Thousands every year annually buy the newest Madden football game. For wrestling fans like me, however, Smackdown is our Madden. Every year I always think I won’t be interested in the next year’s game and then the new trailer comes out that makes me want it. That cycle completed itself once again with Smackdown vs. Raw 2010. The thing about these yearly games is that they always leave something I want out. It could be gameplay elements, presentational faults, or just a really bad decision concerning the direction of the game. That is why I present to you my list of things that should be changed in Smackdown vs. Raw 2011.

#1: Taking wrestlers from the ring to the backstage area

In the Smackdown games you usually have a good selection of backstage areas to fight in, but in recent years they made this a separate mode entirely. If you want to fight in the backstage area, your only option is to start out there instead of actually traveling from the ring to the backstage areas, as usually seen in WWE programming. This is one of those gameplay elements that have eluded the Smackdown series for a while now. It’s odd that a feature that’s been around since the Nintendo 64 has yet to make its return on the Smackdown games. It is possible that they may have taken it out to avoid extra load times when transferring to the next area that would break flow, but just have the camera scan the crowd with announcers yelling “Can we get a camera back there” to mask the load time would actually add presentation value since this scenario plays out all the time on TV. The inclusion of this feature would definitely add a little extra drama to the next Falls Count Anywhere match by actually allowing my match to end anywhere .


The Dirt Sheet Brawl area made far more entertaining.

#2: Better backstage areas

Since we’re already on the subject of backstage areas, how about giving us a little more to play around with? In the 2010 game we had some fun areas to play in like Vince McMahon’s Office and the Locker Room Brawl, but there were also the Dirt Sheet Brawl and RAW Interview Set Brawl areas that actually had no environmental interaction other than climbing some scaffolding to jump on an opponent or hitting them over the head with a laptop. The Smackdown series is well known for its amazing backstage areas (most series fans have fond memories of the Time Square area from Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth), but this year’s scaled back offering left a lot to be desired. The most boring areas to fight in were actually the areas you unlocked through Road to Wrestlemania, Smackdown’s main mode. If you’re going to let me unlock backstage areas, make them something different. Maybe get nostalgic with the infamous Boiler Room or go through a supermarket ala “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Booker T. Hell, put them in a graveyard or a space station if you feel like it, just make me feel like I really unlocked something cool.

#3: Hardcore Belt 24/7 rule option

The days of the Hardcore Belt in the WWE were some of the most exciting matches of the 90’s. For the uninitiated, the Hardcore Belt had a 24/7 rule attached to it, which meant that a match could happen any place, any time. This rule lead to some hilarious clips of the champion getting ambushed at amusement parks or the Laundromat, trying his best to run away from his opponents and keep his belt. The belt has long since been retired, but it still lives on in the Smackdown series. Adding the option to turn on the 24/7 rule again would definitely add some interesting elements to a regular match-up and really make the belt feel special again, not to mention adding a little more weight to the newly included WWE Rivals mechanic. Imagine just having a quick match with Hardcore champ Tommy Dreamer when all of a sudden Jack Swagger slides into the ring and begins beating down Dreamer, trying to pin him and win the title. That would definitely spice things up.

#4: Create-a-Crowd Sign feature

Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 was a great year for Create-a-Wrestlers (aka CAWs). You can create up to four attires for your CAW, give them a custom front finisher AND custom dive finisher, customize their entrance, use match clips to create a custom entrance video, use the paint tool to make your own symbols, and more. With this staggering number of ways to customize your CAW, it’s hard to believe they managed to leave out one creation feature that would seem to require the least amount of effort to implement. Crowd signs are a staple of pro wrestling, allowing fans to express their love or hate for certain superstars in ways few other sports can imitate. In a game that already has a paint tool in it, why not simply allow the ability to export the finished creation as a crowd sign? Just make the canvas dimensions the same as a crowd sign and we’re good to go. This is the one suggestion I expect to see in the next game since I’m sure someone on the development team already thought of this one and just couldn’t get it into this year’s game.


Back in Smackdown 2: Know Your Role, you could have entrances where your guy was hit by a missile.

#5: Take Yourself Less Seriously

This has to be my biggest complaint about the direction of the Smackdown series. Back in the original Smackdown where they wouldn’t even render entrance backgrounds (the wrestlers would do their motions in front of their titantron video) you could use the craziest entrance animations for your characters. Even when they started rendering real entrances you could still have three wrestlers come down in the same shopping cart, eventually hitting the ring and causing everyone to crash in different spots. The last few years have been trying to imitate the real WWE product as closely as they can. That’s not a bad thing, but I want to be able to do some outrageous things I can’t see on TV with the colorful characters of the WWE. The humor is still there, even having an achievement for viewing a certain odd move in the create-a-moveset screen. Please bring that humor back to the overall package with wacky entrances, impossible falls, and moves that could only be performed in a video game.

Don’t take this list as harsh criticism or a negative review. I think Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 has been one of the best entries into the series in a long time that will provide anyone with even the slightest interest in professional wrestling hours of enjoyment. However, these annual games cannot remain stagnant and must continue improving with every new installment in a very short developmental window. That’s why I don’t approach this as a rabid fanboy demanding these specific changes on an already great game, but as a fan that has made it a tradition to think to the future and the next big entry into the series. I’m really not that excited right now for Smackdown vs. Raw 2011, but I know myself and when that new trailer rolls around sometime next spring, I’ll be salivating for the newest game all over again.

If you have any ideas on what would make Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 a better game, leave a comment below. Seeing everyone’s ideas for making the games better is what makes this so fun in the first place