You dont play Wrestling Empire? Lol, well maybe Tony can do what he does with the AEW show, just throw money at it to keep it afloat until daddy's money runs out
Really glad to see you cover this game. I'm a huge AEW fan and wrestling fan. But at full price, this game was always going to be a Wait For Sale for me. Nevertheless, it's great to see more variety of wrestling games.
@@awesometacosclanYou are mocking someone for their frugality and financial choices, on a game review video that is intended to help people make informed purchases. I pity you for your lack of maturity and understanding of the current economical landscape. This game is $80 where I live. I’d rather spend that money on essential things first, before dropping it all on one video game. If only I had the privilege to be as ignorant about the real world as you are.
Definitely some issues, not worth the current price, however I'm definitely having fun with the gameplay and looked forward to see what else they add to the game.
@@SomeDudeFrom1990 not something I'm concerned by. RUclips doesn't do it justice but after playing it I actually enjoy the art style. WWE 2k15 looks amazing graphics wise and is one of the worst wrestling games I ever played. This game suffers from lack of content. The graphics don't matter much.
I remember my cousin growing up loved the N64 wrestling games. Even though he wasn't even a fan of wrestling. A good license game can attract people that would normally not be. I hope this game improves overtime as they've discussed possibly just updating this game rather than yearly releases.
If it's anything like Revenge, I'd be over the moon. And don't forget that game has no real career mode, caw, online play, update packs, etc. That's what AEW got wrong. We don't need all that crap, just give us a facsimile of the old aki engine.
Yes, it's not perfect but as a AEW fan and a fan of the games back in the day, i need to support it and will buy the elite edition. I hope to play an even better game in a view years. But i am sure there is a lot of fun to have right now. =)
Props to all of you. I feel similarly (the only other game I felt that way about was a legacy Mechwarrior series when I found out they'd be bringing it back in an online form)
I want the game because the gameplay looks fun but I'm going to wait until they do a few updates and add some more content before buying. I want this game to do well though so we have more options for wrestling games
If that's what you care about, sure. But take a moment to consider this: you're saying a silly gimmick that got old around the 4th time I ever saw it takes precedence over game gameplay, visuals, presentation and content. It's funny because this attitude characterizes the hardcore AEW fan's reaction to the wrestling program as well: as long as someone does a flippy dive on barbed wire broken glass, nothing else in the match or the show matters.
The last decade of exclusively 2k games has been brutal so I was really hoping this game will stick the landing. Clearly it didn't but I hope it'll sell well enough to generate a profit.
Pretty odd that you expected the developers responsible for the last decade of WWE games (outside the last 3, of which 2 are fantastic and 1 is literally trash) to make something better than this.
Problem is much like the actual WWE, Vince McMahon's house of sweaty men slapping meat has set the standard bench mark of what to expect from a wrestling company and the same goes for the games. Years of WWE games you expect a certain level quality and features, but thing is wrestling is a chiche game genre and AEW is even more nixhe than the WWE, so expect sequels to be made on the back of Tony's dad's money
It's pretty obvious that this game has a much lower budget than the 2k WWE games. So I doubt it would need to do massive sales numbers to make a tidy profit. A couple million sales would probably considered a huge success.
This is by far the best review of this game I've seen so far. I just found your channel and really dig it - you've got a sub. Now I'm a huge wrestling fan and while this game doesn't seem quite like what I'm looking for - especially at that price point - I really, really hope it's successful and somewhat profitable. I like to see this title as laying the groundwork for an amazing sequel. Fingers crossed.
Your CAW looked like a cross between Kenny Omega and Scott Norton. I couldn't stop seeing Scott coming to the ring with the shades on during his NWO time
You could tell from the gameplay footage this wasn’t a polished, full price product. As great as it sounds to play No Mercy in 2023, games have evolved since then.
I'm seeing a lot of "This is their first outing, of course it's not going to be as polished as WWE games!" Cool, I'll buy 'Fight Forever 2025' once they can actually compete. Until then, I'll stick with downloading the fan-created AEW characters / arenas- which honestly look better than this game...
Sadge Mcmuttons? That is amazing. Great review, I'm a massive AEW fan but I assumed they were gonna have some things to iron out upon release. Myself I haven't played a wrestling game in like 20+ years, this will eventually be someone I pick up I'm sure.
I hope one day we get a game with the mechanics of fire pro wrestling with the visual fidelity of the 2k games or this one. Still nothing beats planning a match and getting the 100% rating afterwards
I was looking forward to this game as a day 1 purchase, but now, im not sure. There seems to be a good foundation here for future outings but I'll probably wait for a sale.
My favorite wrestling game is WWF No Mercy. This game looks like it plays very similar to that, so I need to get this! Thank you for covering this game, and for the very honest review.
This game was a passion project and with support, people will see what they're reaching for. Graphics, Glitch here and there, lackluster career mode, etc. are things they can build onto. In the center of things, If the gameplay works, it works for me. The thought of just a fun and ridiculous couch wrestling game nodding to an N64 game of an era of wrestling that is legendary as well as fun and ridiculous, is what has me excited. No mercy STILL stands strong lacking THOSE things gamers are complaining about with Fight Forever, because it was FUN. Its nostalgic. This is a pseudo-niche of a game.
The lack of a reversal indicators option cripples this game. Especially combined with the lack of a proper tutorial. Its the basics here that are just missing. And the lack of a community creations option is a big miss for a wrestling game in 2023. We should not be going back to the times of memorising sliders and copying them from early 2000s youtube videos 😂
@@ababilashari9970 Both sides are bad. I only follow AEW now but I used to support WWE before AEW came around. There is so much tribalism it's worrying.
They did say they were trying to emulate the "WWE No Mercy" more arcade-y feel, so that's why it looks the way it does. This game's been delayed a few times. Honestly wish it was $10 cheaper.
@@KnucklesWTD Graphics aren't the big money sink people think it is, it's mostly in polishing, QA, animation synching, and bug fixing. With today's tech, it's not hard to prototype a ton of features in just a few months' time, but getting them all to work right is the real challenge.
@@billywashere6965 I think someone posted a good example once: Say you want to add dynamite to this game- What's the arc of the throw? What happens when it hits someone? How big is the AoE? What happens when you drop it? What happens when [edge case scenario here] happens? They have to code/program/test for ALL of that.
@@MindOfGenius Exactly, and well said. It's easy for people to complain about what's there after three years of development, but given they had to build everything from scratch -- from assets to sound design to animation pipelines -- I think they did a phenomenal job in such a short period.
The gameplay looks really fun but the lack of features with some of the game modes/creations doesn’t justify this game to be at full price. In my opinion, this game is a $40 game at best.
The game gets old quick: there's no backstage areas, no cage matches, no multiple men ladder matches, no 3 vs 3 or anything beyond 2 vs 2, the cpu is often dumb AF and far from being as clever as in No Mercy, career mode and customization are very limited....as a huge AEW fan I'm glad they have a game out, but I really hope we'll get more match types eventually, this feels like an unfinished product way too much. 😕
Another good review. I agree that this game is not a day 1 purchase. If it was 39.99 to 49.99. It would be worth it. But $60 for a less feature rich wrestling game. Whose creation options are less than what Fire Pro Wrestling World had to offer. And FPRW was released at 39.99. Its a wrestling game from a rival company tp WWE. With former WWE wrestlers on their roster. And developed by the company who developed the WWE games for over 20 yrs. So yes it is going up against WWE 2k games. The AEW figures are sold right next to the WWE figures in most retail stores .
I’d love to see a Saturday Night Slam Masters looking game. Loaded with Modes and progression. Create a character. Unlockables. Online and co-op. A Royal Rumble with over 8 people in the ring. Guess I’ll try Retromania someday
It's definitely a bit pricey for what they have, but I cannot get this style of gameplay, or characters or the fact they are using a buy once and just update it model.. I just have to support those things.
It would be sooo easy to improve this game right away. I feel like overhauling the edit mode or adding crazy new match types is probably shooting for the moon, but there are a handful of match types already in the RTE mode that aren't currently available in exhibition. Surely they could be added easily enough. One of my other gripes is how limited each wrestler's move set is, due in large part to them not utilizing all the directional inputs. Instead of 4 front and 2 rear grapples, for example, it should be 5 and 5. This would go a long way towards match variety. And they have to get the 3v3 matches in, whatever it takes.
This took them four years to release this game and it has these many problems?!?! $60? Uh-uh. $20 is more appropriate. It looks like a early 2000 game. Collision detection looks shabby. The lack of audio in a modern game is a no-no. I’ll wait until it’s released at a reduced price (if I buy it at all).
sounds like what they were promising. they were modeling this after some of the wrestling games from the N64 era but obviously updated. sounds like a good first effort for AEW. i might consider it at full price just to support it but i usually wait for a sale
AEW get way too much charity from people lol fans are never going to hold them accountable for anything so they're never going to improve. Everyone treats them like they're a fragile newborn baby that could die at any moment.
I was looking forward to this one. I’d like to see more wrestling games, maybe ones not tied too tightly to an organization. I still like Fire pro wrestling
Fire Pro Wrestling has the best A.I. and wrestler customization (with the craft dlc) of any wrestling game around. People sleep on it cause it's graphics but it's far superior when it comes to emulating real wrestling.
Some people may see this as a dollar store version to the 2k franchise, but when playing it. I felt it had an N64 wrestling arcade kinda vibe to it. Which to me is awesome. Some of my favourite wrestling games were on the n64 most notably (warzone) and I would love it if that style of wrestling game came back into fashion
I’ve had my fingers and toes crossed for this one! Glad it is finally here. About the landing and execution I expected. Hope they clean it up a bit. Thanks for the review as always! Also Nice Thumbnail!
Honestly, the character creation looks like when they 1st made Smackdown! for the PS1. It's a nice starting point to grow from with more entries into the series. Graphics don't look bad in motion, gameplay looks fun. I might put this on my list of Switch games to buy
I was tempted to get this game on day one, however after looking at some reviews, i am going to wait until it is on sale, 3 years in development and this is what we get, it needs to get better and hopefully that will happen with future patches and updates!
@@423chart People here really don't understand how development works. Three years is nothing. If you have to build out new lighting systems, mechanics, physics, and sound design, three years is a breeze. Keep in mind that WWF No Mercy was the culmination of five years worth of incremental developmental starting back in 1996. Having to work from the ground-up as they're doing now with the AEW game requires a lot of resources.
@@billywashere6965 then don’t release the game if it isn’t ready. And if they do choose to release it in such a sorry state, fine, but shame on them asking $60
for me the best games was WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw for consoles for example Playstation 2, i love all the WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw , then when this franchise disapear i play only the WWE 2K19 i dont like , then never play other games , but now i maybe buy the AEW Fight Forever, seems better ...
I actually met the president /CEO of AEW a few months ago while I was working on his jet. Had no idea that AEW has gotten popular enough to get its own game.
The game was one of the first things that they set in motion when the company launched. Nothing to do with popularity and more to do with a reasonable business choice.
First I want to comment, I don't know if it was a day one patch or the Nvidia drivers, but I play in 4K and I have a 3080, and I have had a couple of busy matches and there seems to be no frame rate slowdowns. I have even played on high settings on my steam deck with little issue. Perhaps it was just an issue related to your early review copy. Thank you for the fairly objective review. There are too many salty 2K fans that aren't taking this game in on its own merits. Particularly in regards to not being able to import and iterate on existing content. They like to not acknowledge that there have been 20 some odd 2K games and they typically share content year to year. I will concede that the creation suite is kind of a joke with its current amount of content, particularly for those creating women's division members. However as you stated when it works, the matches are actually quite fun. I was happy that I was able to get a discount on the PC version, All I will say there is that if you're on PC there are many legal places to buy legitimate copies of games and sometimes they are cheaper than Steam.
Thanks for the review. Though I am an AEW fan, I haven't played a wrestling game for a while. And I understood this game probably has a significantly lower budget than the 2k WWE games (would explain the lack of voice work and lack of photorealism) I think I was always going to wait for a sale since this year has and still will be stacked with big releases. I hope by the time I do get the game, the dev team can patch out the issues brought up here (of course, I am not handwaving releasing a game with bugs)
Hopefully long term support keeps this one alive and kicking. all i wanted was a roadmap prior to launch to convince me but all im left with is high hopes that this time next year season 4 of the game launches with refinements etc... that is if they escape the trap of yearly releases all of the important people expressed hatred for.
I only got this bc of having a wrestling game on the switch. Well, a good one hopefully. I’d love a fun wrestling game on the go. Or just to play while watching tv
I loved playing all the old THQ/Jakks wrestling games. WCW vs. The World, WCW/nWo World Tour, Revenge, WCW Nitro, WCW Thunder, Wrestlemania 2000, No Mercy...even the GameCube games were good. I had a blast with most of that whole Smackdown series too. This new AEW game looks like a fun throwback to the kind of games like No Mercy and those GameCube games. Last time I bought a wrestling game it was WWE 2K20, and I've been disappointed with the product. AEW Fight Forever looks like it's fun to play, but I'm not sure i can justify paying $60 for it right now.
Digging Karrak using the old box art with Punk before a few certain EVP's including the one heading the game develpment thats forward center on fhe new box, had a a friendly game of WCW Backstage Assault session
Hope this does sell well. It’s seems the heart is in the right place for this even with its problems. Very much focusing on the no mercy gameplay. Will look to play at some point
After playing this several hours, this is a 20.00 to 30.00 game. Its okay, but I turned it off after 2 to 3 hours. The story mode is incredibly short. Online is okay but the connectivity of the moves online is really glitchy, worse that 2k glitchy. Maybe there will be patches to fix that. I would recommend someone to wait on a sale for this.
Honestly I just wish they would finally create an actual Professional Wrestling simulator. Where we can simply do great matches and not pretend like it's a competition against the other opponent... Wrestling games should be about putting on great shows and entertaining the viewers not about pretending to guys fight
I would say, if want to know something you have to try it yourself, i have bought games that reviewers rated bad and i enjoyed them,so be yoursefl and try something for your self
Something regarding the audio is that there's a "Jukebox" setting where you can add and remove songs to the suite of what plays in the menus and during matches, and I say this pretty literally: 99% of EVERY SONG OF ANY TYPE IN AEW'S ENTIRE HISTORY is available. You could probably go literal days and not hear a song repeat.
Now if only the NWO was in this Game wait you do have Sting so NWO Wolfpack you can just Create Nash Hall and the other members like Luger Konnan etc etc lol 😂
This game should not have happened like this. At this point there really isn't an excuse for them to release a game this (As MJF would say) Mid. This is Yukes and THQ.. The companies that brought us Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain, SVR 06/07, WWE'12, WWE'13 AND 2K14. Yukes has been making Wrestling games for nearly 30 years.
Actually it's THQ Nordic, not the original THQ who went out of business but it is Yuke's who have been making wrestling games for decades so they have no excuse.
AEW gets an insane amount of charity of people online. People are almost willing to forgive them for anything - and there's a LOT of shade to throw at them.
Lol if any other game releases in this state, the internet destroys it. The AEW cope is legit off the rails today. I was so pumped for this game until today. My god it looks awful and I don’t mean the graphics.
OOOF, WHY can't wrestling games not preload the items in the create a wrestler mode? Like WWE and this seem to have the same issue of moving through the CAW creator and it loading every item each time you move a spot.
Yeah, this is about what I expected. I love wrestling and I was hoping for AEW to do something great here but as time passed and more was shown I realized this would be a very small, janky game with an arcade-y experience and very content-light. People can say whatever about EA or the yearly WWE games, but those games are packed to the brim with content, and are often good to great wrestling games with some huge blunders here and there. I have played wrestling games since the NES and I can say WWE 2k23 is one of the best wrestling games ever made. This looks like a deep sale for me.
I think people hate on 2k because its the cool thing to do. Sure 2k20 was a dumpster fire but the last two games were really good games especially the last one. This looks good but its definitely a budget title being charged at full price
I just want a Here Comes The Pain style wrestling game. I never liked the AKI engine games like No Mercy. I always played the smackdown games on playstation 1 and 2. Those were so much faster and smoother
Same here, never played No Mercy before but I've played all the Smackdown and SvR games and had few issues with them. Before anyone jumps on me I'm an AEW fan and have been since the start but this game is not great for the price.
It’s sad that people won’t play 4/10 or 5/10 or 6/10 rated games anymore.😢 when I was a kid we played every game the score didn’t matter it was about the fun, the experience, having fun with friends and playing something new. Now if a game isn’t a 8/10 with no hype or a 9/10 with hype people shit all over it for no reason and no one buys it. Maybe it’s because before everyone had internet and they could update the game that game had to at least function and be playable.
Why in tag team play are all wrestlers in the ring all at once all the time and why is cody so small and why make a wrestling game based a innovative exciting wrestling company that is not a innovative or good quality fluid wrestling game. Its a massive disappointment for me to get this game and wish it was so much better than it is.😢😢😢
Great review and thanks for going into more detail with some of the issues without sugarcoating it. I’ll most likely be returning my switch copy when it comes and just pick up the PS5 or X version tomorrow. I know it looks a lot sharper and clearer on those systems, hopefully there’s a lot less lag and choppiness too.
This game NEEDS to allow mods into the game. Without it the game is a very short game to play. WWE 2k23 right now set the standard in what to do in this generation, if you have a game with less content than what you should model your game off of, then it’s just bad product at this point. The price point is another thing that kills it. For $70 you got a game that will last you 1-2 hours max, only 4 wrestlers allowed at a time to play, and a small roster to play as. This game reminds me a lot like 2k Battlegrounds in terms of content.
Some Fun to be had but also a lot of missed opportunities and bugs.
www.patreon.com/AngryCentaurGaming
yeah looks a really fun game was looking forward to it sucks about the bugs though :(
Mdickie made a game that was a lot better and fun without a 10 million dollar budget and by himself
Perfect review.
I will shame no one for not buying this day one, but I def need this to be successful because its our only hope to get variety in the genre.
Well said my friend!
You dont play Wrestling Empire? Lol, well maybe Tony can do what he does with the AEW show, just throw money at it to keep it afloat until daddy's money runs out
@@TimeBomb014X touch some grass
@@BigmanDogs nay, grass dont do it for me, I prefer bush
sad part is they are trying to be WWE so bad and failing badly this is nothing more than a carbon copy of no mercy 🤕
Really glad to see you cover this game. I'm a huge AEW fan and wrestling fan. But at full price, this game was always going to be a Wait For Sale for me. Nevertheless, it's great to see more variety of wrestling games.
Ya its asking alot
Same here. I enjoy AEW vastly more than WWE. Hope this gets refined with patches.
Wahhh
your debating wether to spend 60 dollars? Get a better job lol
@@awesometacosclanYou are mocking someone for their frugality and financial choices, on a game review video that is intended to help people make informed purchases.
I pity you for your lack of maturity and understanding of the current economical landscape. This game is $80 where I live. I’d rather spend that money on essential things first, before dropping it all on one video game.
If only I had the privilege to be as ignorant about the real world as you are.
This needs to be a $30 game.
$15 or $20
Definitely some issues, not worth the current price, however I'm definitely having fun with the gameplay and looked forward to see what else they add to the game.
I did have fun a lot of times for sure
@@SomeDudeFrom1990 not something I'm concerned by. RUclips doesn't do it justice but after playing it I actually enjoy the art style. WWE 2k15 looks amazing graphics wise and is one of the worst wrestling games I ever played. This game suffers from lack of content. The graphics don't matter much.
@@SomeDudeFrom1990 N64 actually. It takes inspiration from No Mercy, the gold standard of wrestling games
@@SomeDudeFrom1990yea well wwe 23 looks great but that games sucks balls
@@SomeDudeFrom1990 who cares atleast its fun and smooth
I remember my cousin growing up loved the N64 wrestling games. Even though he wasn't even a fan of wrestling. A good license game can attract people that would normally not be. I hope this game improves overtime as they've discussed possibly just updating this game rather than yearly releases.
Oh man, WcW vs NwO Revenge was absolutely amazing. I loved that game so much.
I have been so stoked for this. Wcw/Nwo Revenge is one of my favorite games of all time.
If it's anything like Revenge, I'd be over the moon. And don't forget that game has no real career mode, caw, online play, update packs, etc. That's what AEW got wrong. We don't need all that crap, just give us a facsimile of the old aki engine.
God I loved the NWO times
They were so good dude!
I like it better than No Mercy
This game plays nothing like those.
Hopefully future updates will help this game. Thanks ACG for the review
The game should be complete on release, especially for 60-70 bucks
i agree. I would be like a No Man Sky situation
Yes, it's not perfect but as a AEW fan and a fan of the games back in the day, i need to support it and will buy the elite edition. I hope to play an even better game in a view years. But i am sure there is a lot of fun to have right now. =)
Yep, same here. Thinking about getting it just to support them.
Same here! Problems or not, I am buying today to support them.
Props to all of you. I feel similarly (the only other game I felt that way about was a legacy Mechwarrior series when I found out they'd be bringing it back in an online form)
I want the game because the gameplay looks fun but I'm going to wait until they do a few updates and add some more content before buying. I want this game to do well though so we have more options for wrestling games
As long as Orange Cassidy's move set is just him putting his hands in his pocket, this game is a 10 out of 10
Orange Cassidy is a gimmick that gets old very quickly.
HE DOES WHEN YOU ACTIVATE HIS PERSONAL SKILL!
I just watched a video from Jeff Gertsman showing how to do it. It looks ridiculous lmao
@@robdebone true to life indeed
If that's what you care about, sure. But take a moment to consider this: you're saying a silly gimmick that got old around the 4th time I ever saw it takes precedence over game gameplay, visuals, presentation and content. It's funny because this attitude characterizes the hardcore AEW fan's reaction to the wrestling program as well: as long as someone does a flippy dive on barbed wire broken glass, nothing else in the match or the show matters.
The last decade of exclusively 2k games has been brutal so I was really hoping this game will stick the landing. Clearly it didn't but I hope it'll sell well enough to generate a profit.
the newest wwe game is actually fantastic
This is a base game. WwE is the same shit. But I feel this is generational feel.
This one is actually fun.
Pretty odd that you expected the developers responsible for the last decade of WWE games (outside the last 3, of which 2 are fantastic and 1 is literally trash) to make something better than this.
Problem is much like the actual WWE, Vince McMahon's house of sweaty men slapping meat has set the standard bench mark of what to expect from a wrestling company and the same goes for the games. Years of WWE games you expect a certain level quality and features, but thing is wrestling is a chiche game genre and AEW is even more nixhe than the WWE, so expect sequels to be made on the back of Tony's dad's money
It's pretty obvious that this game has a much lower budget than the 2k WWE games. So I doubt it would need to do massive sales numbers to make a tidy profit. A couple million sales would probably considered a huge success.
This is by far the best review of this game I've seen so far. I just found your channel and really dig it - you've got a sub.
Now I'm a huge wrestling fan and while this game doesn't seem quite like what I'm looking for - especially at that price point - I really, really hope it's successful and somewhat profitable.
I like to see this title as laying the groundwork for an amazing sequel. Fingers crossed.
Yeah man, ACG is one of the best/entertaining reviewers on RUclips. Enjoy!
Best reviews around
Your CAW looked like a cross between Kenny Omega and Scott Norton. I couldn't stop seeing Scott coming to the ring with the shades on during his NWO time
It may just be
You could tell from the gameplay footage this wasn’t a polished, full price product. As great as it sounds to play No Mercy in 2023, games have evolved since then.
Looks to have more to do and more minor details than any recent wwe game
@@Thecultofwrestling cmon. That’s not even true.
@@brucemichaelgrossman4913 it is though.
@@Thecultofwrestling stop trolling. The only thing the WWE games do well is their attention to detail and modes.
@@brucemichaelgrossman4913 there are less game modes and things to do on wwe 2k tho
Why do all these terrible looking games, often looking on par with xbox 360 games with a higher resolutuiion, run so horribly? The future sucks
Its a damn mystery
Did not expect wrestling from ACG!
He's made a few wrestling references in the past but I'm still pleasantly surprised to see this in my feed
I was quite surprised when I got the notification for this review.
Oh hell ya I just pick and choose though
I'm seeing a lot of "This is their first outing, of course it's not going to be as polished as WWE games!"
Cool, I'll buy 'Fight Forever 2025' once they can actually compete.
Until then, I'll stick with downloading the fan-created AEW characters / arenas- which honestly look better than this game...
Sadge Mcmuttons? That is amazing.
Great review, I'm a massive AEW fan but I assumed they were gonna have some things to iron out upon release. Myself I haven't played a wrestling game in like 20+ years, this will eventually be someone I pick up I'm sure.
I hope one day we get a game with the mechanics of fire pro wrestling with the visual fidelity of the 2k games or this one. Still nothing beats planning a match and getting the 100% rating afterwards
I like and respect Fire Pro, but i think its better to watch that to play.
I was looking forward to this game as a day 1 purchase, but now, im not sure. There seems to be a good foundation here for future outings but I'll probably wait for a sale.
My favorite wrestling game is WWF No Mercy. This game looks like it plays very similar to that, so I need to get this! Thank you for covering this game, and for the very honest review.
It’s Yuke so the same developers as no mercy.
@@imperialtutor8687 Not quite, No Mercy was developed by AKI
A good honest review. Not like the schills i see on RUclips just saying nice things so they get free product. Its nice and refreshing.
Thanks for the review! I really wanted to get this game, but I’m not paying the price for this. $10-15 cheaper and I’d be much more tempted
This game was a passion project and with support, people will see what they're reaching for.
Graphics, Glitch here and there, lackluster career mode, etc. are things they can build onto.
In the center of things, If the gameplay works, it works for me.
The thought of just a fun and ridiculous couch wrestling game nodding to an N64 game of an era of wrestling that is legendary as well as fun and ridiculous, is what has me excited.
No mercy STILL stands strong lacking THOSE things gamers are complaining about with Fight Forever, because it was FUN. Its nostalgic.
This is a pseudo-niche of a game.
I purchase the Elite Edition for the Nintendo Switch, but unfortunately Nintendo players won't have the 1 day early access.
Ill wait until its on sale to get it. i dont want to buy it at full price but i hope they continue to update and add more to this game or sequel
The lack of a reversal indicators option cripples this game. Especially combined with the lack of a proper tutorial. Its the basics here that are just missing.
And the lack of a community creations option is a big miss for a wrestling game in 2023. We should not be going back to the times of memorising sliders and copying them from early 2000s youtube videos 😂
People are so cultish when it comes to AEW it’s concerning. Appreciate your review as always ACG.
lol have you seen the WWE comment section? you dont know what cultish is
@@ababilashari9970 2 sides of the same coin to keep it a buck lol
@@ababilashari9970 Both sides are bad. I only follow AEW now but I used to support WWE before AEW came around. There is so much tribalism it's worrying.
@@ababilashari9970don’t care. AEWs fanbase is far more rabid and annoying.
I'll stick with Fire Pro Wrestling World which has the best A.I. in any wrestling hands down
They did say they were trying to emulate the "WWE No Mercy" more arcade-y feel, so that's why it looks the way it does.
This game's been delayed a few times.
Honestly wish it was $10 cheaper.
No it’s just to save money graphically
@@KnucklesWTD Graphics aren't the big money sink people think it is, it's mostly in polishing, QA, animation synching, and bug fixing. With today's tech, it's not hard to prototype a ton of features in just a few months' time, but getting them all to work right is the real challenge.
@@billywashere6965 I think someone posted a good example once:
Say you want to add dynamite to this game-
What's the arc of the throw?
What happens when it hits someone?
How big is the AoE?
What happens when you drop it?
What happens when [edge case scenario here] happens?
They have to code/program/test for ALL of that.
@@MindOfGenius Exactly, and well said. It's easy for people to complain about what's there after three years of development, but given they had to build everything from scratch -- from assets to sound design to animation pipelines -- I think they did a phenomenal job in such a short period.
The gameplay looks really fun but the lack of features with some of the game modes/creations doesn’t justify this game to be at full price. In my opinion, this game is a $40 game at best.
The game gets old quick: there's no backstage areas, no cage matches, no multiple men ladder matches, no 3 vs 3 or anything beyond 2 vs 2, the cpu is often dumb AF and far from being as clever as in No Mercy, career mode and customization are very limited....as a huge AEW fan I'm glad they have a game out, but I really hope we'll get more match types eventually, this feels like an unfinished product way too much. 😕
Great review. I’ll be getting this once I’ve got the spare cash. I’ve been looking forward to it and it seems fun.
Thanks!
Another good review. I agree that this game is not a day 1 purchase. If it was 39.99 to 49.99. It would be worth it. But $60 for a less feature rich wrestling game. Whose creation options are less than what Fire Pro Wrestling World had to offer. And FPRW was released at 39.99.
Its a wrestling game from a rival company tp WWE. With former WWE wrestlers on their roster. And developed by the company who developed the WWE games for over 20 yrs.
So yes it is going up against WWE 2k games. The AEW figures are sold right next to the WWE figures in most retail stores .
"Not going up against WWE"
Nope. It's going up against WCW/nWo Revenge.
Sadly no game currently coming from them. But I would agree with that
I’d love to see a Saturday Night Slam Masters looking game. Loaded with Modes and progression. Create a character. Unlockables. Online and co-op. A Royal Rumble with over 8 people in the ring.
Guess I’ll try Retromania someday
It's definitely a bit pricey for what they have, but I cannot get this style of gameplay, or characters or the fact they are using a buy once and just update it model.. I just have to support those things.
After watch this I think WWE2k23 still best game in this generation. XD.
Thanks for that code ACG, you're the best!
It would be sooo easy to improve this game right away. I feel like overhauling the edit mode or adding crazy new match types is probably shooting for the moon, but there are a handful of match types already in the RTE mode that aren't currently available in exhibition. Surely they could be added easily enough. One of my other gripes is how limited each wrestler's move set is, due in large part to them not utilizing all the directional inputs. Instead of 4 front and 2 rear grapples, for example, it should be 5 and 5. This would go a long way towards match variety.
And they have to get the 3v3 matches in, whatever it takes.
This took them four years to release this game and it has these many problems?!?! $60? Uh-uh. $20 is more appropriate. It looks like a early 2000 game. Collision detection looks shabby. The lack of audio in a modern game is a no-no. I’ll wait until it’s released at a reduced price (if I buy it at all).
sounds like what they were promising. they were modeling this after some of the wrestling games from the N64 era but obviously updated. sounds like a good first effort for AEW. i might consider it at full price just to support it but i usually wait for a sale
AEW get way too much charity from people lol fans are never going to hold them accountable for anything so they're never going to improve. Everyone treats them like they're a fragile newborn baby that could die at any moment.
Wait for a sale bro
Played for 2 hours, refunded it. Wrestling itself was great fun but I'd also seen absolutely everything I was going to at that point
I was looking forward to this one. I’d like to see more wrestling games, maybe ones not tied too tightly to an organization. I still like Fire pro wrestling
The Wrestling Code is our only hope, really.
Fire Pro Wrestling has the best A.I. and wrestler customization (with the craft dlc) of any wrestling game around. People sleep on it cause it's graphics but it's far superior when it comes to emulating real wrestling.
@@IamMcLovin69 I'm curious about that and Ultra Pro Wrestling. Also Ultraviolence but haven't seen any updates on it in a while
Firepro is so good
@@loboneiner1034 bought it and tried to get into fire pro but the isometric view and the controls killed it for me
Some people may see this as a dollar store version to the 2k franchise, but when playing it. I felt it had an N64 wrestling arcade kinda vibe to it. Which to me is awesome. Some of my favourite wrestling games were on the n64 most notably (warzone) and I would love it if that style of wrestling game came back into fashion
I wonder why they have all of those backstage areas in road to elite but didn’t make them playable.
Right? Hopefully it's going to be an update/patch at some point, having no backstage areas to fight in is a huge fail.
Would get this for Pentagon Jr. and Luchasaurus alone!!!
I’ve had my fingers and toes crossed for this one! Glad it is finally here. About the landing and execution I expected. Hope they clean it up a bit.
Thanks for the review as always! Also Nice Thumbnail!
You bet Hal
Oh yeah. Been waiting for this game.
Honestly, the character creation looks like when they 1st made Smackdown! for the PS1. It's a nice starting point to grow from with more entries into the series. Graphics don't look bad in motion, gameplay looks fun. I might put this on my list of Switch games to buy
I was tempted to get this game on day one, however after looking at some reviews, i am going to wait until it is on sale, 3 years in development and this is what we get, it needs to get better and hopefully that will happen with future patches and updates!
Me too.
Same, well said. I can’t believe after three years in development and using the bones of a nearly twenty year old game, THIS is what we got.
@@423chart People here really don't understand how development works. Three years is nothing. If you have to build out new lighting systems, mechanics, physics, and sound design, three years is a breeze. Keep in mind that WWF No Mercy was the culmination of five years worth of incremental developmental starting back in 1996. Having to work from the ground-up as they're doing now with the AEW game requires a lot of resources.
@@billywashere6965 then don’t release the game if it isn’t ready. And if they do choose to release it in such a sorry state, fine, but shame on them asking $60
3 years of development for 7 match types.. 5 of those being singles match. That’s unacceptable !
for me the best games was WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw for consoles for example Playstation 2, i love all the WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw , then when this franchise disapear i play only the WWE 2K19 i dont like , then never play other games , but now i maybe buy the AEW Fight Forever, seems better ...
I just wish the entrances were longer. I wanna hear more of Chris Jerichos entrance music as he makes his way to the ring
I actually met the president /CEO of AEW a few months ago while I was working on his jet. Had no idea that AEW has gotten popular enough to get its own game.
The game was one of the first things that they set in motion when the company launched. Nothing to do with popularity and more to do with a reasonable business choice.
Loving it so far! Hope thq puts a lot of work into it post content
First I want to comment, I don't know if it was a day one patch or the Nvidia drivers, but I play in 4K and I have a 3080, and I have had a couple of busy matches and there seems to be no frame rate slowdowns. I have even played on high settings on my steam deck with little issue. Perhaps it was just an issue related to your early review copy.
Thank you for the fairly objective review. There are too many salty 2K fans that aren't taking this game in on its own merits. Particularly in regards to not being able to import and iterate on existing content. They like to not acknowledge that there have been 20 some odd 2K games and they typically share content year to year.
I will concede that the creation suite is kind of a joke with its current amount of content, particularly for those creating women's division members.
However as you stated when it works, the matches are actually quite fun. I was happy that I was able to get a discount on the PC version, All I will say there is that if you're on PC there are many legal places to buy legitimate copies of games and sometimes they are cheaper than Steam.
I remember i think it was WWE 2010 or 11, lot of custom figher customization and the "backstage fights" were fun
And one a few of the old WWE games they had a create a finisher mode which was awesome, I think it SvR 2010 and SvR 2011 it appeared in.
Thanks for the review.
Though I am an AEW fan, I haven't played a wrestling game for a while. And I understood this game probably has a significantly lower budget than the 2k WWE games (would explain the lack of voice work and lack of photorealism) I think I was always going to wait for a sale since this year has and still will be stacked with big releases.
I hope by the time I do get the game, the dev team can patch out the issues brought up here (of course, I am not handwaving releasing a game with bugs)
Hopefully long term support keeps this one alive and kicking. all i wanted was a roadmap prior to launch to convince me but all im left with is high hopes that this time next year season 4 of the game launches with refinements etc... that is if they escape the trap of yearly releases all of the important people expressed hatred for.
Agreed
Not too bad honestly, it can only go up and get better from this first attempt.
Yep
I only got this bc of having a wrestling game on the switch. Well, a good one hopefully. I’d love a fun wrestling game on the go. Or just to play while watching tv
It's hard to tell if the fundamental nature of wrestling games have changed since I played them on Nintendo 64.
13:12 No, although there’s a sale today on the Elite edition, this game is unfortunately premium priced.
Gotta save up for this one. But I can’t wait to play this with my son and friends.
Will be very cool there is some fun here
I loved playing all the old THQ/Jakks wrestling games. WCW vs. The World, WCW/nWo World Tour, Revenge, WCW Nitro, WCW Thunder, Wrestlemania 2000, No Mercy...even the GameCube games were good. I had a blast with most of that whole Smackdown series too. This new AEW game looks like a fun throwback to the kind of games like No Mercy and those GameCube games. Last time I bought a wrestling game it was WWE 2K20, and I've been disappointed with the product. AEW Fight Forever looks like it's fun to play, but I'm not sure i can justify paying $60 for it right now.
Digging Karrak using the old box art with Punk before a few certain EVP's including the one heading the game develpment thats forward center on fhe new box, had a a friendly game of WCW Backstage Assault session
Hope this does sell well. It’s seems the heart is in the right place for this even with its problems. Very much focusing on the no mercy gameplay. Will look to play at some point
Your created character looks like a mix of Brian Danielson and Roman Reigns.
I really dislike how short the entrances are
After playing this several hours, this is a 20.00 to 30.00 game. Its okay, but I turned it off after 2 to 3 hours. The story mode is incredibly short. Online is okay but the connectivity of the moves online is really glitchy, worse that 2k glitchy. Maybe there will be patches to fix that.
I would recommend someone to wait on a sale for this.
Would you recommend elden ring over this?
@@Steven-fp5vg yes. Definately.
@@JMonty2012 sweet. It definitely looks to have way more play time.
The game is currently unplayable on PS4. Everytime I try to start a match, the game crashes. Not worth buying at this point.
This game would probably have gone over alot better if it was like $40
Agreed, price is an important factor when it comes to purchasing decisions.
@@ACGreviews Yeah, I live in the UK and it currently costs £46 on Steam, it's too much money with the limited game modes in my opinion.
Nice review. Is this PC gameplay?
Honestly I just wish they would finally create an actual Professional Wrestling simulator. Where we can simply do great matches and not pretend like it's a competition against the other opponent... Wrestling games should be about putting on great shows and entertaining the viewers not about pretending to guys fight
I would say, if want to know something you have to try it yourself, i have bought games that reviewers rated bad and i enjoyed them,so be yoursefl and try something for your self
Something regarding the audio is that there's a "Jukebox" setting where you can add and remove songs to the suite of what plays in the menus and during matches, and I say this pretty literally: 99% of EVERY SONG OF ANY TYPE IN AEW'S ENTIRE HISTORY is available. You could probably go literal days and not hear a song repeat.
Is this a joke?? A work?? This looks like a gamecube game.
Its a mix lol
I’ve been looking for a good wrestling game since WCW vs NWO on the N64.
Now if only the NWO was in this Game wait you do have Sting so NWO Wolfpack you can just Create Nash Hall and the other members like Luger Konnan etc etc lol 😂
I'm pulling for this game. But I have to admit if this was a WWE game I would have no mercy for it.
This game should not have happened like this. At this point there really isn't an excuse for them to release a game this (As MJF would say) Mid. This is Yukes and THQ.. The companies that brought us Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain, SVR 06/07, WWE'12, WWE'13 AND 2K14. Yukes has been making Wrestling games for nearly 30 years.
Actually it's THQ Nordic, not the original THQ who went out of business but it is Yuke's who have been making wrestling games for decades so they have no excuse.
AEW gets an insane amount of charity of people online. People are almost willing to forgive them for anything - and there's a LOT of shade to throw at them.
Wait a second been purchasing games based on your opinion for many years now lol, didn't think your a wrestling fan.
Nothing will top WWF No Mercy on the N64.
Or Firepro wrestling
Lol if any other game releases in this state, the internet destroys it. The AEW cope is legit off the rails today. I was so pumped for this game until today. My god it looks awful and I don’t mean the graphics.
OOOF, WHY can't wrestling games not preload the items in the create a wrestler mode?
Like WWE and this seem to have the same issue of moving through the CAW creator and it loading every item each time you move a spot.
this originally was going to gamepass. I hope it does since it's basically a PS3/X360 game.
Yeah, this is about what I expected. I love wrestling and I was hoping for AEW to do something great here but as time passed and more was shown I realized this would be a very small, janky game with an arcade-y experience and very content-light.
People can say whatever about EA or the yearly WWE games, but those games are packed to the brim with content, and are often good to great wrestling games with some huge blunders here and there. I have played wrestling games since the NES and I can say WWE 2k23 is one of the best wrestling games ever made.
This looks like a deep sale for me.
I think people hate on 2k because its the cool thing to do. Sure 2k20 was a dumpster fire but the last two games were really good games especially the last one. This looks good but its definitely a budget title being charged at full price
Would be nice to see sports game start thriving again.
Im excited for this but its gonna be a wait before i buy this one. I just moved to Japan so this aint on the top of my budget right now.
I just want a Here Comes The Pain style wrestling game. I never liked the AKI engine games like No Mercy. I always played the smackdown games on playstation 1 and 2. Those were so much faster and smoother
Same here, never played No Mercy before but I've played all the Smackdown and SvR games and had few issues with them. Before anyone jumps on me I'm an AEW fan and have been since the start but this game is not great for the price.
It’s sad that people won’t play 4/10 or 5/10 or 6/10 rated games anymore.😢 when I was a kid we played every game the score didn’t matter it was about the fun, the experience, having fun with friends and playing something new. Now if a game isn’t a 8/10 with no hype or a 9/10 with hype people shit all over it for no reason and no one buys it. Maybe it’s because before everyone had internet and they could update the game that game had to at least function and be playable.
Not really, if priced competitively many more people would jump in. Imagine this sell for 40 or 30 instead of 60 or 70.
Well you also wasn’t buying the game as a kid lol.. now as adults we want to get are moneys worth when purchasing a game.
this looks horrific! the graphics are ps2/mobile looking and it also looks extremely unsatisfying!
Bruh its supposed to look like a classic wrestling game
This is a good $9.99 game RIP to anyone who bought this full price
Why in tag team play are all wrestlers in the ring all at once all the time and why is cody so small and why make a wrestling game based a innovative exciting wrestling company that is not a innovative or good quality fluid wrestling game. Its a massive disappointment for me to get this game and wish it was so much better than it is.😢😢😢
Great review and thanks for going into more detail with some of the issues without sugarcoating it. I’ll most likely be returning my switch copy when it comes and just pick up the PS5 or X version tomorrow. I know it looks a lot sharper and clearer on those systems, hopefully there’s a lot less lag and choppiness too.
This game NEEDS to allow mods into the game. Without it the game is a very short game to play. WWE 2k23 right now set the standard in what to do in this generation, if you have a game with less content than what you should model your game off of, then it’s just bad product at this point. The price point is another thing that kills it. For $70 you got a game that will last you 1-2 hours max, only 4 wrestlers allowed at a time to play, and a small roster to play as. This game reminds me a lot like 2k Battlegrounds in terms of content.
Hoping modders get ahold of the PC version and go wild
I can't wait for this. It looks like old school fun and arcade wrestling with very smooth moves. Thanks for the review! Gets me more hyped