Hello Everyone. The following is an in-depth look at the Nintendo DS version of the Wrestling game WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2010. I will be covering the mechanics, story mode in a fair amount of detail but won't be explaining Wrestling stuff specifically so I'm assuming you're familiar with that. I will also be referencing other WWE Games across platforms but will be more general on that.
With that said, let's begin.
Background
SVR '10 is the 3rd and final WWE game on the DS. And the first to use a proper button system to control most of the game (which made it play closer to that of its console counterparts) instead of the touchscreen. '08 DS used a unique control system that was built around the touchscreen. Strikes, grapples and other commands worked by being selected from a menu and then performing a minigame that involved the touchscreen. Like if you select to strike an opponent, you’d then have to draw a line to complete the move. Grapples were longer to do as they required dragging a slider back and forth only now your opponent had their own minigame to do to counter it. And that’s how matches would go on until somebody scored a victory. The wrestlers themselves were locked in place and were controlled only through these commands. While the idea was novel, it was unwieldy and got repetitive soon. ‘09 DS went back to a more traditional setup with how movement worked, but every other command required use of the touchscreen. Punching required a tap. To grab, draw a circle. To strong grab, draw 2 circles quickly. The problem with this system was it was a prime example of DS games forcing in touch controls where buttons could have worked fine. Imagine playing Hitman and instead of just pressing O to open a door, you have to rotate the left stick 3 times for no reason. Stuff like this is needless because instead of making the controls fit the system naturally, you add in a needless method of interaction that just detracts from the experience and is inefficient to play. It's telling that even mobile-only versions of many games with just a touchscreen use virtual buttons and sticks to these commands rather than more gimmicky controls.
So Why am I covering '10? Because I can talk a fair bit about it and it's an interesting game despite its stature. It has great writing in its story mode and said story is very close to being great. I can use the elemends of the game to talk about other SVR games. I also want to talk about how a potential "SVR11 DS' Could have improved using '10 as a foundation. Also, Wrestling games rarely, if ever get a critical analysis of their story and game design.
Graphics and presentation
The game's graphics look somewhere between the PS1 and PS2 games. The menu's look clear and nice. Environments look varied. All in all, this might be one of the best looking 3D games on the DS
Gameplay
-controls
As stated earlier, this game plays like classic WWE games. You move with the D-pad, grab with A (there aren't many direction grapples, so alternate grapples usually require holding A), interact with things with B. Strike with Y, Run with X (use with a grab to Irish Whip). If you hold L when in a strong grab and a full finisher meter to perform a finisher (everyone's finisher is triggered like this. It can get a little odd when Jeff Hardy teleports from a grab to climbing up the turnbuckle for a Swanton Bomb). Defense is handled differently from other games. You can press L to enter a block state that will block attacks and R to step back to try and avoid grabs. It's actually pretty cool. Traditional Counters are impossible for me to do while the AI can do them pretty well so I can't comment on them. Finally, you can press L when an opponent is grounded to Pin them and R in all kinds of positions to flip opponents over. You can do diving attacks but they require opponents in specific positions to enter a cutscene to do it rather than the attack being "freeform".
(As an aside, I'm always found interaction in Wrestling Games odd compared to other games. Like, imagine designing the Superman Punch in a game. Most players would expect the player setting up an opponent on the ground, then going to the corner, doing a taunt, then running at the target, jumping and then doing the punch. Instead, all that is essentially an unskippable cutscene, it's odd. Imagine playing Street Fighter and pressing O and Ryu automatically does an entire combo. There are a couple of times in current WWE games that the performance of the moves matches their inputs: Counter enziguris, diving attacks, catching finishers to name a few. Still, this is the way Wrestling Games are going to stay and I'm not too upset on that. The other alternative has been to add lots of QTEs which doesn't really add much interesting interactions either. Besides, 2k19 has a lot going on with resource management to add some depth to the gameplay. But I dislike it in Showcase Modes and their equivalents because you do a command and a literal cutscene plays. I could just watch the actual matches then. I'd rather these modes throw in these spots as things players can trigger on their own and the match plays normally otherwise (except in some specific cases and required spots). It would be a fun surprise to players who remember these matches as they try to replicate certain spots and are rewarded with a reenactment. For players who don't know about them, the video packages the matches can have can clue them into them and if all else fails, the mode could list out the bonus spots).
Back to the DS game, the controls are solid if barebones. There are no Irish whip rebounds, no environmental grapples, no rope attacks, no springboard attacks. I can imagine a potential SVR '11 adding some of these back in. But as the game currently is, it gets boring after long stretches of play. I had to listen to a lot of podcasts and Youtube Videos as I played (Shout out to Wrestlesplainia, How WWE Should have booked and Reliving Wrestling). (As an aside, I no longer enjoy many of the older Arcadey Wrestling Games anymore. They're fun for a bit but they lack the depth and variation to keep them interesting for long. You fight the same and do the same things for every match. I feel 2k's games, by going for a more simulation style, add more depth and variation to keep the games far more interesting and engaging in more matches. Tag Matches in 2k19 are way more fun when your partner can do things from the apron instead of being a non-element like in Here Comes the Pain).
The game also loves button mashing. Get knocked to the ground and you'll have to button mash B to get up. It's the same for pins, submission moves and escaping from certain positions. The amount you'll need to mash increases as you take damage (there's just a regular health bar and no limb damage). I do feel this system is unbalanced and has the potential to be unfun to defenders. Imagine a pretty damaged player, he gets put into a submission move while standing which he needs to spend a long time button mashing to get out. Once he gets out, his character gets thrown to the ground which requires another long sequence of button mashing to get up all while he's vulnerable to take hits from the attacker. And just before he gets up, he gets hit with another submission requiring another button-mashing sequence. Finally, he gets up only for his opponent to repeat the sequence. And remember, Submissions in this game don't require anything from the attacker, they just sit there and wait for the move to end. While this is more "realistic" (the purpose of submissions is to do damage to an opponent without hurting or yourself expending yourself), it's not fun. It's not fun for defenders because it's just a lot of button mashing and it can be abused. It's not fun for attackers because it's just a free shot.
-Lets Talk about Submissions in WWE Games
WWE games have lots of different ways of trying Submissions, trying to portray them accurately while still making them fun. I'd argue the best submission system is the one that encourages interplay between parties and is balanced and only the recent 2k games have done that. Here Comes the Pain had both parties button mash which got boring. SVR07 introduced a timing minigame which didn't have any real interplay between players. '08 onwards had the struggle system which traded who was in control so no real interplay (and it could be broken with the Submission ability). The 2k's chasing system is the only one so far I feel hits all the criteria. This system works by having a circle where players have their own line that grows depending on the health of the defender. Defenders need to avoid the attacker's line to empty the submission meter allowing an escape. Attackers need to keep on the defender's line to fill up said meter to make a submission. Both parties can find a pick-up orb to give them a huge boost and use their stamina to make their line move faster. I like this system because even at their worst, defenders still have a fighting chance, there's a lot of interplay as both parties have to respond to each other, there are mind games and ways to psych players out.
Back to SVR'10 DS, I'm glad there was no touchscreen minigame but I do feel any of the prior games' submission modes would have been a better fit than the one-way button mashing.
The big new gimmick this game has is the card system. Before every match, you can bring up to 3 cards that act like abilities from the other games. These cards are one-use and include stuff like "get out of a pin or submission, instantly get up, have a Diva (either Kelly Kelly or Eve) distract your opponent, have another Wrestler come in and hit their finisher on your opponent, have Hornswoggle come in and do a tadpole splash or stealth one of your opponent's cards, regain some health, temporarily boost the damage of your strikes or grapples, get a finisher, temporarily become immune damage etc". You can get more cards by doing matches and playing the story mode. Some like the Wrestler doing their finisher can only be gotten from specific one-time events from story mode and you'll need to replay it to get more. While the card system is really cool, I prefer the ability system of other games. You don't lose your abilities for future matches if you use them and they're more versatile to use.
-matches
The game only has singles matches. No multi-man matches at all. Most of the match types you'd expect are brought over and have some tweaks. Ladder Matches have you climbing a ladder after knocking your opponent down and pressing buttons responding to different quadrants as the object enters them to lower its meter to win. The opponent can get up and climb the ladder and engage in a fight. Unlike the main game, this is more of a scripted sequence rather than more freeform. Steel Cage matches require a timing minigame to climb the cage. Extreme Rules Matches have weapons lying around you can use (using weapons is really slow though and kinda boring). Table Matches require you to damage your opponent and then press L to automatically do a sequence where the character climbs the turnbuckle to do an elbow drop.
The big new match type is the ambulance match where the goal is to throw your opponent into an ambulance and button mash to close the doors. You need to damage your opponent to make it harder for them to break out. To me, this feels like the Buried Alive Matches from the main game only better and less tedious because the Ambulance is right outside the ring instead of at the entrance so far away where all you can do is basic grabs and strikes (as an aside, A lot of people complain when match types like Inferno and Buried Alive don't make it to future games. I don't mind. These matches are often extremely limited and gimmicky. Either expand them accordingly or don't have them there taking up space).
Backstage Brawls are present with a nice number of areas including a hospital, various parking lots and locker rooms and backstage, a construction site, various homes. However, given the game's controls, you'll fight mostly the same but with the odd Irish Whip into an object that provides some response (like throwing a guy into a car and a wheel rolls out you can use as a weapon. Or throwing a guy into a window and it cracks as a cosmetic difference). I've never been a fan of backstage brawls even in the main games and have been confused why so many people like them so much in Youtube Reviews and comments. To me, Backstage Brawls take away many moves from the ring like springboard attacks, turnbuckle moves, rebound attacks etc and replace them with mostly Irish Whipping opponents into places with the odd new environmental grab move that everybody can use. The only game I feel that does Backstage Brawls in an interesting way is Here Comes the Pain as it added lots of ways to interact with the environment (like vehicles and cages and being able to destroy parts of the environment to reveal more stuff).
I feel there could have been gauntlet matches (the story mode has a version of them). Tag matches could have been done by a cutscene where your wrestler disappears and another appears. Would have added some variety.
-Create a Wrestler:
Is very well done. It's not as detailed as its console counterparts but still very detailed, allowing you to create just about anybody you can think of. There are even nice features like mirroring clothes onto other parts of the body.
The attribute system in this game is different. There are 4 stats; durability, strength, submission and speed. The only one that matters is durability which effects pins and submissions. The remaining 3 just act as limits to what moves you can equip. You need a submission of 9 to get the STF. A Speed of 10 to get the 619 etc. You can improve these stats in Story Mode where you're required to take a Created Wrestler through.
-Season Mode
--Structure
The Story mode works on a daily basis. You go through the entire calendar a day at a time. If it's a day you're scheduled on (like Smackdown on Friday), you'll play through the next sequence of the story. Unlike other SVR games, you're free to actually walk through areas like your home, hospital, gym, arenas etc to get to where objectives are. The closest main game with this structure is SVR'11 where you can walk backstage to do things. On your off days, you can visit other areas and find side quests like bonus matches and mild RPG stuff like conversations with people to have things happen. Also, everyday, you can go to the gym and do exercises to boost your attributes. Durability requires doing squats (alternating between B and X with the timings getting stricter with more exercises), Strength requires weight lifting (button mashing the correct prompt when it pops up), Speed has skip rope (pressing B to jump at the correct time and you can change the speed of the rope) and submission as a QTE minigame where you press the correct prompts as they show up to do moves on a dummy (this is my favourite because it's the easist to cheese. You can keep pausing the game to give yourself more time to react. I went from a score of 40 when doing it the correct way to a score of 220 with this).
--The Negatives
There's often nothing to do on your off days. What side quests and bonus matches that are there are few and far between, and very few of that list are actually fun or interesting, often being a quick cutscene with some choices where only some give an award. For example, There's a side quest early on where Santino is US champion and asks you to help him hide from other challengers. For every challenger you tell that Santino isn't here, you get a reward (in this case, CAW parts), but if you sell Santina out, you get nothing even when Shelton tells you he'll give you a reward. Once this section is over, it's over. Even ignoring the briefness of the encounter and that it goes nowhere, why does only one path give you a reward? If you don't know what to do you may miss out on something and have to replay the entire story just to make the correct choices. One such case happened to me when I played the game for the first time back when it came out. To unlock the Smackdown Locker Room in free play, you must wait for the quest where Shelton tells you that Edge is coming out about 3/4 into the story, choose to wait rather than attack immediately (as you'll attack Matt Hardy instead and end the quest there), Matt with tell the player that Shelton lied to him. Once the player finds Shelton in the Locker Room, The player must choose to slap Shelton to trigger a fight and thus unlock the area. So there's like 2-3 sets of choices where any "incorrect" one would take away the prize. I'd rather this game just give you the prizes for completing the section which is what recent WWE games have been doing. It would also help roleplaying as you'd pick whatever you wanted the first time rather than trying to game the solution.
Now the Gym Minigames, they're something you can do daily, you don't have to if you don't want to improve your character. But even then, the minigames get really, really, really boring and tedious really quickly. Your week will often look like "wake up, go to gym, do exercises, go home and sleep". The only positives are you can cheese the submission one and that once you're done with them if you do them everyday, you're done for the rest of the story.
WWE Games have tried lots of ways to design progression for your character. HCTP just had the player go from week to week with no interruptions or filler and would increase attributes from EXP gained from matches. This was great as not only were there no filler, it kept the momentum of the story going. SVR 08 made it so you could simulate events on your off days like promoting WWE or doing training activities to boost your stats. These started to feel like padding after a while and didn't really add anything or effect the world. SVR 09-10 required your character to do certain things during matches to unlock the ability improve stats and would award the points needed to improve them based on performance. This often made matches a slog as you'd have to repeat the same actions over and over again just to make any amount of improvement. 2k16-18 took away much of the stuff in between weeks but made their progression this massive open-ended blackhole (These games had a ton of abilities and skills and attributes that weren't in past games that were present immediately in the upgrade options) that lacked any straight path and was further hampered by how few points you get to upgrade. 2k19 fixed that by adding in skill trees that directed the player and unlocked most everything relatively fast while still making them strong. Off all these, I like the simplicity of HCTP for the arcade-y games and 2k19's for simulation games. I still feel more points could be awarded to speed things along more but these are the best. As an added benefit to 2k19, skill trees mean that as skills are handed out sequentially, a player may experiment with what they're given and may better be able to incorporate it into their moveslot rather than be overwhelmed with choices that they never experiment.
-The Story
Normally, I wouldn't include a summary of the story as you can just look up a summary on a wiki. But given the lack of that: our story starts with Triple H beating Big Show for the WWE title. As he heads backstage, he meets our main character (MC) getting a call from Vince telling him he's getting signed on. HHH asks the MC their name and the choice to step aside. After that, Vince puts the MC on ECW and told to train under Finley. The MC quickly strikes out on his own with a feud with Jack Swagger and later with Miz and Morrison who capture Finley so Hornswoggle has to try to attack you and making MC's date with Eve come to an abrupt end. Dealing with all this puts MC in the running for the ECW title held by Christian. After dealing with another issue where Vladimir keeps invading ECW, MC beats Christian and wins the title. MC's quick rise attracts Stephanie's attention who wants to recruit MC to Raw against ECW GM Teddy Long's wishes. Steph sends young Ted Dibiase to get an answer from the MC. When the MC asks for more time or acts like a dick, the 2 fight and Ted is injured. Now under the obligation to provide compensation for the injury, Steph books a ladder match between MC and a surprise opponent (the IC Champion CM Punk) where obtaining the briefcase's contents would "fully compensate" any debts. MC wins only to discover the prize was a contract and by winning he's transferred to Raw. On Raw, MC discovers that Chris Jericho was the one who manipulated Steph into bringing MC to Raw so Jericho could crush MC's momentum. The only way MC can get his hands on Jericho is through a gauntlet match. Prior to the match, Jericho ambushes MC so he passes out during the Gauntlet match. Steph is "embarrassed" by what happens and pulls MC from Summerslam. MC gets his spot back by presenting Steph with an exclusive interview he went to that would be great for business, and some "risque" photos of Steph. Vince chimes in to randomize the match between MC and Jericho. After this, Steph makes it up to MC by putting him in a tournament to challenge for the IC title. Before the tournament starts, MC runs into Diabase who cuts a deal with MC to help him win in his match and he'll help MC in his match. MC helps a struggling Diabase beat Rey Mysterio only to find that Diabase neglected to mention that any interference in the tournament would result in disqualification from the tournament. MC pleads his case to Steph who agrees to give him a chance by telling him to beat both Kane and Diabase in individual matches to progress. Mysterio comes to also plead his case but Steph tells him that he's too late and MC already arranged his stuff. This gives Mysterio a grudge against MC he'll carry onwards. MC wins the tournament and beats CM Punk for the title who apologizes for that first ladder match, saying he didn't know what Steph was planning.
Following this, Survivor Series is the upcoming PPV. Team Cena/Punk/Mysterio are squaring up against team Batista, Kane and Diabase. Cena and Punk discuss adding MC to the team (with a nice burn from Cena when Punk brings up MC as a candidate with "the guy who beat you twice and took your title"). Mysterio disagrees hard about MC as "he's untrustworthy" but Cena and Punk overrule him. Randy Orton, who wants to get a shot at Cena's World Heavyweight Title, plays off Mysterio's distrust to get Kane to injure Punk. Punk was able to recruit MC before Batista did but Mysterio, feeling guilty, defects to Batista's team, requiring MC to find a replacement partner. Also, during this time, MC beats Cena for the world title. The stipulation at Survivor Series is that if MC's team wins, he retains the title while Batista's team leaves Raw. If Batista's team wins, he becomes World Champ and the other team leaves. MC wins but Steph announces that Smackdown's GM Vickie traded her back team Batista in exchange for MC. MC gets welcomed to Smackdown by Triple H who shows him the ropes. MC gets hounded by Edge and gets in a feud with him where the loser leaves Smackdown. After winning that, Trips helps MC get into a title shot for the US title. MC beats Jeff for that. Then, Trips gets MC into the Royal Rumble but MC draws 1st. Instead of doing a Shawn Micheals, Trips tells MC to trade his number with others, trading 1st to Umaga and going through others until he gets 27. After winning the Rumble, Vickie goes on a crusade to destroy MC because he traded numbers (which nobody else seemed to know was apparently not allowed). MC survives all this only to find himself the suspect after somebody attacked Undertaker. Taker goes full supernatural, able to teleport around, even backstage and into MC's home, and no sell just about everything. Even after beating Taker at No Mercy, Taker gets up without a scratch only for Edge to show up, say he's been rehired by Vince and show footage showing that it was the Miz (who was hired by Triple H) who attacked Taker. Taker apologizes and teleports away. Triple H shows up, beats up Edge and reveals his master plan: He arranged for all this so MC could get all the titles allowing Trips to beat MC at Wrestlemania 25 and get all the titles in one fell swoop. Vickie tries to stop this by allowing a "free for all" where anybody could pin MC for any title at any time for 2 hours because he hasn't been defending his titles ever since he won them (take that Brock Lesner). Trips doesn't offer any help despite a loss here potentially ruining his plans. MC braves all this, faces Trips one last time at Wrestlemania where in a callback to their first meeting, Trips asks MC to introduce himself and to step out of his way. MC beats Triple H, becoming all the champions and gets about a week to celebrate before he's called back in by Vince to get back in the ring.
So yeah, The writing was great but the story was more mixed. There were some good and some not so good
The Good:
I like how the stories often flow into each other and the interactions with characters along the way. For example, On Raw, you get in a tournament for the IC Title. Because you screw Rey out of a shot, he distrusts you for several PPVs/chapters later, which is what Orton exploits to get Team Rey/Cena/Punk hurt when they try to recruit your character.
I like how the final Wrestlemania chapter, Royal Rumble chapter and many of the feuds play out. They're cool.
I also like how characters will often remember you. Swagger and Miz will hate you throughout the game and reference how they're doing with you.
Not so good:
-Your main character has no real agency or motivation or arc as stuff just happens to him instead of him initiating it.
-You win multiple championships at once and nobody cares:
Well, Some people care on one day when it's a free for all And that's it. And then you have Triple H wanting to take all your titles. It devalues the titles when you can win them and completely forget about them along with the entire rest of the WWE and your main character wasn't even gunning for many of them (He gets entered into a tournament for the IC Title as compensation from Stephanie rather than on his own accord. The US and WHW are just "oh, Your guy's here. Let's have a match for the title"). Even winning the titles can be very anti-climactic with only the ECW, Intercontinental and WWE belts providing a proper build up and challenge. It feels like your character doesn't even care that much and is just getting opportunities handed down to him because he's the main character. There is some justification as it's implied Triple H orchestrated the whole thing from the beginning so he could get all the titles in one fell swoop but it's a more than a little contrived. Why does he put his faith in an untested rookie that isn't even going after the titles on his own accord to get all the titles for him? It's lucky your guy keeps getting title opportunities despite never asking for them and somehow winning them all. Hell, during the Free for all, Triple H’s plan could have backfired as your character was injured and could have lost at least the ECW and US titles.
So how would I improve the story? Firstly I'd have sub-stories where your character needs to go to matches on ECW and Raw as well once he wins their titles so he can defend them throughout the year. This can be a great chance to have more character interactions, add closure to stories and characters from the main story (like Rey, Christian and Finlay's parts) that no longer have a part. Adding in more cutscenes should help here and it's not like we're creating new assets from scratch so it shouldn't break the limits of the hardware.
As for the main story itself, I'd keep it mostly the same but add and tweak some things, mostly the stories where the MC goes for the titles or their contention. I feel the story would have been better if your character was gunning for the titles from the very beginning and had to work more for it as well as proving himself because everyone sees him as a rookie and whenever he suggests a title opportunity he gets reminded how new he is. So when on ECW, during that segment when Vladimir and Henry are attacking ECW Superstars and Christian needs someone to back him to defend ECW, MC could offer his help provided Christian gives him a title shot. And Like when he gets to Raw, he investigates how to get a crack at the IC title and his feud with Jericho becomes an obstacle he must clear to get a shot at the title instead of just "well, you got nothing to do now and you helped me. Might as well go in this tournament now". Like after he beats Jericho, Steph asks how she can make it up, he tells her to put him in that tournament to be the Number 1 Contender. This would be better because it makes the main character far more active in the plot and have more agency on his journey. It also shows how he's committed to becoming champion that he can read the environment and knows what he needs to do, setting up your guy as crafty, resourceful and determined to not just win the title but show he's worthy of respect because he's proving himself. What's more is that can work for both face and heel characters so roleplaying can also be a thing.
When he gets to Smackdown, he keeps trying to go for the US title but Vickie keeps holding him down as there are other competitors before him and Edge acts as your stepping stone like Jericho did. Your guy needs to get him out of Smackdown entirely so you can take his place in the contention for the title. That adds some extra spice to his firing because you're not just fighting Edge because he was being a dick to you. You're also fighting him because that gets you closer to your goals of getting championships. A loss here wouldn't just a loss, it ends your plans since now you'd be unable to go for the US and WWE belts. That can also be what Triple H exploits since he sees how you're going after the belts and might actually have a chance given your history, skills, drive and accomplishments. Now, the Free For All segment can be altered and be less nonsensical where it's Vickie trying to get even with the MC by hosting a night where anyone can pin him anywhere for any title and many of his formal rivals and people in contention come out for a shot instead of it being the only defences your MC has done ever. During the Free For All Segment, there should be a part where you find out that despite everything Triple H is helping you succeed here because he wants all your titles intact for the Wrestlemania match.
-Conclusion
It's often difficult to convey the value of a game. WWE SVR10 is the best DS Wrestling Game of all time. Sadly, that's not saying a lot. The others were lacklustre to say the least, and the limits of the DS mean that if you want a handheld Wrestling game, you're better off playing them on the PSP. It's best feature is its story mode and cards which would be great being reimagined for the main games. But to the people who only had the DS back in 2009, this would have been incredible and my review can't really reflect that. The people who played SVR'10 DS likely didn't do it for laughs, they did it because it was the only option they had. To that end, this game is mostly a success. I'm sad there wasn't an SVR'11DS to further refine the formula because I do feel it was onto something great.
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