AEW: Fight Forever Review | TheXboxHub

All Elite Wrestling (AEW) took the wrestling world by storm upon its inception in 2019 and in the years that followed, quickly established themselves as a viable alternative to WWE. With top drawer entertainment, often targeting the most ardent fans, AEW has risen to unimaginable heights. Now though, they’re branching out into the gaming realm in the hopes of competing in the wrestling game market where, in recent times, very few have succeeded. 

AEW: Fight Forever has been developed by Yuke’s, a company synonymous with the Smackdown vs. Raw and WWE 2K series’ until 2019. Instead of going down the more simulation style route, like WWE 2K23, they’ve gone all in on creating an arcade-y wrestling game inspired by the acclaimed Nintendo 64 era offerings. In an attempt to recreate the enjoyment of classics such as WWF No Mercy and WCW/nWo Revenge, even the director responsible for overseeing those, Hideyuki “Geta” Iwashita, is on-board for AEW: Fight Forever.

Can AEW: Fight Forever recapture the magic of the highly lauded wrestling games of yesteryear, while ensuring it’s not a dated experience that modern gamers can’t relate to?

Upon launching AEW: Fight Forever, you’re immediately met with a well put together introductory video package showcasing what AEW is all about. It immediately gets you pumped to fight, before letting you loose without a whole lot of guidance. Learning the ropes comes courtesy of sporadic mid-match pop-ups featuring William Regal, where a feature or aspect is briefly explained. It’s not great. Thankfully there’s not anything too complex to get to grips with, hence you’re likely to work out the mechanics swiftly on your own anyway.

Once you step between the ropes and enter the squared circle, momentum is at the crux of everything. Beat down the opposition to increase the momentum bar, while simultaneously depleting theirs to dangerous levels and potentially cause damage to different body parts. Eventually you’ll be able to perform signature moves, before activating a special status to pull off finishers. By then, the opponent is likely to be worn down enough to pin for a three-count or make them give up via submission.

Every wrestler has a vast arsenal of ways to inflict pain, with grapples from various positions offering a multitude of options alongside regular strikes. You can run the ropes, climb turnbuckles, and take the fight outside the ring if you wish to. There are some modern touches that add to the enjoyment, including springboard attacks, tope suicidas, diving off the guardrails and wrestling with your hands in your pockets – yes, seriously. On top of that, there shall be blood with weapons ranging from tables and chairs to American football helmets and thumb tacks. 

Due to the animation of wrestlers and their presentation style, the fighting is quite over-the-top and hard-hitting, which makes a simple suplex seem just as punishing as the tiger driver. It’s also easy to obtain a special move via the momentum meter, so matches are ideal for short doses of entertainment. The gameplay isn’t perfect however, and a few aspects could do with improvements.

Collision detection is occasionally iffy, with actions not quite going as planned. It gets slightly worse when weapons are added to the mix. The countering system is confusing to the point where it’s difficult to know whether the timing is off or if there are unknown variables in-play. Kicking out of pinning predicaments and escaping submissions are perhaps the most erratic aspects though. It’s a button-mashing affair, but success or failure doesn’t always make sense and losing after barely taking a scratch is annoying.

Nevertheless, it’s still very enjoyable and you’ll be looking for ways to prolong the excitement. The first port of call are the exhibition matches, featuring the usual staples like 1v1, tag team, three-ways, and four-ways. Gimmick types are the most enticing options, with AEW’s exploding barbed wire death match and casino battle royale standing out. While the exploding ropes are thrilling initially, it’s a gimmick that wears thin, and the battle royale is a let down as only four wrestlers can be in the ring at once.

I’m surprised at the omission of certain match types in AEW: Fight Forever, such as tables, steel cage, and trios. Leaving out the Blood and Guts match is crazy, but given the limitations on the number of character models in the same ring, I guess it can’t be helped.

As for the online side of proceedings, well, you’re able to enjoy all of the included match types in either a Ranked, Casual, or Private setting. Once battle commences, it’s pretty fun, with a decent back and forth generally occurring. However, getting an opponent and preventing them from quitting is a sticking point, which will become a tad irritating. The gameplay issues already highlighted are accentuated too sadly. 

And so it’s left to the Road to Elite career mode to pick up the slack. Now a word of warning here, there’s not really any point in playing through this using a current AEW star as many of the features become pointless. Instead, Road to Elite is the place to put a created wrestler through their paces and improve their skills.

Road to Elite covers sixteen weeks of the AEW calendar, with four blocks of four weeks building towards the big four PPVs – All Out, Full Gear, Revolution, and Double or Nothing. Every week you’re able to perform four actions before a match occurs that’s a part of a storyline. Sending your custom character for workouts is an action that can earn skill points, but uses up energy that is rejuvenated by going out and eating at restaurants. It’s all very simple stuff in terms of ideas and the visuals aren’t great during the visits to eateries. 

The skill points are useful for increasing the rate at which momentum is earned, the amount of different finishers you can have, and the effectiveness of such manoeuvres. They’re also great for purchasing passive skills like buffs for the way you fight, or more obvious action skills that enable you to perform springboard dives and do kip-ups. Come the end of the career, the custom wrestler will be more overpowered than anyone else on the roster, which is cool.

You will be underwhelmed by Road to Elite overall though, as it’s done in just a few hours. Credit where it’s due, there’s some nostalgia with video packages featuring the Pinnacle and the infamous Moxley versus Omega death match. It’s got a few different storylines to partake in too, but these seem to be chosen at random and on the whole aren’t great to be honest. I don’t fancy doing it multiple times in the hopes of seeing a new narrative, nor do I want to hear good ol’ JR phoning in his voiceovers. And I certainly don’t wish to play the mini-games.

Yes, AEW: Fight Forever has a cavalcade of mini-games. Penta Says is a rhythm and memory game hybrid; Bomb Hurl sees you chucking explosives into the ring, Chip Gather has running around picking up chips; and in Path Tracer, you must reach the other side of a football field by following the safe route and avoiding the hazardous spots. There are more, but I’ve wasted enough time actually trying them and cannot fathom why resources were used here when other areas needed extra attention.

Moving on to the roster itself, and the fact there are over fifty wrestlers available at launch is pretty good. Fans of the top stars like the Elite, CM Punk, Dr. Britt Baker, and Hikaru Shida will be pleased for sure. There are notable omissions though on both the men’s and women’s roster, with people who have been on AEW TV for a long time left out in the cold. It happens in every wrestling game however, leading to situations where you just end up creating your faves or downloading someone else’s hard work.

Sadly, the customisation suite leaves a lot to be desired, making it difficult to add the missing stars yourself. On a positive note there are a shed load of moves to equip, and it’s full of music as well as videos for their entrances. On the flip side, in terms of character aesthetics, there’s a serious lack of choice and depth to what’s on offer. The inability to share creations is another blow to those wanting to enhance the roster.

Ultimately, AEW: Fight Forever possesses the foundations for it to be an excellent blast from the past, but fails in building upon them. It’s not a bad game, I just feel as though there are too many areas in which it’s lacking substance and so longevity is an issue. Despite the aforementioned flaws, the gameplay is still a ton of fun and there’s a real novelty factor in performing the vast amount of awesome looking manoeuvres present here. 

There’s some optimism that AEW: Fight Forever could be improved with future updates, however I wouldn’t rush to pick it up just yet. 

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