This plays lightyears better than the previous Smackdown titles. A combination of lightning-fast gameplay and unrealistic physics led to too many guys getting knocked silly by the smallest of maneuvers. Like the Kevin Nash/Hollywood Hogan "finger poke of doom," but worse by a million times.
This is a damned fun game; didn't crash on me (only played one quick match before heading out this morning), I thought the commentary was top notch (with JR making fun of Jerry Lawler's multiple marriages), and the gameplay was very tight and had a better pace than I remember the Yuke's games having.
Dare I say I even prefer the control mechanism to Day of Reckoning, the only game series to come close to replicating the awesome awesome AKI N64 wrestling games? I dare say indeed.
Now, the last game I played with any regularity was Here Comes the Pain. I played Smackdown vs. Raw for 15 minutes before reselling it on eBay, and I only played 2006 for the PSP, which I played for 3 hours (after loading, I came *thisclose* to getting the same amount of playtime I had with SvR). The PSP version was dreadfully not fun, because the load times had me so

ing angry before I got to the actual match that I couldn't enjoy it.
At any rate, this will be a purchase on launch day for me. Add me to your XBL friends list, so I can take you to school in an online tag match (with me as Demolition, of course!)