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LOOKING AT AEW'S FIRST VIDEO GAME, FIGHT FOREVER

AEW releases their first ever video game Fight Forever tomorrow for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, X-Box One, X-Box Series X/S and Windows computers.  It’s been a long time coming as fans have waited to see exactly what the promotion, led by renowned gamer Kenny Omega, would bring to the table that would be different, fun and unique, as is https://onlinekasyno-polis.pl/ruletka-za-darmo/.

Let the world know as they read this while I own a PS5, I’m not the most diehard gamer out there.  Indeed, if I want to go play a video game, chances are I’d lean into figuring out where my Atari 2600 is these days and go play Adventure or Pitfall!  With the exception of Evil Dead: The Game a few years back (hence my PS5 ownership), I’ve never been someone who got caught up in the anticipation and excitement of the gaming world or counting down the days until the next game came out, so with my review, your mileage may vary or you’ll see this for what it is, someone outside of the hardcore gaming window looking at whether this game is fun or not.

The short answer is, it’s fun and it’s perfectly acceptable on a number of levels.  I feel bad that the timing of the game is that it came out so soon after one of the best received WWE video game releases in a long time, because the natural thing will be to compare this to the WWE franchise.   If you do, that’s not really fair to AEW, as they might both be pro wrestling games, but there’s a stark difference in each.   

WWE is a franchise unto itself that has been blessed with endless years of development on a game engine that’s been created, prepped, evolved and perfected over and over.  With AEW, they were building this engine from scratch and honestly, had it not been so well known the game was being developed for so long, perhaps some of the pressure and hype wouldn’t be on the game.  I expect a lot of fans are loading this expecting it to be the greatest game of all time or else it’s a failure.  Well, it won’t be either, but what it actually will be when you play is a solid first entry that’s fun and different from what people expect from WWE.  

You get the feeling playing this at times AEW was building and piloting the plane at once, but they somehow were able to land and show the world what they were able to accomplish.  There's a lot to smile about here, but it's not perfection, nor should anyone expect such a thing unless they were absolutely delusional going in.

Seeing THQ and Yukes logos on the game immediately gives a feeling of nostalgia that will throw fans back in time and that’s sort of what AEW went for here.  They wanted to bring back something of that Arcade/No Mercy feel and if you want a throwback theme, you’ve got it.  Fight Forever really leans more into a bit more of a cartoony look of the talents and it’s a departure from WWE games but once you get used to it, it works.  Since No Mercy was referenced so often publicly in the development of Fight Forever, it should give you an idea of what to expect - and if you are expecting something that feels like it plays from that era, you’ll get it.  I can tell you that figuring out the controls was, for me, far easier than some of the more recent WWE games, with the exception of kicking out of pinfalls, a button mash that I seemed to be completely unable to master consistently, possibly because I’m not a major gamer.    William Regal appears in the game to tutor you on game play.

The action inside the ring all looked good and solid, while the outside the ring stuff - weapons, whips into barricades, etc. was fine.  Each talent has their own unique feel and maneuvers, so it's not a replicated experience of the same old stuff if you play with Britt Baker followed by Eddie Kingston.  Finishing maneuvers were followed by instant replays and with the exception of no commentary on the matches I have played so far, which took a little getting used to at first, I enjoyed myself.  There was a feeling of frantic energy for the action, which made it feel like, as a player, you had to be on top of your opponent and be engaged or you were doomed.  You could stop taunts to hit.   I didn't feel there was a lot of bugs when I played, but your mileage may vary there based on your system.  

The game play for the engine allows for you to build momentum based on how you attack and how you defend to build your character’s ascent into utilizing their chosen finisher, which was different and I liked the idea that it wasn’t just punch, punch, kick, kick until the opponent’s meter was depleted.  You needed to learn and figure out things and if you did, you felt rewarded as if you had earned it.

There is a complete roster, including Cody Rhodes, available at gameplay and as you move forward in the game, you can unlock others including Brodie Lee and Owen Hart.  Some will decry certain names not being in the game immediately - Hook, Daniel Garcia, FTR, Toni Storm, Willow Nightingale all came to mind as I looked through the roster, but some will be downloadable content and others came along too late in the development process of the game.  The fact Cody is still in the game should give an idea of how early characters were locked in.  I suspect most AEW completists will want more but you can’t have everyone, every time.    Custom chants for the different wrestlers was a nice touch, as well the entire look of the audience, with lots of different AEW official t-shirts represented.  There are short entrances, not complete ones, which if you want to get right to the action, works well, but if you wanted to see an entire CM Punk entrance set to Living Colour's Cult of Personality, perhaps next time.

The ongoing Road to Elite storyline is solid, but not perfect.  There are many scenes where you are reading the dialouge on-screen, a throwback to the arcade era AEW wants to emulate here but also feeling at times, well, weird for 2023, especially if you didn't grow up in the era they are seeking to emulate.  Jim Ross provides some narration but there’s lots of scenes where it’s just silence as you read, so that's a little jarring.  Shockingly, no sign of Excalibur or Tony Schiavone that I came across.

The Road to Elite feature allows you pick a wrestler from the AEW roster, who’s competing on the indy scene and then you are invited by Tony Khan to come to Double or Nothing and you are off to the races, living through a fictional history of AEW as if this wrestler was on the card. As you travel from city to city, there are sort of side quests and games you can do before your match including eating, fan interactions, workouts, press conferences and interviews.  While you don’t have to do them, taking part gives you some extra points and energy that you can utilize later as you build your chosen wrestler’s career. 

I cracked up at the sightseeing choice, which often ends with a selfie at some location in a city.  In Philly, you can go eat a cheesesteak but somehow, you don’t go visit the 2300 Arena? BOOO!  It’s all light fare giving you something else to do and break up the monotony of just wrestling matches.  While the Road to Elite story mode seems short, certainly they can add additional scenes and challenges to the journey via downloads one would hope.  If so, that creates a potential for lots of replays.

The real left turn at Albuquerque, as my good friend Bugs Bunny might say, is the side games playing against The Elite in random things such as Memory, AEW trivia, a dance contest where you mimic Penta’s moves, a no ropes battle royal trying to throw each other to the floor, and a mind-bending game where you are throwing explosives in a ring to blow up objects.  All of this was again, a cute distraction from the monotony of just wrestling matches, but I’m sure fans hoping for some sort of free world exploration of arenas  and locker rooms will scratch their heads, even though AEW never promised such a thing.  The side games are mostly a big departure from traditional pro wrestling games but I enjoyed the zaniness of the idea and the choices.

The menu and interface were simple and easy to use.  All the match stipulations seemed fine, even the exploding barbed wire and yes, Jon Moxley fans, who you will get lots of blood.   I got a kick out of the barbed wire stuff and wished they had been able to include Atsushi Onita as a character for that environment.

If you are looking to custom build your own universe or book a year of AEW for yourself, you won’t find that here in Fight Forever.  Not yet, but If you are just looking to create different matches and stipulation bouts with the characters of your choice, the gameplay will be fun and give you something to pass time with in an enjoyable manner.  If you are looking for something to rock your universe and change your life, forever that’s not this game.  Maybe down the line as AEW evolves and perfects the new game engine, but we aren’t there yet.  You can see the potential for it, though and every time I’ve played so far, I feel like it’s an enjoyable experience for playing, although hardcore gamers who know more about the nuace of this world will likely split hairs on what they expected and want vs. what the reality of the game is.

The good news is that AEW’s first game will be out tomorrow and now they get to build upwards from what feels like a good, solid, fun foundation.  What they have is indeed very good, but AEW fans are going to want more, much more, like being able to have Taz, Dean Malenko, Jerry Lynn as wrestlers in the games, more universe modes so they can run around TIAA Stadium and encounter Tony and Shad Khan (and perhaps even brawl with them?) and basically have a Grand Theft Auto open world of pro wrestling, but this is just chapter one for AEW in the gaming space.  I'd love to see a game where you explore real cities inside and out of arenas.

WWE is a long way from Microleague Wrestling for computers and Wrestlemania for the NES.  I’m looking forward to where AEW lands now that they’ve gotten their feet wet and can truly start running the marathon, so we can see what comes next.  For now though, this is a solid B.  I never got bored playing it and it did a good job of giving me something to do and engaging me while I was playing.  If AEW can build on this engine and evolve forward, there's lot of potential for the future here in my mind but until then, the first interaction of AEW in the gaming space was enjoyable.

I should note that I haven't tried any of the online features, such as the promised Casino Battle Royal, so that's something to explore when you get the game:

 

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