WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2010 featuring ECW

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 featuring ECW for PSP brings WWE’s 2009 season to PlayStation Portable in a handheld professional-wrestling game developed by Yuke’s and published by THQ. Released in October 2009, it is the sixth game to carry the SmackDown vs. Raw name and follows WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009. The “featuring ECW” subtitle reflects a roster drawn from Raw, SmackDown, and ECW at a time when all three brands were still part of WWE programming, alongside legends and free agents.

Matches are built around the familiar struggle to control the ring: strike, grapple, run, climb, use the environment, wear an opponent down, and secure a pinfall or submission under the selected rules. The PSP controls map that action to the system’s buttons and shoulder controls, while a training facility introduces basic techniques and match mechanics. A one-button reversal system puts the emphasis on timing, asking players to react when an opportunity appears instead of choosing between the older two-button prompts. Strong grapples return in multiple positions, and revised ground, apron, and diving attacks expand the situations from which wrestlers can launch offense.

The game supplies quick exhibitions as well as a wide choice of WWE-style stipulations. Players can stage standard singles and tag matches, specialty bouts, Championship Scramble contests, mixed-tag encounters, and the Royal Rumble. The Rumble receives particular attention: eliminations can involve the ropes and turnbuckles as well as finishing moves, and a finisher can help a wrestler escape danger. Momentum and damage information are presented more sparingly than in earlier entries, leaving the wrestlers’ condition and the flow of the bout to carry more of the match presentation.

Road to WrestleMania provides scripted paths toward WWE’s annual showcase, with stories centered on Edge, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, and a Mickie James Divas route, plus a Create-a-Superstar story and the cooperative Brand Warfare campaign starring Triple H and John Cena. Interactive scenes and matches shape the progress through each route. Away from those authored stories, Superstar Management lets players organize the roster’s brand affiliations, while WWE Rivals allows alliances and feuds to influence possible ringside interference in exhibition matches.

Creation is a major part of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 featuring ECW on PSP. Create-a-Superstar, Create-a-Moveset, and Create-a-Finisher let players build a wrestler and develop a move repertoire, with aerial finishers allowing adjustments to a leap’s trajectory and speed. WWE Story Designer goes further by letting players arrange shows and pay-per-views from matches, scenarios, dialogue, locations, and preset cutscenes. The PSP edition supports up to 55 segments in a created story, a smaller scale than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases but well suited to making compact rivalries and event cards on the go.

The PSP version also supports ad hoc multiplayer for local wireless matches, allowing two to four nearby players to take part depending on the mode. It shares much of the game’s core content with the PlayStation 2 and Wii editions, but it does not include the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions’ online creation sharing, Paint Tool, or Superstar Threads attire-color mode. That makes this release a distinctly portable snapshot of WWE’s late-2009 roster and brands: a full-featured ring game built around competitive bouts, WrestleMania storylines, and player-made wrestling scenarios.