Story: All Elite Wrestling has become a force within the professional wrestling world, with sell out crowds, colorful performers, and an over the top style that has resonated with a lot of wrestling fans. Heavily influenced by the Attitude Era, AEW embraces the gimmicks, the bloodshed, and the rampant weapon use of the 90s wrestling scene, which should translate well to the realm of video games. In Fight Forever, AEW makes the jump from real life into the digital realm, letting you step into the ring with the company’s wrestling stars. The game wants to evoke memories of the old school Yukes wrestling games, but does Fight Forever rekindle that fun, addictive style of play or does it botch the finish?

Entertainment Value: I’ve had a great time so far with Fight Forever and while it is light on features at launch, the developers have promised more depth with future updates. The game does manage to capture some of the magic of the classic wrestling games of the past, with an easy to pick up system that lets you be competitive from the jump, but rewards you as you learn how to finesse the mechanics a little. The striking is simple and grapples have a good scope of moves available per wrestler, with both having light and heavy options. I wouldn’t have minded more moves from grapple positions, but there is a good amount available and of course, if you want to create a custom combatant, you can fine tune your move set. The matches feel good and are so fun, very brisk and more arcade than simulation, which I didn’t mind. The flow of the matches is up to you and your opponents, building up signature and finishing moves, while you can also aim to rack up impressive star ratings, which I’m sure AEW fans will appreciate as an inclusion.

As for game modes, you can battle it out with singles matches, tag team contests, cage matches, Casino Royale showdowns, ladder matches, and the exploding ring spectacle, as well as match types like last man standing and submission matches. So there’s a good variety of match types, though I’m hopeful future updates will expand this and add to the replay value. The roster is solid, but has some obvious omissions and some clutch wrestlers are locked behind a DLC paywall, which sucks. Even so, most of the AEW regulars and stars are here, with Cody Rhodes even making the cut despite jumping ship to WWE. You can also unlock more wrestlers by completing various challenges, with grapplers like Big Show and Owen Hart as unlockable characters. You can also take your wrestler or an AEW star through a year of AEW storylines, in a fun and humorous career mode, which includes social time with other wrestlers, a workout system to grow your custom characters, and even visits to the dining hot spots in each town. Overall, I had a lot of fun with Fight Forever and while it has some issues, I recommend it to anyone looking for old school inspired video game wrestling thrills.

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