IGN writes: "Wrestling and the PlayStation 2 go together like peanut butter and jelly, cookies and milk, and Ryan Clements and apologies. However, as the system continues to age, quality opportunities to lay the smack down are becoming more and more rare. This year, THQ and Yuke's have brought WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 to a smattering of platforms, and the PlayStation 2 hasn't been ignored. While it's true that this PS2 version is just a stripped down rendition of what fans are getting on the PlayStation 3, this is definitely a step up from last year's title even though this franchise is nowhere near what it used to be on Sony's second system.
On paper, it seems like SVR 09 should cruise to wrestling game greatness. The title packs more than 60 wrestlers, 14 one-on-one match types including the new Inferno option, a new story mode, better AI, and a focus on tag teams. However, when you get into the punching, grappling, and slamming that make up the game, the world begins to feel like well worn territory and begins to look muddled. In the end, we have a game that improves on last year's outing in a number of ways but falls short of returning SVR to its place of honor on the PS2."
