The Smackdown franchise began in the year 2000, with the first game in March swiftly followed by its sequel in November for the Playstation One. Two console generations on, it's still going strong, with Yukes and THQ offering updated rosters and tweaked game-play on an annual basis. While the yearly changes appear subtle to many, to look at the first and most recent iteration of the series would give you a clear idea of how much it has evolved over time.
The yearly changes to game-play and graphics, which aren't always positively received, do generally tend to be overshadowed by the presence of the "big new feature(s)" that each title seems to boast. While last year's Smackdown boasted improved tag team play, people seemed more interested in the arrival of the Create-A-Finisher mode. It's back again this year too, with the ability to create finishing moves executed off the top rope this time. But naturally, this time it's being overshadowed by something that has the potential to be very special indeed - Smackdown 2010 now lets you create an entire story.
Finished with the Road to Wrestlemania mode? Not bothered about winding your way through match after match in Career mode? Never matter, because you can now feverishly create your own stories for playing through and/or sharing with the world. At the same time, you can download elaborate, humorous and downright fun stories that emanate from the minds of the PS3 and Xbox 360 gaming communities.
A created story can last up to two years, with spaces available to create Raw, ECW and Smackdown television shows, along with the regular Pay Pay Per view events. If you just want to create a story featuring one brand, that's perfectly fine - any unused shows will be skipped in the finished product. Aside from simply match-making, however, you can also create your own cut-scenes for use in the story. Want to have a wrestler cut a promo on his opponent before a match? Now you can, and you can even script it too! Perhaps you just want to show a fan favourite get beaten up by a heel tag team in the parking lot, while the announce team make their disapproval known. It's possible.
Admittedly, there are limits. All "talking" is completely text-based, and lines can only be of a certain length. Each scene can also only feature a maximum of twelve lines of dialogue, some even less. Something else that has to be taken in account is that you can only have a maximum of four people in a one scene, and there are limits to the types of action that can be shown, as well as the locations where they can be performed.
When you think about it, it's almost like LittleBigWrestling, with this large emphasis on creation for the nation (created wrestlers, finishers, highlight reels and entrances can be made alongside stories, and many of them can be shared online). Much like Sony's platformer, you'll have to trawl through a lot of nonsense to find the good stuff, but the ability to rate the stories you download is certainly useful in sorting the wheat from the chaff. Concerned parents may also be pleased to know of an in-built censorship system that forces the creator to remove any offensive words, or face having the entire line blanked out in their story when it's uploaded. This does have a few teething troubles mind, with some perfectly normal words getting caught by the filter for unknown reasons.
Comments
