While THQ has been relatively mum on the subject of their Legends of Wrestlemania title, which is scheduled to be released later this year, that hasn't stopped them from churning out another entry in the well-established Smackdown franchise. The series has seen its share of peaks and valleys, with last year's title being one of the company's more "average" efforts. Nevertheless,THQ has a devoted and vocal wrestling-game fan-base from which they not only take suggestions, but the more feasible of which they actually incorporate into their titles. This fact shows in SvR 09, which offers a few compelling additions in a series that has adopted virtually everything the hardcore fan could ask for. SvR has had a virtual monopoly in the wrestling market for the past few years, and withthe modest success of Midway's TNA Impact, it's as good a time as any for THQ to lure players back. SvR 2009 will do just that, in what is not only a considerable improvement over last year's game, but one of the finest installments inthe entire franchise to date.

Despite numerous opportunities to mix things up, THQ has again kept the status quo in terms of graphics, gameplay, and the like., In short, if you've played even a tiny bit of any of the more recent SvR's, or even the those under the former Smackdown label (especially on the next-Gen systems), then you know what you'll be getting. Despite receiving some legitimate competition from Midway this time, SvR 2009 still outshines its opponent in all of the important areas: number of wrestlers, match types on offer, a functional and robust control scheme, solid online play, and customization. Impact might look a tad prettier by comparison, but THQ has built a formidable reputation, including that always-growing resource of fanse and by making enhancements year after year, they keep the SvR series fresh and in the lead. . That being said, SvR 2008 was more style than substance, and for the first time since the original SvR , the reigning champion was looking like it had exhausted all options in remaining the top in its game. Leave it to the fine folks at THQ to listen to "the people" and turn around with a respectable amount of new features, keeping Midway's grappler at bay, but also giving Smackdown and WWE fans worldwide a treat that will curb the anticipation for Legends of Wrestlemania.

Quite possibly the greatest additions to this year's SvR is not one, but two career-style modes. Last year's career-mode was boring, lacked any real excitement, and was ultimately nothing but redundancy with a little randomness thrown in--a rather unappealing experience. The "career" mode in '09 is straightforward and does not have any real pizazz to it, but is well designed, engrossin,g and more in-depth than you might initially think.

The premise involves taking a wrestler (either your own or one of the WWE's) and beginning a quest to win every single title the WWE has to offer. Sure, weight restrictions are thrown out the window, meaning your 300 lbs behemoth can win the Light Heavyweight title, but the process of obtaining your belt of choice is a long one. At first, you only have a few championships to choose from. You select the one you want to acquire and then face a handful of wrestlers. By beating them, you accumulate stars (which I will go over in more detail shortly). When you have 15 stars or more, you get the chance to become the #1 contender for the title. Beat one of the aforementioned wrestlers, and your next bout is with the champion. The kicker is, each championship bout is accentuated with a specialty match. Therefore, if you want to get that belt, you might have to climb a ladder, put someone through a table, or scale a steel cage. Once you win the championship, you unlock not only the specialty match (which can now be used in the paths for other titles), but also paths to more prestigious titles as well. The process repeats itself until you get every single belt, or until you tire of beating on jambronis.