Fire Pro Wrestling World Reviews
Minor camera/control niggles aside, there’s very little here I can moan about. It’s essentially the most open-ended wrestling sim you could ever want, and its creation tools along with the fully customisable licensing ensures there’s more than enough here to ensure you’re never going to get bored. How can you when the game essentially never ends?
Fire Pro Wrestling World has a number of minor, but noticeable flaws in its execution. What saves it from a death-by-a-thousand-cuts scenario is that the creation options and the gameplay (mostly the gameplay) are simply too fun to rate this game anything below above average. While the PC version can be and has been modded to hell and back, the PS4 version is a solid option with a dedicated, creative community behind it. The base game’s asking price is $50, with the season pass for extra content down the line costing another $50. Even without the season pass I’ve more than gotten my fill, clocking in over 35 hours and counting across the whole game. Either tap into that fighting spirit or, as Taka Michinoku says, “Just! Tap! Out!”
There's a very simple reason why so many modern pro-wrestling games are bad. Pro-wrestling is not a legitimate competitive fight, it's two or more people working together to put on an incredible, breath-taking performance. Wrestlers work within slight nuances of pace, timing and storytelling. The psychological skill of knowing when to kick it in and when to cool it down is just as important as the memorable characters and jaw-dropping moves.But in a video game, you're working against each other, because you're both trying to win. That's all well and good for FIFA, or Madden, or even Street Fighter. But you can't accurately translate the speed and intensity of modern pro-wrestling to a complex, realistic sim. That's why when Adam Cole (Bay Bay) and Ricochet have a ladder match in NXT, it's a breathless thing of beauty, but if you have the same match in a WWE 2K title, it's a boring clusterfuck. The more "realistic" the genre gets, the worse it gets.Fire Pro Wrestling is a long-running series that strips wrestling sims back to basics, while featuring deep gameplay mechanics and so many customisation options that it becomes less a competitive wrestling title, and more of a sandbox wrestling title. Fire Pro isn't attempting to perfectly recreate Sports Entertainment "like on TV", it's instead trying to encourage players to create their own memorable moments within the confines of the squared circle.
Though it's not very accessible and lacks a bit of polish, the amount of pure heart that has gone into Fire Pro Wrestling World means that it's a fun retro wrestling game once you get used to it. The endless customisation options and deep story mode provide great value, while the game's oddball nature is pretty charming. Like The Rock, Fire Pro Wrestling World is somehow still going after all these years. Unlike The Rock, its legacy hasn't been tarnished by an appearance in the Baywatch reboot.
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It’s amazing to think how far Fire Pro Wrestling has traveled. What started as a PC-Engine game back in 1989 with Combination Tag, it continues to thrive and flourish in a market where only one wrestling game sits atop the mountain each year.
Fire Pro Wrestling World is a whole lot of fun and will definitely appeal to hardcore wrestling fans looking for a video game to satiate the craving of a WWE alternative.
Fire Pro Wrestling World is a hardcore wrestling game made for hardcore wrestling fans. While it’s simply a tonne of fun, it also welcomes creativity and strategy, its rich gameplay making it a wrestling toy box that feels brimming with limitless potential. There’s a lack of variation and an intimidating learning curve, but it’s easy to look over these missteps when Fire Pro Wrestling World ticks so many boxes.
Fire Pro Wrestling World wants to bring to PC and PS4 the definitive experience of this historic franchise. Unfortunately it is a title that is not aimed at all lovers of fighting games, but only towards those who appreciate the dynamics and style designed by Human Entertainment almost thirty years ago.
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Fire Pro Wrestling World is a love letter to professional wrestling, but only to the most hardcore of hardcore fans. If you enjoy the deep customization suite – despite the lack of efficiency that has plagued the series, something that WWE 2K aims to fix in WWE 2K19 – and the opportunity to have nearly one-thousand created wrestlers in your game, you'll find hours of enjoyment baked into the action. However, if you're looking for something accessible, quick to get into for a quick match or two, search elsewhere.