Never count this franchise out.

For the past couple of years, I've been reviewing SmackDown games, a franchise I've never denied being a fan of and never shied away from being incredibly tough on. Two years ago, I said the game was good by giving it a 7.5, and a year later I said the title had made just a bit of progress and gave it a 7.8.

As someone who has been buying these titles since they debuted on the PSone, I'm thrilled to sit here today and tell you that WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 isn't good -- it's great. For a while now, the THQ franchise has been putting pieces of greatness in every game -- Road to WrestleMania, the Highlight Reel, etc. -- but they've never come together. This year, enough pieces come together to get the most jaded fan off the couch and into the squared circle.

If you've missed all the coverage on IGN, SVR 2010 is the latest installment in THQ's annual wrestling series. This time, you're getting 67 Superstars and Divas, a handful of match types, and a whole bunch of modes. Road to WrestleMania (the six story-driven, character-specific tales) is back, along with the Create-A-Superstar-honing Career Mode, and the ability to record match moments and edit them into a Highlight Reel.

Basically, all of the cool stuff from SVR 2009 has returned, but there's oh-so-much more.

The biggest thing WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 has going for it this year is the fact that it's embracing its community. For years, fans like me have had to lurk on Internet message boards while sharing formulas for creating the ultimate version of heroes gone by. Those days are gone. Here, you'll be able to create characters, Highlight Reels that can double as entrance movies, as well as finishing moves and upload them to the SVR servers so that other people can download them, search for them by keywords, and rate them.

Want to create a story about Jericho falling in love with the Bella Twins? CM Punk quitting the Straight Edge Lifestyle? Mark Henry missing Mae Young? All the pieces are here for you to create those epics.

You'll take these scenes and use them to set up matches on calendars that can last for up to 10 years. If someone gets wailed on in a scene before a match, you can go in and set the health for individual parts of the body. If you want a run-in, you can choose who will run in. If you want someone to lose by DQ or win by count out, you can set those stipulations so that the player knows what he or she needs to do. Every belt is available to put in a story and assigned to a given Superstar or Diva via the character select screen.

The pre-match belts are finally here.

This is groundbreaking stuff, people. All of these stories -- whether they're one show or 10 years of WWE programming -- can be uploaded by the creator and downloaded by other players for free. This is an endless stream of free content to keep your grubby little mitts on your controller of choice. This means that all the storylines you wish would happen in the WWE or that you see happen on TV can now become a videogame reality.

When I was writing out Create-A-PPV plans in my high school notebook, this is what I was dreaming about.

Of course, there are hitches to this mode. For starters, you can only use Created Superstars 10 times in a given story. Mind you, that's not 10 different Superstars; that's 10 appearances by a given hero. Maybe your one CAS is in five matches and five scenes, but you get just those 10 slots. Toss in a second CAS, and the number begins dropping even faster. Personally, I don't get why this restriction exists because I know how many of you were dying to take your cast of created crazies and insert them into tales all their own -- and I know I was excited to give Gruesome Greggy's BYWF counterparts some limelight -- but it is what it is. It sucks, but it doesn't overshadow how awesome it's going to be to take any of the 67 Superstars/Divas, as well as a handful of NPCs, and put them into plays written and directed by you.