Warning Spoilers
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009: Hands on Preview Road to Wrestlemania: John Cena Storyline and more
Posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 by mike regan
Gamingring.com in an effort to bring you the latest news braved bumpy flights, fire storms, and power outages while in California
We flew out to California to attend an THQ sponsored WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 preview event for the media and we had the opportunity to play the first section of John Cenas Road to Wrestlemania storyline. Here is what we saw. The first thing we saw was John Cena opening up Raw with a in-ring promo. Basically he dedicated this weeks match against Mr Kennedy to his friends serving in the armed forces. He mentions that he is particularly interested in catching up with a armed service member named “Tony.†Next up you go to the locker room which with each of the different characters that are available in the Road to Wrestlemania mode will have a unique locker room specific to his character. In the locker room you can check out the schedule, see what different challenges are for this particular week and check your voicemail. The challenges are your way to unlock the several unlockables in the game. Specific examples, are Superstars, arenas, and a new previously unseen match type.
So you have your match against Kennedy and its a regular exhibition one on one bout and you take the loud mouth to school. After the match, commentators Jim Ross and the King Jerry Lawler mention that this match was dedicated to the troops and that the tribute to the troops event is next week.
From there you take on MVP and in the locker room you find out that you have to make the highest paid WWE Superstar on Smackdown to beat the challenge. The Tribute to the troops arena is very nicely done. Its a outdoor arena with all of the fans around ringside and in the “arena†wearing army uniforms. Off in the distance you can see tanks, and humvees.
After beating MVP by submission, you will unlock the Tribute to Troops arena to be used in all of the other modes. Next week, at Raw MVP is in the ring talking about how he was cheated and that John Cena isn’t a hero like MVP is. MVP claims that he is leaving the USA and that any of the other WWE superstars are welcome to join him. MVP claims that he is no longer a US citizen. That concluded our hands on time with the Road to Wrestlemania mode but we were told that MVP forms his own country called IAMBETTERTHANYOUTOPIA and that his country is in the squared circle.
Other random notes from the event, we will have a video interview with Bryan Williams where a lot of good information is revealed. You wont want to miss that. And we did manage to pick up a updated build of the 360 version so expect even more coverage from GR in the very near future.
I did have a chance to play the WII version and the interactive cutscenes was done really well.
The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will feature 66 playable superstars. (3 we dont know about)
The DS version will feature over 20 superstars and it looks like it is nicely coming along. I played 1 match between Santino and Big Daddy V. You tap the screen to strike and you draw a circle and use the dpad to perfom an grapple.
The Create a belt mode is absent this year. The reason that they gave was that it was a feature that was not used very much by the fans. They felt that with the addition of the Highlight reel, and create a finisher will soften the blow of the loss.
It looks like THQ is looking at allowing gamers to have the ability to make their own titantrons in future editions.
I couldn’t get a reason why the Wrestlemania 24 level has a room and is not outdoors. Perhaps it is a licensing issue?
Trophy support does not look likely this year for the PS3.
The PS3 version graphically still has some issues. I perfer the 360 version personally.