It’s pretty fair to say that, publisher, THQ have the fighting genre all sown up apart from boxing.

UFC , as a franchise, is huge and they own the wrestling sub genre hands down.  Big licenses have allowed them to publish some very impressive games and there is nothing larger than the WWE franchise and what it has produced over the years.

The problem is with this much domination in a specific area is that there is a risk of producing a game that doesn’t meet expectations, especially when it is a yearly franchise.  What to add onto a game and what to feature will be paramount to a games’ success over the years.  With Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 arriving through our letterbox we look at Yuke’s latest version to see if it delivers a fighting game that is worth upgrading for.

It is well documented that most games that come from the THQ stable are rich and deep in customisation.  Whether you talk WWE, UFC, Saints Row as examples, they all show creative and customisation suites that you can quite easily lose hours in trying to design the most obscure clothing, patterns, tattoos and the like.  WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 is no different here and has tools to redesign virtually any part of the game.  Players can create superstar wrestlers with their own custom attire, finishing moves, paint tools which expand on colour schemes and you are even able to redesign story lines.  I think most people would be pretty happy just with this but Yuke’s have brought back last year’s community features as well to enable gamers to upload and share their creations with other people too as well as searching and downloading some of the most popular designs this community has to offer.

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Even though the customisation element is huge, WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 also brings to the table one of the widest variety of match types ever to grace a fighting game.  With over 100 different match types available, including a personal favourite, Hell In The Cell, Royal Rumble, ladder matches or just plain tag team each game you play will add a different take on your traditional wrestling experience to keep things fresh.

If that wasn't enough, then over 70 different wrestlers and divas have been included in this year's version making it one of the most extensive rosters to date.

Having this many options in game is all well and good "but how well does it play?"  I hear you ask.  Well, there have been some technical tweaks and improvements to WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2011.  Probably lot more than you could notice under the bonnet and this year's title feels as smooth as ever with a great controller setup to make everything fluid.  Fights feel really balanced with an air of unpredictability to them as fighters who have alliances with each other make their way to the ring to help out a man who is down.  The tradition adrenaline rushes of wrestlers that have taken a pasting can suddenly rise up with a brief flourish that also adds to the spectacle.  Skill is ultimately your weapon and with enough determination and precision these challenges can be overcome to produce a win in your favour.

Over the past couple of years, WWE Smackdown Vs Raw has introduced a story mode to the game, called Road To Wrestlemania.  In essence this mode has tried to recreate the classic storylines which you can manipulate to become a WWE champion.  Encompassing new storylines, freely roam backstage areas, select your own opponents does add some new elements to the gameplay but I feel that this has not been expanded on enough and is something that feels short of its true potential.  Don't get me wrong, it is a strong feature but with something that is potentially a class act I feel that Yukes could have opened this up a little more.  Having 5 superstars to choose from is all well and good and the options to now talk to other wrestlers backstage is great but you are limited in how deep these conversations go to change the way of a particular storyline.  Unfortunately, it still comes down to pushing each other around to start a rivalry off and is something that could be looked at for next year's edition.

The biggest new feature, however, is the WWE Universe Mode.  Yukes and THQ are looking to immerse the player as best as they can into the WWE universe by providing a whole season’s worth of match ups that the player can choose from the regular WWE shows and pay per view events.  This mode is a clever mix of career mode and exhibition matches which will enable you to pick and choose the fights that you want, set up custom matches, fight for title belts and it will even develop storylines based on your choices.

Overall, WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 delivers much of the same as its predecessors but with more polish and a few more options.  The gameplay is as solid as ever and the presentation has been very well crafted.  I understand that to deliver a top notch franchise year after year must be a very difficult thing to do indeed and there is just enough there to make you feel that this is worth buying as an evolution to last year’s edition.  The only problem is that the new features that are implemented, whilst great fun, are simply not being developed as much as I feel they should.

With a few more tweaks and a couple of creative ideas along with some depth to the new additions on offer would make WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 out of this world in terms of its genre.  A very solid game and worthy of an upgrade but it feels as though the boundaries have now been pushed to their limit unless Yukes can come up with something creatively stellar in next year’s development.