Review: WWE SD vs Raw 2011 DLC Pack 2 – Nexus (360)

01.10.2011

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Yukes and THQ promised a healthy stream of DLC for those that purchased the 2011 edition of their long running franchise, WWE Smackdown vs Raw. They went out of their way to even offer a one time payment plan that enables gamers to receive every piece of future DLC for the 2011 edition of the game. While caution might be exercised by many, it seems that THQ and Yukes are standing by their word, offering day one content, as well as the most recent DLC pack.

The overwhelming theme of this first major DLC pack revolves around one of the most prominent factions to have been birthed in the world of wrestling since Evolution — the Nexus. On television, the Nexus consisted of all eight of the NXT season 1 rookies (NXT being a then new concept that hosted eight “up and coming” superstars in an elimination system to choose who will be the next breakout star of the WWE) who made their impact by delivering a massive beat down of anyone and everyone at ringside one night. The numbers dwindled down for various reasons, and only four of the original eight now remain, with two new additions from the season 2 crop. In this first major DLC pack, three of the four original members of Nexus (Justin Gabriel, David “A-list” Otunga and the former leader, Wade Barrett), along with their entrance theme, as well as the NXT arena. There’s also current WWE Diva Layla included, as well as two true legends to wrestling — The British Bulldog and Lex Luger.

We are the bold united souls!

As far as looks go, each member of the Nexus looks spot on, as if they were default superstars that came with the retail build. This is quite a relief, as the previous years featured some rather unflattering looking representations of the superstars created (Evan Bourne was absolutely terrifying). Even the likes of The British Bulldog and Lex Luger are a faithful enough replication, right down to the oddly shaped nose on Lex Luger’s face. Most of the signature moves, or the typical “five moves of doom” that many superstars possess, are all present, as well as some filler moves that fans have rarely seen used from any of the featured wrestlers. The torture rack, Lex Luger’s finisher, does look a bit off though, and has been represented in a more authentic manner is other wrestling games in an overall sense. In general, the look and performance of all six wrestlers in this DLC pack are of a commendable quality.

If only the entrance themes were.

While there’s nothing to complain about from Layla, the other three entrance themes are not faithful whatsoever. The Nexus theme sounds like an in house edit of the album release, rather than the actual entrance theme used on television. The volume is quite low as well, easily being downed out by the fan reactions. It’s a very lazy conversion of what can be considered a quality entrance theme. The British Bulldog’s “Rule, Britannia” theme isn’t quite the same from his days wrestling for the WWF in the 80′s and 90′s, but I’m sure there’s some sort of issue with that one, so I’ll let that slide. It resembles his theme somewhat, but for the purists out there, you’ll definitely be upset with what is present. THQ and Yukes could have used the Allied Powers theme as well (which was a tag team that coincidentally featured both The British Bulldog and Lex Luger) and would have possibly redeemed this debacle.

The final kick in the junk is Lex Luger’s theme. By the wrestling Gods up above, who in their right mind green-lighted the use of “I’ll Be Your Hero” for Lex Luger’s entrance theme? This theme was used for vignettes involving the “Lex Express” and, as far as I know (I’ve been a huge wrestling fan since I was three) has never been used as an entrance theme of any kind. That’s not to mention that the volume is lower than the Nexus theme. So why was the lowest common denomenator used? As with The British Bulldog, I could understand if his actual WWF entrance theme of Stars & Stripes Forever, but Vince McMahon, the man behind the WWF/WWE, owns the rights to WCW, it’s library of matches and basically everything in terms of multimedia. Why not include “Slammer”, which was Luger’s theme from his return to WCW in late 1995 until 1998? In fact, most fans will remember him based off that entrance theme than even Stars & Stripes Forever.

Lets take this sudden rant further — lets compare entrance themes. Here we have “I’ll Be Your Hero” –

Now here we have “Slammer” which was used in Luger’s WCW days –

Now tell me — would you take this man seriously if he came out to the first entrance theme?

If you said “yes” then you deserve a rock bottom!

In a way, the blown entrance themes across the board is a moot point, thanks to the inclusion of custom entrance themes that can be ripped onto your Xbox 360 HDD. The problem is that no matter how you slice it, gamers are paying for this content. Whether it’s the all DLC pass or individual purchases, fans are expecting a more faithful replication of their favorites from the past and present. This first major DLC pack delivers on visual authenticity, and for the majority, a list of moves that are both a part of each superstars repertoire and authentic in look. Unfortunately gamers have to rip their own entrance themes to their HDD if they want a more complete package, which is a bit of a slap to the faces of those that paid for the package. I can understand why the WWF incarnations of The British Bulldog and Lex Luger’s theme are not authentic, but there are immediate solutions to this problem. I cannot explain why the Nexus theme is a version unheard to anyone previous to this release. Honestly, that should be as elementary of an implementation as there can be.

If you can overlook the obviously botched entrance themes, if you’re not a purist and if you really don’t care about entrances in general, this first major DLC for WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 offers three current wrestlers with one current Diva and two Legends with enough authenticity in their looks and performances. If you’re anal like I am, you will feel somewhat cheated, though appreciate the fact that DLC is coming in a steady enough stream. Fingers crossed that the visual quality remains high and the shortcomings are dealt with in an appropriate manner.

Rating: 6.5


Jason V.

Jason Velez has been reviewing video games off and on for the last 14 years, including his time with GameSages, a then IGN affiliated video game code database that's now owned by IGN. He is a huge gaming enthusiast, has an old school soul, is a somewhat collector, and is just an overall geek. Follow him on twitter @Jas0nVelez

http://www.twitter.com/Jas0nVelez


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  • Sol Lekz

    I swear, as a child, Slammer was the reason why I liked Lex Luger right off the bat. That song was so awesome, I used to get up and flail around like I was in the arenas on Monday nights.

    However, we both have to admit the entrances are short lived. After watching them about 10 times or so you tend to skip em, especially during online play. Don’t shave off too much for something thats only 30 seconds of cutscene, not even gameplay. The other 95% of the time we prefer the likeness and moves to be correct as we are actually playing.

  • Sol Lekz

    This pack has everyone I cried and moaned about that wasn’t in the game already. Yes including even Layla, her ass is… Well anyway, me and my partner wanted to start tagging as LayCool also.

    As a child, slammer was the reason I watched Lex every Monday night. That song used to get me so damn amped! But honestly, screwing up and entrance theme? I can’t shave too many points off that. Be it good or bad, honestly we all are only going to watch them about 10 or a few more times before we start skipping them. Epsecially when playing online.

    I’d rather them half ass on a 30-50 second cut scene, than ruin their likeness or move sets which will actually effect my gameplay experience. Get review but this score is MEGA harsh IMO.

  • http://www.twitter.com/Jas0nVelez Jason V.

    That was a problem with my argument over the authenticity of the entrance themes. They can be skipped and forgotten about, though it should be more on the developers end to ensure the authenticity of their releases. Regardless of our desires to view these entrances, money was exchanged to obtain the pack, or the singular pieces to these packs. I’m more than satisfied that I paid $60 for a disc full of mostly faithful representations of audio and visual to each superstar. I do feel slightly miffed that I put down the lump sum to recieve each DLC that is released, and the same genuine effort wasn’t completely placed on the first major release.

    While a considerable number of players will bypass entrances as a whole (especially for online play, and even more so if custom soundtracks are used) but THQ and Yukes actually used a song that was never an entrance theme, on a former wrestler that was supposed to be an intimidating force. With the effort they put forth is making strong visual rpresentations of each superstar, there’s no excuse for the phoned in themes. Also, this DLC should have been swapped with what was released soon after the games release, as even now, Justin Gabriel and Wade Barrett are not even in Nexus anymore, which is 2/3 of the Nexus members in that pack. While again, custom themes and such will remedy this, this really should have been released sooner. The score does seem a bit extreme, though the representation of looks was impressive and a large portion of the moves looked and remained true. If there were no entrance themes at all, it would have been in the mid to upper 8′s. But this was a three headed beast, which one head was pretty much flaccid.

    I’ll take a hypothetical approach to close this — lets say THQ and Yukes are able to secure the rights to create Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Syxx, as well as the nWo license. Lets say there is an nWo DLC themed pack now, with the very first Souled Out PPV as an arena of choice. It’s completely faithful to its 1997 inagural appearance. Lets say they make adaptations of how Hall/Nash/Syxx looked during that time frame, and it’s nearly immaculate. Now lets say they all come out together, with a striking similarity to how they’ve come down the ramp on WCW Nitro broadcasts….only to have their entrance theme be either the WWE video edit nWo theme (sounds nothing like it) or even something never used by the nWo, like Hillbilly Jim’s entrance theme. Would you feel somewhat cheated? Would you feel that your money wasn’t completely spent in the right manner? Again yes, it’s skippable, and many will skip them eventually, though there are many that enjoy sitting down and watching each theme unfold countless times (myself included). If they remain lazy on oend, who’s to say it wouldn’t overlap into other aspects?