely seen as something for southern hicks whilst games insiduously creep into suburban homes everywhere. Jellyheads point isnt far from the truth either, they're the first to put on a special fr "our troops abroad" complete with lots of nice slow mo shots of flags blowing in the wind - that buys them lots of leeway for stories about incest and necrophelia.

  • Markusdragon #23 6 years ago

    Smackdown 2 was the only good 3D wrestling game.

    ALSO!:

    "You have insanely high expectations and probably don't even watch WWE, so you have no idea what you even want in a game."
    We have high expectations but have no idea what we want? How does that even make sense!
    Edited by 1 at 10/11/05 @ 19:13

  • Yazoo #24 6 years ago

    Im still not sure whether to take the plunge with this one or to wait and get the PSP version, which sounds like a nice port from what I've heard so far. There again, I'm doing the same with PES5, will need something to play on my consoles :)!

  • caligari #25 6 years ago

    "Im still not sure whether to take the plunge with this one or to wait and get the PSP version"

    I think that kind of sums the PSP up. Either buy the PS2 version...or wait and pay for an inferior version.

    If I was you, I stick to your PS2, and use your PSP as a wrestling buddy on your bed.

    ;)

  • bladeaku #26 6 years ago

    Wrestlng is absolute tosh,Watching a bunch of rednecks in spandex act like a bunch of t**ts infront of yanks who think its real,

  • krudster #27 6 years ago

    I'm not a wrestling fan in the *slightest*, but it is very very dull to hear the same tired old quips levelled against it for the 900th time.

    Get over it people, some people just enjoy the showmanship aspect of it, and, no, they don't think it's real!

  • DDevil #28 6 years ago

    I level the same accusations against Eastender and Corrie.

    A bunch of bad actors and bad scripts with pretend fighting. It's not real, but people think it is - OMG!

  • DocTep #29 6 years ago

    Wrestling is crap because it's fake... *Yawn*

    Here we go agaaaaaaaaain.

    It's like saying movies are crap because they aren't real. Funnily enough, no one does that though. Instead they say the same old tired clichés about watching men pretending to beat each other up, then go and play Streetfighter or Tekken. Now that's irony folks.

    Nice to see Kristan also saying how tiring it's become. Got to give you fair dues for speaking up on the matter. It's very refreshing to see - especially given you aren't a wrestling fan either.

    Have to comment that this sadly isn't the most helpful review however. In fairness i can easily understand that it must be very boring to review yet another yearly update where only a little has changed from the previous year. But what about people who didn't buy the previous version? They're left in a bit of a limbo between being told it's a bit better than a game they haven't played, and being told little enough of this latest version to make their minds up for themselves if it's a worthwhile purchase. I suppose there's always the option to go find last years review and try to work things out that way, but still, it's a bit of a slight review.

    Oh and one final point. Yes WWE is pretty bad right now, but it seems some people are making the mistake of thinking it's high production values must mean it's as good as wrestling gets. It's not. By a long way. As people from the more hardcore end of the gaming spectrum, surely you know that being the biggest in a business doesn't always equate to having the best product?

  • caligari #30 6 years ago

    Are you talking about thumb wrestling?

  • The-Bodybuilder #31 6 years ago

    RIP, eddie guerrero. :(

  • DocTep #32 6 years ago

    Indeed.

    Eddie Guerrero: 1967 - 2005.

    A spectacular showman who, even at his worst, always gave his best. One of the very best in the business - not only of his generation, but of all time.

    Such a bitter thing to swallow that he should die so suddenly, only hours from perhaps wearing the gold once more. Just simply tragic that he should leave behind such a young family, and at such a young age himself. People will wonder what might have been, but i think anyone who cares knows in their heart at least what should have been...

    It feels strange to be leaving this here of all places. But also fitting, since it was whilst browsing the EG forum late last night that i learned the sad news. As many are saying themselves, i thought it was some sick joke at first, and i was deeply saddened to then find out that it was true.

    Eddie you are - and ever shall be - deeply missed.

  • Zork #33 6 years ago

    Yes, the death of Eddie was tragic and unexpected, to say the least. I thought it was some practical joke that Randy Orton was doing (since he has being doing the whole R.I.P. thing to legends he "killed";).

    Anyway, I was a little disapointed by this review. I felt it left out some of the more important parts of the game. Specifically, there was no mention of the GM mode! I've been playing it for a day or two now and I think that the GM mode is the biggest and best addition to the series in a long time. From other reviews I've read, most people have agreed. Yet, there wasn't even a little mention of it in this review...