The WWF, sorry the WWE finally make it to the Xbox and with an all new graphics engine all the top stars of the WWE, the Rock, the Undertaker, Triple H and Kane all look better than ever! Raw lets you compete in one on one exhibition matches, tag team matches, tornado matches, triple threat matches, fatal 4-way matches, hardcore matches and plenty of others so there's plenty of variety to keep you going. Fans will be disappointed however to find no cage matches and especially no bra and panty matches! Wat up wit dat?

The player enters the ring to all their music, fireworks and introductions and is very impressive. It gives the game a very polished feel and comes across almost as good as an actual tv episode of Raw.

All the standard wrestling moves are included in Raw, you can run, grapple, perform a striking attack, block and you can also taunt your opponents and perform counter attacks. In the hardcore matches naturally you can pick up chairs, tables and other items and proceed to bash your opponent senseless with these. There are plenty of items in the game that you can pick up as well ranging from sunglasses to Kurt Angle's medals. During a match against Edge, I knocked off his sunglasses, picked them up, put them on and then started taunting him! Once your opponent is groggy and you have the crowd on your side you can then perform your wrestlers finishing moves and these look damn cool!

The interesting thing I found about Raw was that it isn't a mindless bash fest. If you just stand there bashing the snot out of an opponent your player will tire and leave you open to a pin fall. You have to apply a bit of strategy, get the crowd on your side and really time your attacks and this is where the 'voltage meter' comes in.

Down the bottom of the screen there is a meter that measures the crowd's attitude towards you. If you perform flashy moves like leaps off the top rope or taunt your opponent the voltage meter will fill up allowing you to perform your finishing move. You have to keep an eye on your stamina meter as well because if you let it run down your wrestler will tire.

The wrestlers are generally pretty easy to control but generally the game still feels just too slow. When attempting attacks there seems to be a bit of 'lag' between pressing the button and having the action happen on screen. So, as mentioned, you have to time your attacks and when you do you end up with some smooth looking moves and action but generally it just feels too slow. The developers, Anchor, almost nailed it but I feel the gameplay could have done with a bit more tweaking. It's very easy to get knocked down on the mat and it seems to take forever to get back up.

Also the game arrived in Australia 7 months after its U.S release and the Raw rosters are terribly out of date.

Once you get over these factors and practice with the game though, you get some exciting and fluid wrestling action happening, but you have to be prepared to put some time into it. Raw isn't a fighting game that you can pick up and master in an hour.

Unfortunately Raw's graphics have their upsides and downsides. The players themselves generally look great, some look better than others though. The Dudleys look great, the Rock looks good, Kane looks awesome, but other wrestlers like Triple H look nothing like him. The players seem to walk very funny as well, with a sort of waddle that raised many a 'peoples eyebrow' amongst the Xbox World review team.

As mentioned, the intros look great, the fireworks look fantastic but there's plenty of room for improvement. A bit more polish on the players and the crowd would have really made a difference.

The in game audio is basically non existent. It's basically this awful, cheesy music that you will get sick of in about 10 minutes. There is no commentary (and for that matter, there's no referee in the ring) at all so you are forced to listen to the music unless you turn it down. There's crowd noise but its nothing to get excited about. Hopefully next time we will get a custom sound track option to choose from.