THQ and Yukes had a lot of ground to make up with fans after Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009, which many regarded as one of the poorest games in the series to date.
Have they got their act together and righted last year's wrongs? Thankfully, the answer seems to be yes.
Gameplay in Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010
The control system has been overhauled to incorporate more holds and moves than ever before, as well as a 'single button reversal system'.
Transitioning from hold to hold feels smoother and the ability to turn the opponent around on the mat, in the corners and during grapples makes it much easier to hit those awkward 'from behind' finishing manoeuvres such as the Backstabber.
Signature moves no longer require a finisher and become available when the players momentum meter is around 3/4 full, boosting right up to a Finisher when delivered.
This means matches can be wrapped up with a quick combo of moves, for example The Rock's Spinebuster into The Peoples Elbow.
Unfortunately on the PS3 there seems to be a freezing issue and although these freezes only last a split second at most, they make the gameplay look jerky.
Sound in Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010
The audio in the game really seems to have taken a big step up this year.
Chant wars such as 'Lets go Cena/R.K.O' will break out during high profile matches, 'this is awesome' will ring out around the arena if the player is putting on a good show and 'you've still got it!' can be heard when Legends like Dusty Rhodes grace the squared circle.
On the downside, the commentary doesn't seem to have improved with many phrases repeated 3-4 times a match and others being completely irrelevant to the action in the ring.
Also, the commentary doesn't seem to be able to differentiate between Superstars and Divas when the situation is generic, and will often refer to a Diva as 'he' or 'him'.
Road to WrestleMania Mode
While the storylines in general have improved in depth and length, some of them feel a little like re-hashes of on-screen events (Mickie James' in particular) and despite claims that this year would have much more diversity when it came to players choosing story paths, this doesn't really seem to be the case.
While they do have more decisions to make than last year, the majority are completely irrelevant to the story's progression and serve only as a way of making the player feel involved.
For example, in Edge's Road to WrestleMania the player is asked to choose their own partners and opponents numerous times, but these selections alter the storyline in any major way.
On the plus side most of the stories are fun, there are a lot more 'Optional Goals' which all lead to a bounty of unlockable content and the voicing of characters has also improved significantly (although Kelly Kelly could still do with some work.)
Storyline Designer Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010
For years now fans of the Smackdown series have claimed they could do better than THQ and Yukes when it comes to putting together decent storylines.
So this year the games creators have challenged fans to put their creative skills where their mouths are, with the all-new 'Storyline Designer'.
There is a huge selection of 'scenarios' for budding Dusty Rhodes' and Michael 'P.S' Hayes' to choose from in order to spice up a rivalry, which could span as long as 10 years.
The only real downfall to this mode is how usage of Created Superstars is inexplicably limited.
Players won't be able to create an entirely fictional WWE Universe as their created heroes and heroines can only be used a maximum of 10 times, be that matches or cutscenes.
Still, every other member of the 67 strong roster is eligible for use, as well as a handful of NPC's like Good Old J.R.
Downloading Superstars
Being able to download Superstars that others have created eliminates the painstaking process of documenting every aspect of creation for others to replicate.
However, the Superstars that players download are locked in every single way. Appearance, Moveset, Entrance; All Locked.
This means that amongst other things, players are unable to apply custom soundtracks to entrances, meaning fans will have to resort to doing things 'the good old fashioned way' if they want to strive for complete realism.
Downloading Storylines
The storyline creator gives everyone the chance to be a WWE Writer.
While this might sound like a great idea, it also means that anyone can cobble together a storyline and upload it, which has led to a slew of poorly written, usually short submissions flooding the online community area.
This often makes locating a half decent storyline an arduous task, but rest assured that there are some out there worth searching for.
Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010 Final Verdict
Overall this year's edition of Smackdown Vs. Raw really delivers on where it failed so spectacularly last year.
The addition of the Storyline Designer really pushes 2010 past it's previous incarnations and could even create the opportunity for the games producers to put out new content themselves, giving it a potentially limitless shelf life.
Jay Davies - Jay Davies is a 25 year old graduate of the University of Lincoln's School of Journalism, currently residing in South Yorkshire, ...
