Episode 1 of 60 Second Gamer, where we review WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2010. The video is available below and through our YouTube Channel. The podcast link is at the end of the post, along with subscription links for iTunes and the RSS feed. You can also find us on your podcatcher of choice. We’re quite fond of Pocket Casts.
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The transcript for the podcast is below, or you can download it here.
Podcast Transcript
Rich and Ant are playing WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2010.
Rich: Glitched onto the table.
Ant: You’ve broken… somehow. Ohhh. Right, time to get something else from the… what am I…? No! No I wanna get something out of the… where are you going?! Oh for… Oh I’ve gone. Ohhhh. I think you’ve just broke something. Ohh! My God! Chair? I double that with sledge ham… oh, maybe not. Ahhh!
Rich: Oh, I’ve bloodied you.
Ant: Ohhh! Oh my God. What are you… oh. I think the ref’s like “Alright, I haven’t seen you two in a while.”
Simon: Right stick down to pin.
Ant: No! No! How do I… Ohhh **Ant loses* That was… what? What on earth happened then?
Rich: I pinned you.
Ant: I know that, but…
Rich: After bloodying you with the…
Ant: I’m on about the game. What just happened?
Rich: I think I may have finally got my head around what’s going on.
Simon: Mmm.
Ant: I just bashed buttons and hoped for the best, and that obviously didn’t work.
Simon: Okay, hello. Welcome to the 60 Second Gamer Podcast, and by 60 Second I mean “six zero” not as in “after 61” which I can see being a bit of an issue later on. This is the podcast number one for Smackdown VS Raw 2010. With me in the studio are Mr Rich Hatton
Rich: Hello.
Simon: Bit louder.
Rich: Hello!
Simon: Yeah, normal, that’ll do. Mr Tez Lowe.
Tez: Hello!
Simon: And Mr Ant Tremaine.
Ant: Good evening!
Simon: And we’re going to talk very briefly about Smackdown VS Raw 2010. I don’t think you’ve played this have you Tez? So I don’t blame you if you just sit here in silence.
Tez: Yeah.
Simon: That’s completely fine. You can have a quick go of it while we’re talking if you like? Have you got the pad? Ant is handing him the pad. So we’re very briefly going to talk about some of the stuff that wasn’t included in the review of the main game. Basically this is the latest in a long line of Smackdown games. They’ve done pretty much one a year since about the year 2000, when THQ took over the licence from Acti… is it Activision? No, Acclaim. Acclaim.
And the THQ games were good because you didn’t have to put in a complex number of combinations for doing certain moves. And it simplified the control system to the point where anyone could pick it up and play it. Now, it’s gone the other way recently. Given that they’ve been doing this for about ten years now, each game they refine the formula ever so slightly. They add bits to it and we’ve reached the stage now where the actual user manual, I’ll just have a quick flick through it now has… one, two, three, four… four pages of controls, plus you’ve got the superstar abilities where they go into further detail.
The kick-out meter, which obviously when someone pins you you either press a button rapidly or have to sort of fill up a meter. And the extra superstar abilities, so on and so forth. I mean, it’s reached the stage now where Mr Hatton here, he first played the game for the first time in a long time last week, I believe it was, and it just didn’t work for you, did it?
Rich: No. Very, very confusing. I played Smackdown 2 on the Playstation 1 and that had one button to hit, one button to run, which is still there, and one button to throw them, and that was it.
Simon: And that’s all you needed. Back in the day.
Rich: Yeah. And this has got counter-grapples and all sorts. It’s just very confusing.
Simon: In the other respect though it is very similar to real wrestling, so it does sort of, has reached the stage of where it’s less arcade, more…
Rich: Simulation.
Simon: More simulation of the real thing. But I can see it being an issue for some people who are new to the game. Especially Ant as well. If you listen to the intro, Ant had one hell of a time trying to play the game and… what do you think?
Ant: Oh my God. It’s a case of the only good thing I managed to get the hang of was if I…
Rich: Running away!
Ant: Run away, or bash him in the face with my fist, or do some strange breakdancing and somehow dismantle a table in the process. Yeah. It made no sense… mind you, I’ve not really played many wrestling games before, and usually when I did I just used to button bash.
Simon: Yeah.
Ant: I just be one of them horrible Tekken ones.
Simon: That’s all the wrestling games used to be, button bash. Because like I say you used to have to put in a combo so “up down, up, circle” that sort of thing. And I mean the control system in this game isn’t exactly brilliant, but it does make more sense than the old Acclaim system, because I never did any moves in the old Acclaim games. I actually did more wrestling moves on the SNES games, wrestling games than I did on the PS1 ones. But there we go. Moving on, amongst the many different features there are 70 different match types, including there’s like triple threat, one on one, various versions of that if someone can pass me the control pad I can have a look at that.
Ant: Yes, here you are sir.
Simon: There’s several different… loads of different match types. I mean, one on one. There’s inferno match where you’ve got to set your opponent on fire. First blood, where you’ve got to make him bleed. Falls count anywhere…
Ant: Set them on fire?!
Simon: Yeah.
Ant: Set them on fire?!?
Simon: Yeah.
Ant: How’d you do that? Just wait for them to spontaneously combust?
Simon: You have to reach the point, in the game obviously it’s scripted in real life – sorry if there’re any kids listening that don’t know that yet.
Rich: It’s a fake! It’s a sham! It’s not real!
Ant: It’s almost as fake as X-Factor!
Simon: But not quite!
Ant: No!
Simon: Almost as fake, but not quite. But yeah, I’ll show you the inferno match in a bit, but the falls count anywhere, Hell in a Cell, which you’d have seen in the video review. Iron Man match, where you have to get the most number of pinfalls within a set time limit. In the real world it’s usually a 60 minute match, but can you really see yourself sitting and playing an Iron Man match for an hour in the game? So rather sensibly they’ve set ten minute, twenty minute or thirty minute Iron Man matches. Which… thirty minutes is even too much I think for me. Ten will probably do it.
Ladder match, where you’ve got to obviously climb up and retrieve a belt from above the ring using a ladder; Last Man Standing where it’s the last person to be standing, pretty much. Pummel your opponent until he can’t stand up. Normal submission which is basically no pinfalls. Steel cage which is what Hell in a Cell used to be like but steel cage is just a cage they put around, literally around the edges of the ring, whereas Hell in a Cell you’ve got some floor space around the outside and you can actually climb on top of it as well. And put people through it as well. Which you will have seen in the review as well, and throw people off it of course.
Table match where the, it’s obviously the clue is in the name, you’ve got to put someone through a table. Simple as. And TLC, which is Tables, Ladders and Chairs. Now again, it’s a Ronseal match. You can use tables, ladders and chairs and, invariably, other weapons as well. And basically it’s the first team or person to be pinned loses. New backstage areas, all of which are locked at the moment because I haven’t played it properly, apart from the Backstage arena brawl which is the only one that you know, obviously, they’ve got to give you one to start with. And the Extreme Rules match which Ant and Hatton played in the intro.
Ant: Is that what we were doing?
Rich: Yeah.
Simon: Extreme Rules Match.
Ant: Right.
Simon: Weapons aplenty. And of course on top of all this you’ve got the 2 on 2 matches, all the tag team style matches, you’ve got the triple threat where agin they throw in the extreme rules, Hell in a Cell, etc etc, same with the six man. Six man you’ve got Armageddon Hell in a Cell, which is six men in the cell together.
Rich: You know if you weren’t talking about wrestling, it just sounds some sort of gay porno.
Simon: It sounds disgusting, yeah. The Elimination Chamber which, again, sounds very similar. Basically, Elimination Chamber is Hell in a Cell again, with a slightly differently designed cell, but two men start in the ring and you’ve got four people in little compartments on the outside. And every two minute or whatever time limit it is, one person gets released into the ring and then it’s elimination until there’s only one man left.
Ant: Okay.
Simon: Money in the Bank is a ladder match but with six men. Pretty much. Handicap, obviously. Simple as. Royal Rumble, which is a new feature. They’ve had Royal Rumbles in previous Smackdown games, but this one has the new mini-game button bashing thing that was featured in the main review. And Championship Scramble, which we didn’t mention, which is… there’s a set time limit and you’ve got to basically, whoever’s champion after ten minutes wins. And keeps the belt. So the actual champion themselves can not be pinned and still lose the belt. So that’s one thing they build up, “big up” in wrestling and it’s like… blergh. All scripted. But there we go. So that’s some of the various features. Also expanded on this year is the online area.
Ant: Is that just as confusing as everything else?
Simon: Probably, yeah. It’s basically… the online feature lets you download created wrestlers that people have uploaded. It lets you download created storylines which we’ll come onto in a bit as well. You can also download pretty much anything. You can have matches against people online as well, and it’s quite a nice addition to the system which has been sadly missing from recent games. I mean, Smackdown 09 was rubbish quite frankly. Which is why I traded it in. So, yeah. The story mode is another new addition where basically you can pretend to be a WWF writer and create your own stories. That’s pretty much as simple as it gets.
Rich: There’s green and pink men.
Simon: Yeah, that’s created wrestler moves.
Rich: Ahh right.
Ant: Why is there someone called Daffney. Of all the names you could’ve gone with…
Simon: There is a wrestling valet called Daffney. Probably based on her.
Ant: Really? Oh. I thought it was just someone being silly.
Simon: Let’s have a look at this. We’re having a look at the Black Tiger Bomb wrestling manoeuvre.
Ant: Oh, hello.
Simon: Which is one obviously that someone has created online. And that looks… quite, quite silly.
Ant: How fast do they want to do it?
Simon: That’s very fast.
Rich: And how many spins in mid-air? Just one?
Simon: Just one.
Rich: Just the one.
Ant: It looks a little like four doesn’t it?
Simon: Yeah.
Ant: That’s a bit silly.
Simon: That’s, apparently, a Black Tiger Bomb.
Ant: Yeah, course it is.
Simon: But yeah, they’ve pretty much expanded it so you can download wrestlers, you can download moves, you can download finishers, you can download pretty much everyone’s own creations. So it’s basically there are other storylines on here as well that relate to like, current TNA storylines. That’s Total Nonstop Action and not… TNA. And…
Rich: Razor Ramon.
Simon: Yeah, someone’s created Razor Ramon. Let’s have a look at him. “Hey yo”. Let’s press view. So yeah, it’s a much expanded system and you can’t really go wrong. In fairness Smackdown isn’t like the best of games to review straight off, because it’s very compartmentalised. You can’t really go off on one about it. The review of Assassin’s Creed 2, which should be the next one, there will be at least three of us that can talk about that so it should be a bit more of an interesting podcast instead of me just ranting on at you. And yeah we’ve already talked about the controls. We’ve got Razor Ramon up on the thing now. That’s 1993 Razor Ramon. And let’s have a look at this.
Ant: This all means absolutely chuff all to me.
Rich: He’s very hairy.
Simon: Yeah.
Ant: He’s got a bit of bling now.
Simon: Yeah, cinematic attire as well. Same as his intro attire, but that’s actually quite a good representation of him to be quite honest. So yeah, there’s the good and the bad online. So overall it’s quite a good game. Newcomers probably won’t get too much out of it to start with, unless they’re wrestling fans in the first place. Ant, case in point.
Ant: Living proof.
Simon: But yeah if you do like wrestling games you can’t really go much worse than this. I mean, the only other one that’s really available at the moment is TNA, Total Nonstop Action, which has its flaws and we will be reviewing shortly after New Year hopefully. Mostly just to see Hatton punching someone in the groin over and over again.
Ant: Most fun.
Simon: As wrestling games go it’s like most things. With Smackdown, has it’s rival in TNA, EA FIFA has Pro Evo, NHL 2010 has NHL 2K10, that sort of thing. So yeah there’s always sort of like, the main stayer and the upstart rival. But Smackdown has been doing this for quite a long time now and they’ve sort of got the formula pretty decent at this stage.
Rich: Interesting side note. THQ I think have lost the development rights for the next Smackdown game.
Simon: I don’t think it’s been confirmed yet. It’s one of those…
Rich: I think it’s up in the air. EA are rumoured to be sniffing around it.
Simon: Yeah.
Ant: They make everything though don’t they?
Simon: The thing is, with EA if they get it they did destroy WCW.
Rich: Right.
Simon: Because their WCW games were rubbish. They were a little bit better than Acclaim’s WWF games, but… pfft. Don’t trust em. Don’t trust em. Oh yeah, the training facility as well, with the training facility there is a checklist of moves to help you out if you are brand new, so it might be an idea if you’ve never played Smackdown before to give the training facility a go and learn all the controls that way and there’s no pressure then. You can even set the computer opponent to be dumb and not actually do anything so… entirely up to you.
Ant: That’d be right up my street, that. I’m going to set it so I can WIN!
Simon: And create modes as well, there’s create a finisher, create an entrance movie and all of that. You can really do what you like with it. And that pretty much sums it up. Oh the story mode, Road to Wrestlemania, which I still think is a bit boring. I still prefer the storyline mode of the old N64 game No Mercy which was brilliant. Still the best wrestling game in my opinion, that one. And the story mode of the original Smackdown game where you had a choice of route and you could say yes or no to various storylines and so on and so forth.
But with Road To Wrestlemania you don’t really get that option so it’s nice to see the story designer come in, because then you can actually choose where the story goes. The downside is you have actually got to sit there and write the entire story before you can play it, but you know. Swings and roundabouts. Those of you listening at home will not realise there was an edit there. Hopefully. So that pretty much sums up this podcast. Hope you’ve enjoyed. If you have any questions send us an email: info@randomstoat.com. We’ll respond to you hopefully within a day or two. If not, then please feel free to send dog poo through to us in the post. So yeah, get us on randomstoat.com, send us an email, info@randomstoat.com, and we’ll see you next time for Assassin’s Creed 2. Bye for now.