This review is dedicated to Eduardo "Eddie" Guerrero, a former champion wrestler who died Nov. 13 from heart failure in Minneapolis.

Game: "WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006"

Console: PlayStation 2

Developer/publisher: Yuke's/THQ

Genre: Wrestling

Number of players: 1-6; 4 online

ESRB: Teen

Premise: Work your way up the WWE ladder to become Raw's World Heavyweight Champion or SmackDown!'s WWE Champion.

Game play: Yuke's completely redesigned the series' engine while maintaining the franchise's charm.

The biggest change is the actual wrestling. Instead of four grappling move sets, there are five. And no longer are finishers gained solely by inflicting damage; strategy now is involved. Wrestlers have two meters — stamina and momentum — and both have significant influence. Momentum is gained by beating your opponent, filling up faster with power moves and strings of offense; but too many big maneuvers in a row will wear out your wrestler. On the flip side, hitting a string of weak moves will keep your wrestler fresher, but that won't get the crowd behind you and it makes earning a finisher harder.

When you gain a finisher, you have two options: hitting it right away for maximum impact or storing it for when you have more stamina. The ideal situation for hitting your finisher is right away with a high stamina reserve, but that's a rare occurrence, so strategize accordingly.

Story mode is significantly better than last year's, as every wrestler is voice-acted, cutscenes replace scrolling through lines of text, story lines repeat far less and there are tons of unlockables.

A huge addition is General Manager mode, very similar to Franchise Mode in EA's "Madden" games. Here, you are in charge of Raw or SmackDown! You are given a certain amount of money, draft wrestlers, assign them titles and book them in matches. There are other things to consider, including wrestler morale and fatigue, the progress of the rival show and contract situations.

A few matches have been added. The buried-alive match, a long-time WWE fan favorite, makes its first appearance on a video game, as does the Fulfill Your Fantasy match (details of which are too silly to describe here) and over-the-top-rope battle royals.

The good/bad: The good is the sheer number of activities in this game. Many aspects of wrestling are included here, and considering the stigma it has in the sports community, the attempt to undo the pigeonholing is quite refreshing. However, many of the crucial events in the recent past have been ignored, some dating back as early as June.

My take: "SVR 2006" could easily be the last installment for the PS2. With the PS3 coming out soon, Yuke's could have done a patchwork job, but instead created the best wrestling game ever for the console. Wrestling fans will get a kick out of it, as will sports fans who may buy in to certain stigmas about professional wrestling.

Jeremy Castillo is a student at Windward Community College and editor of the college's newspaper, Ka 'Ohana.