Another year, another Smackdown franchise game right? After all, this venerable series is the top for this type of game and has been going strong for almost 10 years. But is there anything that will capture the imagination (and wallets) of new fans? And is there anything to get excited about for those of us who are veterans of the series? Read on and I will inculcate, elucidate and educate.

And now that I've gotten my nerd quota satisfied for the day, let's take a look at Smackdown Vs. Raw for 2009 (henceforth referred to as SvR '09 for the sake of preventing carpel tunnel syndrome).

One of the main knocks on previous generations is how stilted and sometimes plain goofy the storylines can be. Granted, this is pro wrestling so a bit of strangeness is par for the course, but in some cases there were superstars put into situations that just did not make sense, even for a wrestling game.

But this year all that has changed. Gone is the 24/7 story mode of last year (which was plain confusing to this reviewer). In its place is a shiny new beacon of joy called Road to Wrestlemania. In this mode you get to pick one of 7 wrestlers and led your chosen champion on his path to wrestling fame and glory at the "granddaddy of them all," Wrestlemania.

Your choices for grapplers include: Triple H, C.M. Punk, The Undertaker, John Cena, Chris Jericho and, in a very cool twist, the choice to play as either Rey Mysterio or Batista, or with friend in a co-op mode.

The storylines for this mode are excellent, as are the wrestlers' deliveries of their lines. They are done with conviction and are believable. The voiceovers in general are very well done. However, there is one time I noted without fail that they were out of sync with what was happening in the ring. Whenever you place your opponent on the announce table and do a dive finisher, the announcers, be they Lawler/Ross, Tazz/Joey Styles or Jonathan Coachmen/Michael Cole, would call the fact that you had broken your opponent through the table, while you were still climbing the turnbuckle to do so. Disconcerting to say the least.

The only "fly in the ointment" in this department were the lines delivered by Jonathan Coachman. From calling matches to commentary he seemed very disinterested and bored, almost like he didn't care to be there.

Ok, what about graphics, are they really as good as you've heard? In a word yes. In many words, they have been given the shine and polish expected from the PS3. Wrestler models are very detailed and you can even see them bleed and sweat in relation to what is happening in the ring. The crowd is very well done as well. Different models make for a more believable audience this time around.