WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 - RTW & Mystery Mode

If your just joining us, Road to WrestleMania lets you control Undertaker, CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Triple H, John Cena, or Rey Mysterio and Batista on each Superstar's path to the biggest spectacle in Sports Entertainment. This is a drastic change from the be-anyone-you-want 24/7 Mode SVR featured last year, which put everyone's Superstar into the same tale and left a lot of bigger names feeling out of place and acting uncharacteristically. Road to WrestleMania replaces that garbage with character-specific fables featuring full-fledged voice acting, alternate endings, and scores of unlockables.

"It was a tough decision, but you get a lot more bang for your buck," THQ Creative Manager Bryan Williams said.

For my demo, THQ showed me the Undertaker storyline. Beginning with 79 days until WrestleMania, the story pits the big guy against Santino for his first feud, but it was the little stuff that caught my attention. Each week, the show you're on will start with its traditional fireworks and crowd-scanning shots before cutting to the announce table to hear what the week's biggest story is. So, in Taker's case, we're spun around the SmackDown arena before settling in on the Coach and Michael Cole dishing on the day. Now, no offense to JR, King, THQ, or whoever else might get all cranky with me, but commentary's never been a strongpoint of the SVR franchise. The game tries, but generally it's a few moves behind and a bit too general. However, because there's a focus to each RTW tale, commentary is actually thought-out, story-specific, and worth listening to. During the Undertaker matches I saw, Cole and Coach talked about the feud that was developing, why it was happening, and any other story point that made sense. It was actually like watching the show -- a point driven home by the cutscenes dropped in all over the place and the WWE copyright logo popping up at the end of the show as Cole and Coach freak out.
Before you head to the ring, you'll be booted back to your locker room where you can save and adjust options, but more importantly, this is where you'll get optional objectives. During the Undertaker storyline, a note in the Deadman's locker informed me that if Undertaker could put away Finlay -- a cutscene showed a run-in between the man who loves to fight, Santino, and Undertaker -- quicker than it took to beat Santino, Taker'd be handsomely rewarded. I can't tell you what became available when Undertaker won, but I can tell you it was totally worth it. The objectives will unlock environments, characters, match types, and more.

I've seen a lot of people asking what RTW keeps from 24/7 mode, and the answer is "Not much." This isn't really the same thing as 24/7; here, you're participating in a specific story that has different paths and alternate endings. There are no injuries to worry about, and no training activities to participate in during your off days. You're in your locker room the day of your match and can look at messages or goals, then it's into the ring or to view a cutscene, and then you watch as the days on a calendar will scroll by as the shows you're not on. Yes, you'll appear on PPVs and win titles and so on, but all of those choices are story elements and not something you'd go out and seek on your own.

So what does this mean for your created Superstars or Superstars not in the RTW six-pack? Well, there was an interview from a few months ago where THQ Senior Creative Manager Cory Ledesma said there would be something for Superstars to do, and I made sure to ask him all about it during the THQ visit. However, to hear what Ledesma, Williams, and Maria had to say about that mode and everything else SVR related, you'll need to tune in to my interview on Podcast Beyond -- the IGN PlayStation Team show -- this Thursday. If listening isn't your thing, Thursday will also bring your first look at Maria's in-game character when the Diva picks up the controller and faces off against Gruesome Greggy in an IGN Championship/WWE Woman's Championship unification match on IGN.