Yukes, THQ and Jakks Pacific join forces one again to bring us the latest edition in the series considered the reigning champion of wrestling games: The WWE SmackDown series. Since it’s inception 8 years ago, the series has set the bar against which all other wrestling games are judged. How does this year’s version compare with past installments. Does it make the grade? Is it Championship material? Read on and find out.

WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2009, the latest in THQ’s award winning series has arrived for home consoles. This review covers the Playstation 3 version. The series follows it’s tried and true formula of keeping what works while tweaking or outright removing what didn’t. This year’s new features will make up the bulk of this review, but first let’s talk about the minor improvements that make a big difference.

The game features more than 40 WWE Superstars from all three WWE brands. Although this is a fairly extensive roster, it is somewhat out of date. This is unfortunately one of the biggest flaws with the game each year. However, there are hopes that THQ will be able to address this with downloadable content. There are also no legends in the game, due to THQ’s upcoming Legends of WrestleMania game.

The graphics this year have received a noticeable upgrade. The faces are more expressive and detailed than ever before, complimenting the new character models. The arenas for the three main TV shows (RAW, SmackDown and ECW) all feature the new HD set that debuted this past year and it is reproced impressively. Also, all of the Pay Per View arenas from last year have also been faithfully recreated. The digital crowd also looks MUCH better than last year’s version.

Sound is also improved this year, with the commentary slightly improved, though still repetative and the music perfectly suited to the game. All of the Superstars have their signature Entrance Themes and the music played during the matches, a combination of WWE Themes and original music, works well.

Now, let’s talk about the new stuff. We’ll start with the “Story Mode.” Last Year’s Story Mode and GM Mode have both been scrapped. Instead, THQ is debuting the “Road to WrestleMania” Mode, which is an amalgam of the two. Now much talk has been focused on this mode, due mostly to the fact that you can only play as 7 of the over 40 Superstars in the game. However, those limitations are imposed to allow the story to be unique for each Superstar. There are 6 seperate storylines, 5 Single player and one Tag Team. The Superstars playable in this mode are: Triple H, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, John Cena, Undertaker and the Tag Team of Rey Mysterio and Batista. The stories for each of these Superstars is written by WWE writers and includes feuds, angles and surprising plot twists. The story encompasses the weeks between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. This is the mode where you will unlock all of the game’s extra content. The unlockable content is spread throughout all of the different stories.  The content is varied and interesting, ranging from CAW parts to new characters. This mode works very well, and if they can expand the number of Superstars you can play as, I think this will become an absolute fan favorite mode.

This year, the development team chose to focus on refining the Tag Team gameplay experience. To that end, more established teams have been included than ever before, including the Hardy Boys and D-Generation X. Adding to this new emphasis are special Tag Team moves that cause extra damage when executed and look spectacular.

All of you favorite match types return in this outing and they are all still the same as last year, so I’m not going into great detail about them here. There is one new match type this year and it is a big one. This year marks the highly anticipated debut of the INFERNO MATCH!. And yes, just in case you were wondering, the ring surrounded by fire does indeed look as cool as it sounds. The object of the match is to perform moves and strikes, raising the temperature gauge at the bottom of the screen. When it reaches a certain level the flames shoot up and increase in intensity, becoming a veritable wall of fire. At this point, if your opponent is incapacitated, you can drag them into the fire and win the match.

The popular creation features return, but this year a new mode has been added. The Create-A-Finisher Mode allows you to string together several different preset animation to create a unique finishing move that can then be given to any Superstar in the game, WWE or created. The Create-A-Wrestler Mode has more options than ever, and, using it, I was able to create a fairly decent version of The Joker from the Dark Knight movie.

What better way to show off your created characters or finishing moves than to record them and send them to your friends? That’s exactly what the new “HIghlight Reel” Mode allows you to do. You can record any portion of any match and then edit the video to your heart’s content. This is a really cool feature and I encourage anyone who plays this game to try it out.

Also this year, the game’s online functionality takes a huge leap forward, with every match type playable online. The online experience is very smooth, with no perceptible lag. Also this year, for the first time ever, THQ has promised downloadable content. There is no further information right now.

WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2009 is, in the end, the best entry yet in the series, featuring terrific controls and an intriguing new story mode. The promise of downloadable content brings the possibilty of a remedy to this game’s only real flaw, it’s outdated roster.

WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2009 gets 4 Five Knuckle Shuffles out of 5