CORRECTION: Slobber knocker mode is also in SmackDown vs RAW 2006. I screwed up when I said this was the last appearance of the mode. Sorry everyone. Also, there's 6 women on the roster, not 5. I forgot Stacy Kiebler even though there's footage of her in the video! Counting is hard.
I'm happy you enjoyed the video! I might be a little bit more critical of this game than I was when I played it as a kid, but I'll always cherish having gotten to enjoy it as a kid.
When I was a kid, I thought it was great, but looking back at it now I think Here Comes The Pain was better in every way other than the soundtrack and graphics. I enjoy the game, but in my book it's an underwhelming follow-up to a masterpiece and an incomplete rough draft of the new style of SVR.
It’s weird just how SVR was sandwiched in-between some of the greatest wrestling games of all time. It’s the awkward middle child during the golden age of wrestling games. Still good but not legendary like the others.
SvR was basically a HCTP but with less features. The season mode was a huge downgrade, the roster sucked (which it really did at the time post WM XX which we can't really fault the game for) and we lost the ability to go backstage during a match at anytime. At least the visuals were a massive improvement and it had a killer OST.
This is a strange game because after the success of HCTP it seemed a no brainer this would be just as great, but they clearly wanted to transition to a more realistic game while using the same engine which meant it's just a slower HCTP with worse AI, removed winning animations for some reason and half finished commentary. I still enjoy it for nostalgia but it reminds me of JBI as a transitional hybrid rather than full fledged sequel.
Agreed. SVR is sandwiched between two of the best wrestling games ever made - HCTP and SVR 06. It does nothing that those games don't do better, the CAW mode is frankly embarrassing and the Season is horrendous with it's cringe diva storylines. The only good thing the game does is Challenge mode, and 06 and 07 do that better. Plus the roster is miniscule with tons of omissions for no reason (where the hell is Lita, the Bashams, Greg Valentine, Lance Storm, Val Venis, Gail Kim, Hurricane, Regal, Test, Al Snow, Dawn Marie, Jazz, Nidia, Jamie Noble, Billy Kidman, Jacqueline, Mark Henry, Shannon Moore, Stevie Richards, Eugene, Funaki, Akio, Ivory, Kenzo Suzuki, Maven, Miss Jackie, Paul London, Orlando Jordan, the FBI, La Resistance, Rodney Mack, 3 Minute Warning, Simon Dean, Spike Dudley and Tyson Tomko?) There are almost as many people not in the game than there is on the roster itself. Heck, I bet JBL was a literal last minute addition.
Yeah that roster is awkward. Speaking of JBL, Day of Reckoning 1 on the GameCube is even worse about it. Even though JBL had risen to the top and become WWE Champion by the time the game released, the game doesn't include him. Not even APA Bradshaw. That's a crazy omission.
It was such a disappointment coming off of Here Comes the Pain; that I skipped the next title (06) came back to the series for '07 at-least; but didn't realize how much of a classic I was missing out on w/'06 for years! (Nowadays '06 is all I have time for [no mercy, shut your mouth, hctp, 06, & wm19 been the favorites in my top5 rotation of late. (going back to the vintage timeless classics)]
No the hell it was not. That title is straight blasphemous sir! I don't care what everyone else saying, SVR was a great game. I replayed season mode countless times, spent countless hours in exhibition. SVR and SVR 07 were the best in the series without question! I also enjoyed 2008 but I can admit it was lacking. Everyone's all like SYM did this, HCTP did that, and I'm like and? 😂😂
I didnt like the first svr. However come 2006 and i ended up enjoying it Better, truthfully the first svr felt like A Step Backwards. eliminateing what made the previous Games better was kind of a mistake
Yeah it's so odd that they cut winning animations outside of specific modes like the Elimination Chamber. SmackDown 1 had victory animations all the way back in 2000! Why doesn't this game have that?
It really was a big step back. I don't claim to know what people thought at the time- I was a kid at the time and I loved it, but I didn't have the experience or knowledge to examine it critically and I didn't have internet to read other opinions on it - but looking back it doesn't hold up that well because it's a step backwards.
The original SmackDown vs. Raw was a lot of fun. But yeah, going from Shut Your Mouth and Here Comes The Pain to this feels like a downgrade. I always played as the Legends, and it was great to see Kane in his old 1997-2000 attire. The menus with the show themes and the Divas dancing was awesome - I always picked Raw since it had Trish. And the soundtrack rocks! SvR 2006 and 2007 were much better sequels, though they did change up the controls a bit in 2007.
When you had classics like WWE shut your mouth and here comes the pain. The SVR games lacked the gameplay and roster. I was definitely disappointed when i bought it.
My main gripe with Smackdown vs Raw is how weak the roster was. So many names that were left off the game. Other than the obvious Goldberg and Brock Lesnar, there was also no Lita, Scott Steiner, Rikishi, Gail Kim, Hurricane, Eugene, Billy Gunn, etc
anyone who played hctp season mode or sym will know just how much of a downgrade it is here, caws were also horrible and cartoony here and would be much better in 06.
I'm glad you enjoyed it (I did make a mistake about the Slobberknocker mode though - it was still in SVR 2006 too). I'm not sure if I'll do more. I want to see how well it does. I do have a review of Here Comes The Pain up (the audio's a bit iffy, but I think that the discussion about the game in the video is still good) and on October 31 I'm releasing a review of a Japanese exclusive wrestling game called King of Colosseum, so you might like those. Thanks so much for watching.
Glad you enjoyed it. I have a Japanese wrestling game review (King of Colosseum) later this month. I hope to squeeze in more wrestling stuff going forward.
oh the comment section is going to cook you for this take. but still a great review that explains all of the mechanics of the game etc. please do the future SVR games like 06, 07 or 08!!
Glad you liked the video! I've been surprised to see how people have responded. A lot of agreement and a lot of disagreement. I'm planning on making more SVR reviews in the future. I have a review coming on October 31 of a Japanese wrestling game called King of Colosseum, then I hope to do more wrestling reviews next year.
Okay I totally here what you are saying SDVR could have been much better. I wish this and HCTP had of still hasd the backstage exploring like SYM had too. And I also hated the roster's size. Especially the women's division as I do love women's wrestling, tbh the women were the reason I got interested in wrestling in the first place around 2002. Why the enitre hell was Lita not in SDVR is really beyond me! And Gail Kim, Jazz, Ivory, Jacqueline, Nidia, Dawn Marie, Jackie Gayda & Shaniqua?? And then for legends Alundra Blaze, Bull Nakano, Luna Vachon and Chyna. SMH... Also the CAWs I never did love on this game. I also love creating some of fav Indy wrestlers too so that was also a let down 🙁☹
I remember playing this game with my cousin and as a kid I always thought it was alright I'm not sure if it's due to the nostalgia of us making creating superstars or doing crazy omg moments, but from looking at it now, the roster was abit disappointing and you don't get a win cutscene after a match, the story what you'd expect from wwe around that time but I still find that playing as the undertaker and winning the bra tlc match was wild 😂
I don’t ever wanna play this game again because it was the game that introduced me to wrestling, a lifelong love, so I think the game is brilliant but I haven’t played it since I was probably a single digit age
I will say this game has a soft spot for me personally. SVR is still better than anything 2K has ever released. I will say the biggest negative is by far the roster. This game from a presentation standpoint is probably one of the best between the soundtrack, commentary, and the feel that Raw and Smackdown are enemies. The gameplay is basically the same as HCTP and it’s solid and not filled with bugs. The season mode is short but has memorable moments. The unlockables provide replay ability. I never played it but I believe this was the first ever WWE game to have online servers. Coming off of HCTP I can see this game as disappointing but I will say this is 7/10 game especially compared to how the 2k games are. If the roster had a few others during this era it would be a 8/10.
I do agree with you, when I played it when I was little early 2005 I was dissapointed and wanted a new wwe game right away. svr2006 was not that great but looked more appealing.
If my nostalgia is at all accurate, saying SVR 2006 wasn't that great is fightin' words! I look forward to revisiting it in the future to see if I just love it because of my nostalgia. It's been about 20 years since I seriously played 2006, so I don't know what I'll end up thinking.
I vaguely recall liking 2009, although even as a kid I really didn't like 2008 so maybe even then it was just "well, at least it's not 2008 again..." After about SVR 2007 they all kinda blend together in my head.
It's the voice acting that probably ruined Season Mode. Since voice acting limits the branching paths that you could take. No one would like to record thousands of lines for hundreds of branching paths. And due to that, that locked out Season Mode to other potential storylines. Heck, in Shut Your Mouth, your idea of just floating around and not winning any belts can happen. Granted, they won't actually show you much cutscenes and story and will just let you play matches after matches without anything happening story-wise.
For me it still is the best wrestling game ever, yes I played Here Comes The Pain. HCTP only had better Hardcore match, but other things works better in this game in my opinion.
To be honest i think single or normal tag matches are so dissapointing in the games past Smackdown just bring it. They're so easy that you just have to knock them outside until a 10 count. Atleast in smackdown 2 you can easily get back in the ring for a less easy win. I played svr06 on psp and it's cool but i played a 6 man tag which should've been a spectacle in season mode. My opponent was outside and my team kept him down for the 10 count for a win in less then 2 mins.
I'd have to throw Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 on N64 and Fire Pro Wrestling Returns on PS2 into that conversation. Man, wrestling games used to be so diverse and so great.
It's not my favorite wrestling game not in my top 3 or 5 but it was still a good game and prefer it over anything after smackdown vs raw 2011 that's when wwe wrestling games fell off for me.
You're in the minority man. You're allowed your opinion of course. But for those of us who played, at minimum, HCTP it was a massive downgrade. Lackluster roster, limited legends, a LOT removed, little added, repetitive season mode, not much to do for replayability and frankly the creation suite was a downgrade vs the last few games. The soundtrack was legendary though. They removed a lot of the "fun" wackyness in exchange for more realism that at best was lacking. And commentary was removed too. If this was your first game then I can see why you loved it. But the majority of people who played this game in 2004, we all felt the same way about it. That's why SvR 06 is considered so legendary because it added SO MUCH into the game and fixed pretty much every issue that SvR had.
@@TheOriginal561 I don't think he's in the minority, it's not as good as HCTP, but most people and kids didn't care, they had another complete game that didn't fucking break nore felt like it needed online to live.
Yeah it's pretty bad. In hindsight I hate how WWE treated women's wrestling back then. Just fanservice for the most part. Nothing wrong with that, but can't we have attractive women who also kick ass?
He left to play in the NFL in 2004, but never ended up actually playing that season (for the Minnesota Vikings). When that didn't work out he ended up wrestling in New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2005, winning the IWGP title, having it stripped from him when he failed to return to defend it, and causing a huge controversy - Antonio Inoki still considered him champion because he never got beat for it, and it would take a while for that to get straightened out (Kurt Angle beat him in 2007 for it, helping resolve the situation.) UFC didn't happen until 2008.
It looks better than Here Comes The Pain and I like this game's licensed music a lot, but otherwise I think it's literally worse in every way than Here Comes The Pain. Coming from one of the greatest PS2 wrestling games ever, getting a lesser version of that game as a follow-up is a huge disappointment.
This easily has the worst roster too many omission like paul London Eugene La Resistance Hurricane Lita Orlando Jordan & Basham Brothers Svr 2008 is 2nd place to that Title
No it wasn't. Sorry if your grown up you thinks it is, but even right now I'm having a great time replaying it. It's not my favorite, but it's no where near worth saying 2 steps back.
Depending on what you're looking for in a wrestling game, Fire Pro Wrestling Returns might be better. Past that, I really don't know. I've heard good things about a Japanese exclusive from 2004 called King of Colosseum II, but I haven't played that game yet so I don't know if it's better.
I was around back then. I literally said I played it as a kid. I'm not talking about what anybody thought about it at the time - but many commenters here say they were disappointed at the time - only about my experience playing it now. Did you watch the video or just come to complain based on the title? It's one thing for NES era gamers to gatekeep me from talking about NES games, but I won't be gatekept out of discussing my childhood games. That's absurd.
I was around and old enough to remember that this game wasn't really special. It was seen as disappointing compared to HCTP with no interconnected backstage area, a lesser roster (No Austin, Brock, Goldberg, Steiner, Lita etc) and then the nostalgia of "remember when it was the Smackdown series and not called SvR" started to happen.
