Graphically it was amazing for the time. Shit, if released now it would still get a pass graphically. However, that's really all it had. I mean, when playing through the story mode and the first move I unlock is the finisher I'm already using, I knew it was going to disappoint overall.
Was it really better though? The models looked good dont get me wrong butttt everything else fell flat. I still remeber seeing the entrances and being floored at how lackluster they were, somehow the models looked better when they were in the ring actually moving
my dad got it as a Christmas present for me just to make me laugh.. I did laugh indeed, once I realized it was basically just Smackdown or Smackdown 2 for simpletons
Same lol. Pre ordered, Created a character. I remember there was a quiz game in it. The questions were all random mid carders birthdays & what they did for a living, before wrestling lol. Who tf is gonna know that? & your characters stats were affected if you lose. & you can't Google because the questions are timed😂 That's not what stopped me playing it. I just never felt the appeal to turn it back on since.
Worst I played was Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This At Home. We actually called Blockbuster 10 minutes after getting back to my apartment asking if we could exchange it. Thankfully, they let us and we had a great time with The Simpsons' Road Rage.
AEW Fight Forever might be one of the more disappointing wrestling games ever, game had so much hype, finally a wrestling game that wasn't WWE 2K or Fire Pro, and "Look guys we got the same people that had the iconic WWF No Mercy game to work on it so it'll just be just as fun" when in reality it was just dull and felt so bare bones.
@@franklingoodwinThat's why I say WCW/NWO Revenge was the pinnacle of those N64 games. I thought Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy was overall just WWF characters replacing WCW characters. It's too bad we didn't see what improvements could've been done on GameCube hardware😮 I think 2K should build on Here Comes The Pain Formula.😊
the gameplay is more than fine the complete lack of content was the issue. had the game not had such a bad creation suite and threadbare season mode it would have been fine
@@BUPMY1I strongly disagree ! WM 00 & no mercy kept adding great additions like CAW, actual entrances, editing moves, story mode, backstage, more match types, running grapples, ability to drop weapons and not disappear, announce table, create a belt, in game store.
TNA game shortcuts were that basically there was only 3 move sets available and everybody was the same size! It was off putting when you’re fighting Abyss with Christian Cage 😂. I remember it was very hard! But I was too deep in the controls of Smackdown vs Raw at that time! But I had fun with that game! And the graphics were awesome for the time! Story was a little rough and limited but it’s better than having none like FF.
AEW Fight Forever isn't one of the 5 worst wrestling games, surpassing WCW Nitro, WCW Thunder, WWE 2K20, Raw 1 and 2 (I believe Stevie gave THQ suggestions for Raw 2), Wrestlemania 21, TNA Impact, and WWE Battlegrounds. Although it lacks modes, depth, and replayability, its AKI-style gameplay and story mode by Justin Leeper provide a great foundation. Minor glitches were fixed in the first patch, and competition from AEW pushed the 2K devs, making a sequel desirable. Also, Stevie helped WWE games, at least in my opinion, when he gifted gameplay designer Bryan Williams ROH DVDs. Bryan mentioned receiving the DVDs on Conrad Kushman's Everything Pro Wrestling Podcast.
Fanboys going to fanboy.... Dude, he's entitled to his opinion. Fight Forever is garbage. Maybe the worst wrestling game ever.... because it had all the potential in the world, it should have been one of the best .....and they gave us That
@@BabysitterSky"Maybe the worst wrestling game ever" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Pick any of the last 4 WCW games. Nitro, Thunder, Mayhem, and Backstage Assault are all worse than Fight Forever is.
@BabysitterSky I agree with you, it has to be judged harder because of how much resources were put into it. They rushed out the wcw games, cash grabs, cost next to nothing to produceand made in months.
Agreed 100% There are MANY worse games out there. I think younger people just don't have context. They've never played any wrestling game on gameboy lol
I feel like Stevie is the only wrestler/ex wrestler who is really discussing these old wrestling games. We needed this. Thanks Mr. Stevie 💯💯Have A Blessed Day.
AEW Fight Forever wasn't a bad game, it just failed to deliver on the ridiculous amount of hype. It was a good game, but that's about it. Definitely better than ECW and (most) WCW games. A good first effort.
..it's also an NES wrestling game, almost ALL of them suck. this entire list could've been from that era. Pro Wrestling was the only decent one I remember from then
@@TheLarryburns84 WCW on NES was better than Wrestlemania on NES but included WCW and not WWF. Guess they didn't wanna trigger WWE fanboys which is why he no WWE games on it. TNA & AEW are better than several terrible WWE games. Also Tecmo World Wrestling and Toukon Club were also good on NES.
So cool to hear someone talk about the Easter eggs in the ECW games. This might sound like BS, but I've actually talked to someone who is in both of those games, and he's told me about some of the Easter eggs. He told me about Tommy Rich asking an office worker (I think Betty) for a draw. Wild Bill/Beautiful Billy shouting out "Bella!" (A merch stand worker and his girlfriend at the time) if you hit him enough times. People shouting out a high pitched "Dude!" which was a rib on a sound guy who hated that. I also once told him that I played with Spike Dudley, and that I could tell by his movements that his motion capture was done by a bigger guy. His answer "Yeah, that was Chris Chetti."
Fell off the wrestling games years ago when the yearly releases started. When I think of worst, hard not to think of WCW Nitro for the N64. Probably one of the only times I felt cheated buying a game.
The Yuke’s engine is my favorite one ever. When I was living in Japan I played the New Japan pro wrestling game with the Yuke’s engine. I loved that game.
There are far worse games back in the day than the ones mentioned here IMHO. Wrestlemania The Arcade game, and In Your House were not even wrestling games, they were really bad fighting games.
@atibamorales9380 Rumble Roses was actually pretty fun. The controls weren't too different from the Smackdown games and being able to unlock the different face/heel gimmicks gave the game a legit pro wresting element doesn't get utilized in many wrestling games. And still some of the best female character models used in a wrestling game. Sure, it was pure cheesecake, but actually had high replay value in the gameplay, much like DOAX.
Online play on the Steam Deck depends on the game and the developer. Some online games won't even run on the Steam Deck natively because the anti-chrat conflicts with Linux, and the Steam Deck's OS is based off of Linux. You can however flash Windows onto a micro SD card and dual-boot into Windows from the Steam Deck's bios.
Being a wreslting game aficionado, AEW Fight Forever does not belong on that list. It was absolutely disappointing, mostly because the game modes around the game were not good at all. Just off the top of my head, Raw 1 on Xbox, Legends of Wrestling, WCW Nitro, Simpsons Wrestling, that god awful Hogan Kinect game, and even the WWF NES games are all worse in my opinion.
@MilkWasABadChoice17 Fair Point. But in our world of Fandom... AEW is the main target for the grifters for clicks. I mean... There's a reason FF featured in the thumbnail, and one of the dog shit games you rightfully mentioned isn't.
Funny thing is I remember really liking Warzone and getting hyped for Attitude, then it came out and it was like coming down from a one year long high and just hating it from day 1
Warzone was crap. The moment I realised you could hit your finisher, and have your opponent spring back up two seconds later, I said, "Fuck that game..."
@@brianm2881 I remember that happening in the first SmackDown game on the PS1. I hit Billy Gunn with four straight Stone Cold Stunners and couldn't get a three-count.
Honestly, the only wrestling games that could ever hold my attention are the Fire Pro Wrestling series. Every other wrestling game I ever played since childhood I either didn't like at all or I did like but would get bored with them after a few months. The Fire Pro games are the only ones I play consistently. I'd play one up until the next one came out and those only come out every like 10 or so years seems like.
While I disagree as I can name a number of other great wrestling games. Fire Pro is top tier. It’s so good and with release of Fire Pro World, it’ll never die. Just watching the CPU playing itself is fun. So good. You also can’t top the roster. I love fire pro.
WWF Warzone was terrible because it had alot of missing wrestlers especially Savio Vega, Vader, Chyna and Sable. I kind of like WWF warzone because it reminds me of Mortal Kombat 4 because of how dark the Raw arena is
technically Suicide is CAW, since you only wrestled in costume for like, two matches? and then the mexico thing happened and you get to modify everything on him anyways(under the guise of surgery)
Stevie Richards talking about cross play, Star Trek Bridge crew and other such things - made me so happy. I always feel so alone being nearly 50 and a huge gamer still. I feel shamed by young people, shamed by old people and only accepted by people my age or so who still game and even then, it's still laughed at. Knowing he plays games, let alone has a Steam Deck now, plays on PC (though I assume was a console gamer first, which is fine) and loves cross play etc. makes me smile. So, thanks Stevie and James for even doing this segment and talking about gaming at all. It's shocking how much overlap there is between gaming in general and wrestling (and wrestling games, obviously).
Fight Forever doesn't belong anywhere near the top 5 worst imo. There are not enough modes, create a wrestler is trash and the roster is missing a lot of names that have been there since the beginning, but the gameplay is at least decent enough. Not nearly as buggy as he makes it out to be either. Acclaim could take up 4 slots alone. Nitro and Thunder both deserve to be there more as well.
WCW on the NES was crippled by the fact that you were pretty much screwed unless you had turbo controllers. Apart from that, the game was pretty good. Btw, I read somewhere that the wrestlers who had more influence at the time inserted themselves as the playable characters on the game. Also, most of the wrestlers in the game had left the company by the time the game was released.
Fight Forever is the most frustrating wrestling game ever because the pieces are all there, but it's been developed so haphazardly and sloppily that it falls apart in practice. Customization of anything is locked or restricted. Matches are too short. Wrestlers don't regenerate health at all. The A.I. is so broken that the CPU still can't perform certain special moves. These things could have been fixed with dedicated patches, but the sales performance was so bad (largely because of these things) that THQ Nordic stopped all support. It feels like a stripped down and broken No Mercy wannabe.
Was waiting for you to do something like this Stevie. I've played most wrestling games starting with the old Nintendo "Pro Wrestling" and "Tag Team Wrestling" and was hooked on Mat Mania and Mania Challenge in the arcades. Personal best wrestling video game, to me, is the Japanese import "Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 (the Japanese counterpart for WCW vs. nWo: World Tour) for the N64, After that, Fire Pro Wrestling 6 Man Scramble and then Fire Pro Wrestling World off of Steam. Great video and agree with you completely on the list.
TNA Impact for DS was a better game. You picked a wrestler and had mini stories with them all. The big knock on the game is it had a Curry Man story without the Curry Man entrance. It was just the show open.
The main problem with AEW's game is that it lacked any flow, it just feels dated and they didn't achieve the level of fluidity something like No Mercy or even Revenge had. It's the same problem the TNA game had. Those ECW games were somewhat enjoyable cause at least they were a straight up re-skin of older WWF Akklaim games. They were easily better than Nitro or Thunder on PS1. Backstage Assault was an all-around dumb idea cause they should have built upon the Mayhem engine, which wasn't atrocious. It's just that the models looked dull and without any personality and continuing that with a game without a ring was something only a guy like Vince Russo would have thought was a great idea.
legends of wrestling was cool. i liked the different arenas. WWE ALL STARS Legends of WrestleMnaia tried to recapture that aracade feel when aracades been dead.
It's not exactly the same, though it was clearly inspired by it. No Mercy actually had competent AI, in depth match editor, and a fun story mode. In my opinion, Fight Forever comes up short in those areas.
@@PowderedVoltage Yeah, I hear you. I was just over-generalizing, i guess, in terms of how the momentum and grapple/striking system is exactly the same as WCW/NWO Revenge, etc.
I'm guessing Stevie hasn't played that many wrestling games for TNA Impact to show up. It's not worse than the other PS1 WCW games Nitro and Thunder unless he's overvaluing them because of the funny character screen promos you could enable.
The AEW game is… fine. I thought it played okay. Just needed more features. Kind of dumb that there was no cage match in a wrestling game in 2023. Also, the story mode was laughable. Gameplay-wise, I thought it was fun since it controlled like No Mercy. It’s a decent game that could have been a great game if they focused on fleshing out certain modes instead of adding mini games and charging through the nose for additional characters.
I got AEW and WWE for free via PS+. And in my very limited time with both of them, I'll give AEW the advantage from a gameplay standpoint as it does have that somewhat Revenge)No Mercy vibe to it. At some point I'm going to try to play both games to really give my full thoughts on it.
Barebones is the best way to describe both Impact and Fight Forever. They both had a ton of potential but fell short. Particularly, the Ultimate X match was insanely fun to play. Plus, being able to throw people over the ropes to the outside made it even more fun.
I watched the interview you did where you were told to lie about how many surgeries you had (and omitting your brother’s death) and you sounded so much like you currently do! I know that’s an obvious thing, but my mind went into thinking I’m listening to your current show without realizing it.
2:32 Damn! I was playing that game quite a bit at one point! I'd love to play that game with Stevie Richards! It's a ton of fun when you have a full player crew ship!
STEVIE please talk about the current state of how tags are executed compared to how it should be. I noticed in the past few years when guys tag they do it at head heights or above their heads. always lifting their hands up instead of tagging at waste heights I am curious when this weird tagging technique started
Backstage Assault is the only game where you can have Vince Russo wrestle Eric Bischoff. I was hoping AEW Fight Forever was going to keep with their plan of releasing a base game, instead of annual games, create a steady stream of DLC updates so you only had to buy one game ever.
Wow, an American that actually calls the NES by it's proper name instead of N.E.S. like what most Americans call it I'm impressed Stevie. I've always pronounced it Ness like in Loch Ness, never N.E.S..
I always thought WCW Backstage Assault was the worst wrestling game ever. I mean, it didn't even have a ring! What kind of wrestling game doesn't even have a ring?!?!?!?
I'd like to see a video where Stevie talks about playing fire pro and other games back in the day. Stuff like 6 man scramble and FPG moreso than more recent games because these were the big games during the ECW and attitude era when he was at his peak. I'll bet theres lots of stories of playing these games with the boys. Might not be able to share them all but I'll bet there's some good ones.
I remember all the hype for the Super Wrestlemania game. We got the SNES version and it was a major disappointment. Everyone had the same moves with no finishers. It had no tournament mode or anything. Great graphics but that was about it.
As a wrestling fan and a Halo fan I only got an Xbox for Halo because Raw is easily one of the worst wrestling games and feels like a budget title and it came out a year after Halo CE which easily killed the hype for the game.
I remember feeling kinda bad for my friend who only had an Xbox and the Raw games at the time. I used to bring my GameCube over to play Day of Reckoning with him.
@shishioh I tried to like it so much, but it was absolutely unplayable. The entrances were kinda cool, especially because you could use your own music, but the game itself was beyond awful.
Fight forever isn't that bad. While there were a lot of mistakes, there are worse games. Like backstage assault. Kenny is actually one of the reasons why. He really wanted mini games. Those should've been their own thing.
Good couch co-op when there’s literally nothing to do in the game ? If you have 3 friends, you guys could only play 4 match types which is fatal 4, standard tag and casino. Thats absolutely pathetic seeing how games on the n64 offered way more matches to play with 4 players. FF is an absolute joke
I really hope they can still salvage AEW FF because I want a finished videogame with everything that was initially promised, minus all of the bugs. Such a waste of time and money! Take your time and do it right the first time guys!
AAA: "Heroes Del Ring," was also another game that had a lot of promise and under delivered. I really would have liked to have played it, because it was the first crack at a game solely based on Lucha Libre (which I'm still fairly new to..) 😅
AEW game is valid, we got basically half a game, it's very strange to play. Like instead of finishing the mode/feature, they just started another in the middle and move on lol. TNA was incredibly fun to play, just lacked depth. Needed a sequel. But the fact this list is missing WWE 2K20 is crazy. It was such a broken, embarrassing mess, panned universally that it caused the 21 sequel to be skipped right to 22. Honourable Mention for WWE 2K15 which sold strong based on Sting's pre-order inclusion. Only to be broken for 3 months in which all save data would erase itself over and over, rendering it unplayable outside of exhibitions. By the time it was patched the game was 1/3 the price and Sting was available in the store for 99p. I never pre-ordered again after that mess.
One of the worse things about AEW fight forever is the money grabbing that it has the several season passes you have to buy to get extra content and the constant updating of complete editions it's really bad
Fight Forever should be proof enough that because you are a fan of something, doesn't mean that you should be hands-on with it. I love Football, Soccer for the Americans, for example, that doesn't mean I should be a part of the coaching staff for my favourite team.
Midway did a pretty good job creating the TNA game from scratch. It did need more work though, so when the engine was reused by THQ for WWE All-Stars we got a much better game by then.
The Xbox 360 version also shipped with a bug where there wasn't enough sensitivity for the analogue stick when kicking out of pins so you had to wiggle 4x as much as other platforms. So Stevie probably had to deal with that too.
I wouldn't put "Fight Forever" in a list of "worst", but definitely disappointing. The foundation was there, but they went in the wrong direction in trying to craft an experience in the same vein as the N64 classics. Instead of focusing on adding match types, improving the creation system, and fixing the bugs before it hit the streets instead of focusing on mini-games no one cared about, "Fight Forever" could've been the wrestling game equivalent of "No Man's Sky". Shocked "WCW Thunder" or "WCW Nitro" didn't make the list. Stiff, collision detection issues, terribly pixelated models, and a control scheme that obvious adopted the control from fighting games (in not in the way the "Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game" & "In Your House" did) made them rough experiences. Mind you, I spent my little, saved-up money on these games as a kid and spent way too many hours playing both to unlock everything. And in regards to broken games, very few major releases comes close to "WWE 2K20". I was able to do, I believe, four montage videos of glitches I experienced playing that game with one all from release day alone.
@@agwtaw2 Didn't just say "one of the worst wrestling games of all time," but worst of all time no matter the genre. To quote The Company Man, "Yeezus!"
@@BUPMY1 It actually played worse! The only thing it did better was the wrestler promos in the select screen mostly because a majority didn't care and just hilariously phoned it in.
The TNA game was let down by lack of moves. It just felt unfinished. The presentation was top notch though for the time. The character models looked a hell of a lot better than anything WWE had at that time. They fleshed it out better with WWE All Stars which was developed by the same team and used practically the same frame work
I played the shit out of Warzone, Attitude, Hardcore Revolution & Anarchy Rulz on the PS1 with my good friend at the time. Looking back they all sucked gameplay wise but at the time they were amazing until I got an N64 and those wrestling games. They all hold a special place in my heart despite how bad the PS1 games were, good times.
The hulk Hogan wrestling game for Xbox kinnect was absolute cat vomit. Soooo bad. There are so many worse games than ones mentioned. Love you anyway Stevie
Fight Forever has one of the funnest gameplay engines I've experienced in a Wrestling Game. Definitely lacking in the game features which sucks, the story mode was the biggest disappointment as I'd of been happy with it emulating No Mercy's and it didn't even manage that. It's far from the worst wrestling game I've played though. The price killed it.
Fight Forever's biggest issue is that it's overpriced. It's a fun game to play couch co-op, but that's really all it has to offer. The single player modes are boring, and the create-a-wrestler options are laughable. Definitely needed a $19.99 price point.
I agree that the TNA game was pretty bare bones, but I remember it playing closer to the N64 AKI-style than anything else that's come out since. Samoa Joe was reportedly quite hands on with the development. I thought that they had a pretty solid base to build on if they'd gotten a second game.
Jeff Jarrett is a menace in the story mode. Other than that I thought the TNA game was okay.
It's a decent game for what it was
What TNA's game had going for it was that graphically it looked way better than WWE's games at the time.
@@Angelus13AOV
I remember buying it from Gamefly and the graphics certainly looked good for PS3/Xbox 360 Era.
Graphically it was amazing for the time. Shit, if released now it would still get a pass graphically.
However, that's really all it had. I mean, when playing through the story mode and the first move I unlock is the finisher I'm already using, I knew it was going to disappoint overall.
@@TheThird1977 Yeah, once I finished the story mode I didn't really touch it again unless company came over and they wanted to play it.
Was it really better though? The models looked good dont get me wrong butttt everything else fell flat. I still remeber seeing the entrances and being floored at how lackluster they were, somehow the models looked better when they were in the ring actually moving
@@camron147 The models are what I was talking about specifically. They looked pretty realistic for the time.
i bought AEW fight forever for full price, played it once, never played again, it is awful.
Played on first day and it was just boring. Never tried it again. I just didn't care about it more than anything else.
my dad got it as a Christmas present for me just to make me laugh.. I did laugh indeed, once I realized it was basically just Smackdown or Smackdown 2 for simpletons
I got it free on PS+ and have never got around to installing it.
Same lol.
Pre ordered, Created a character.
I remember there was a quiz game in it.
The questions were all random mid carders birthdays & what they did for a living, before wrestling lol.
Who tf is gonna know that?
& your characters stats were affected if you lose.
& you can't Google because the questions are timed😂
That's not what stopped me playing it. I just never felt the appeal to turn it back on since.
Well that's your fault for being a complete idiot. No one to blame but you, I would feel embarrassed posting this
Worst I played was Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This At Home. We actually called Blockbuster 10 minutes after getting back to my apartment asking if we could exchange it. Thankfully, they let us and we had a great time with The Simpsons' Road Rage.
You just didn't give it a chance. The first Backyard Wrestling still holds up.
lol I loved backyard wrestling
You’re tripping!! That’s a classic I loved that game growing up the second one with ICP was shit though
@@AngeloMorales-u1eHuh? ICP was in the first game too. But I'll agree, the 2nd game wasn't so good. I couldn't get into it.
BYW was a culture in its own. I personally still go back to both atleast once a year
AEW Fight Forever might be one of the more disappointing wrestling games ever, game had so much hype, finally a wrestling game that wasn't WWE 2K or Fire Pro, and "Look guys we got the same people that had the iconic WWF No Mercy game to work on it so it'll just be just as fun" when in reality it was just dull and felt so bare bones.
The thing is is WWF No Mercy hasn't aged particularly well. Should've been built around Smackdown Here Comes The Pain which has aged like fine wine
@@franklingoodwinThat's why I say WCW/NWO Revenge was the pinnacle of those N64 games. I thought Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy was overall just WWF characters replacing WCW characters. It's too bad we didn't see what improvements could've been done on GameCube hardware😮
I think 2K should build on Here Comes The Pain Formula.😊
Agree most disappointing game that got all the hype ... only play 2 matches and didn't touch it again ...
the gameplay is more than fine the complete lack of content was the issue. had the game not had such a bad creation suite and threadbare season mode it would have been fine
@@BUPMY1I strongly disagree ! WM 00 & no mercy kept adding great additions like CAW, actual entrances, editing moves, story mode, backstage, more match types, running grapples, ability to drop weapons and not disappear, announce table, create a belt, in game store.
Never knew Dr. Stevie was into video games. Need a top 10 favorite video games video. Not just wrestling.
He's a Madden player & I think he plays a couple of fighting games as well
@negdiffed He should play Alien Isolation.
He used to cover games and tech on one of his channels. He posted a lot of fire pro world stuff when that came out.
@@CraigSmithII What fighting games? I need to see him at EVO stat.
@@brendanb2982
I said I think he did IDK.
TNA game shortcuts were that basically there was only 3 move sets available and everybody was the same size! It was off putting when you’re fighting Abyss with Christian Cage 😂. I remember it was very hard! But I was too deep in the controls of Smackdown vs Raw at that time! But I had fun with that game! And the graphics were awesome for the time! Story was a little rough and limited but it’s better than having none like FF.
AEW Fight Forever isn't one of the 5 worst wrestling games, surpassing WCW Nitro, WCW Thunder, WWE 2K20, Raw 1 and 2 (I believe Stevie gave THQ suggestions for Raw 2), Wrestlemania 21, TNA Impact, and WWE Battlegrounds. Although it lacks modes, depth, and replayability, its AKI-style gameplay and story mode by Justin Leeper provide a great foundation. Minor glitches were fixed in the first patch, and competition from AEW pushed the 2K devs, making a sequel desirable.
Also, Stevie helped WWE games, at least in my opinion, when he gifted gameplay designer Bryan Williams ROH DVDs. Bryan mentioned receiving the DVDs on Conrad Kushman's Everything Pro Wrestling Podcast.
Fanboys going to fanboy....
Dude, he's entitled to his opinion. Fight Forever is garbage. Maybe the worst wrestling game ever.... because it had all the potential in the world, it should have been one of the best .....and they gave us That
@@BabysitterSky"Maybe the worst wrestling game ever" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Pick any of the last 4 WCW games. Nitro, Thunder, Mayhem, and Backstage Assault are all worse than Fight Forever is.
@@shawndraven2703 I said based on potential. They had all the time and resources in the world.....and gave us this.
I stand by what I said.
@BabysitterSky I agree with you, it has to be judged harder because of how much resources were put into it. They rushed out the wcw games, cash grabs, cost next to nothing to produceand made in months.
Agreed 100% There are MANY worse games out there. I think younger people just don't have context. They've never played any wrestling game on gameboy lol
When it was working fine and the bugs didn't manifest, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling was my favourite wrestling game.
Never played the 3rd one. I loved the 2nd game though. That territory system story mode was so cool.
Showdown could have been great if not for the bugs. Had a great roster.
That was a fantastic game, when it worked that is, which wasn't often.
I love the roster, and presentation. The gameplay and bugs dragged the game way down. I still have a soft spot for it, but it's not a good game.
It was ok
Samoa Joe was DEFINITELY in King of Colosseum before the TNA game
Yeah in two KoC games before TNA
They didn’t give us “No Mercy” they just gave us “no” 😂😂😂
Surprised wwe 2k20 wasn't on here
Can't bite the hand that feeds you
"I feel bad for Kenny Omega." That sentence has never been uttered until now
It was probably said a lot when it was revealed he had diverticulitis.
He’s part of the reason game was trash
@@moviebuff3000You ruined a joke well done! You must be a joy to be around
@@jeffreymark475 Depends on who you ask.
@@moviebuff3000 No it's just depends if it's you. You're the only one crying over a joke. I assume you are a friendless virgin
I guess The Simpsons wrestling isn't considered a wrestling game.
No moreso than M.U.S.C.L.E
Flanders was a beast in that game.
@@mattpjournalist Smithers is way worse.
I feel like Stevie is the only wrestler/ex wrestler who is really discussing these old wrestling games. We needed this. Thanks Mr. Stevie 💯💯Have A Blessed Day.
I bought AEW Fight Forever for 40 bucks, played it once, never played it again, next day it went on sale for 10 bucks. I was furious.
AEW Fight Forever wasn't a bad game, it just failed to deliver on the ridiculous amount of hype. It was a good game, but that's about it. Definitely better than ECW and (most) WCW games. A good first effort.
i agree i think the hype was too much
Bs. It was trash. Only wcw games it were better than were the ones on ps1
He hasn't gone back far enough. WWF Wrestlemania for the NES is worse than WCW. It's about as shallow as possible.
..it's also an NES wrestling game, almost ALL of them suck. this entire list could've been from that era. Pro Wrestling was the only decent one I remember from then
@@TheLarryburns84 Pro Wrestling and Tecmo Wrestling were easily the best NES wrestling titles.
@@TheLarryburns84 WCW on NES was better than Wrestlemania on NES but included WCW and not WWF. Guess they didn't wanna trigger WWE fanboys which is why he no WWE games on it. TNA & AEW are better than several terrible WWE games. Also Tecmo World Wrestling and Toukon Club were also good on NES.
X2
@@TheLarryburns84tecmo pro wrestling was pretty good.
the AEW game was a disappointment but the core gameplay is good, it’s something that is competent only in the exhibition mode
So cool to hear someone talk about the Easter eggs in the ECW games.
This might sound like BS, but I've actually talked to someone who is in both of those games, and he's told me about some of the Easter eggs. He told me about Tommy Rich asking an office worker (I think Betty) for a draw. Wild Bill/Beautiful Billy shouting out "Bella!" (A merch stand worker and his girlfriend at the time) if you hit him enough times. People shouting out a high pitched "Dude!" which was a rib on a sound guy who hated that.
I also once told him that I played with Spike Dudley, and that I could tell by his movements that his motion capture was done by a bigger guy. His answer "Yeah, that was Chris Chetti."
WCW vs The World was my first time playing a WCW game. Certainly was ahead of its time of what WCW/NWO World Tour would eventually become on N64.
When they say its the next no mercy i know its just kayfabe
Fell off the wrestling games years ago when the yearly releases started. When I think of worst, hard not to think of WCW Nitro for the N64. Probably one of the only times I felt cheated buying a game.
The Yuke’s engine is my favorite one ever. When I was living in Japan I played the New Japan pro wrestling game with the Yuke’s engine. I loved that game.
AEW FF is not a bad game, disappointing in lack of content but the gameplay is solid.
It literally plays like No Mercy, same controls and mechanics.
There are far worse games back in the day than the ones mentioned here IMHO. Wrestlemania The Arcade game, and In Your House were not even wrestling games, they were really bad fighting games.
Like the Legends of Wrestling games and Rumble Roses.
I had Simpson's Wrestling. In Your House was definitely better than that.
If they weren't wrestling games, they can't be the worst wrestling games.
@atibamorales9380 Rumble Roses was actually pretty fun. The controls weren't too different from the Smackdown games and being able to unlock the different face/heel gimmicks gave the game a legit pro wresting element doesn't get utilized in many wrestling games.
And still some of the best female character models used in a wrestling game. Sure, it was pure cheesecake, but actually had high replay value in the gameplay, much like DOAX.
@@atibamorales9380rumble roses was great
Ive never tried so hard to like a game than i did with Anarchy Rluez on the Dreamcast. lol *Shudders*
Online play on the Steam Deck depends on the game and the developer. Some online games won't even run on the Steam Deck natively because the anti-chrat conflicts with Linux, and the Steam Deck's OS is based off of Linux.
You can however flash Windows onto a micro SD card and dual-boot into Windows from the Steam Deck's bios.
Any game with Dr Stevie would be an absolute banger, he is a legend
Being a wreslting game aficionado, AEW Fight Forever does not belong on that list. It was absolutely disappointing, mostly because the game modes around the game were not good at all. Just off the top of my head, Raw 1 on Xbox, Legends of Wrestling, WCW Nitro, Simpsons Wrestling, that god awful Hogan Kinect game, and even the WWF NES games are all worse in my opinion.
Youre right. But shitting on AEW gets clicks.
@@Reege44 Shitting on anything gets clicks. People are drawn to negativity.
Fight Forever had great gameplay
@MilkWasABadChoice17 Fair Point. But in our world of Fandom... AEW is the main target for the grifters for clicks. I mean... There's a reason FF featured in the thumbnail, and one of the dog shit games you rightfully mentioned isn't.
Simpsons Wrestling barely qualifies as a wrestling game, except by its namesake and the tacked-in pin mechanic to end the fight
Funny thing is I remember really liking Warzone and getting hyped for Attitude, then it came out and it was like coming down from a one year long high and just hating it from day 1
Warzone was a decent arcade like game. Attitude improved on the features but the gameplay took a step back from Warzone.
Warzone was crap. The moment I realised you could hit your finisher, and have your opponent spring back up two seconds later, I said, "Fuck that game..."
@@brianm2881 I remember that happening in the first SmackDown game on the PS1. I hit Billy Gunn with four straight Stone Cold Stunners and couldn't get a three-count.
I like Attitude and Warzone
Fight Forever is actually great. Gameplay is really solid and the wrestlers feel unique. Problem is there was not enough content in it.
And the ECW game was enjoyable for me
Yea they were very much enjoyable for me
I still say some of the voice clips from those old Acclaim games.
"Tell your sister she left her watch on my nightstand"
@@shishioh "Your ass is grass and I'm gonna smoke it!" X-Pac from the WWF Attitude lol
@@TheRealEclipse1 "Make some noise up in this bitch cuz X-Pac's in the hizzooooouse!!!!"
🤣
@@TheRealEclipse1 Get outta my way..Ken Shamrock
Honestly, the only wrestling games that could ever hold my attention are the Fire Pro Wrestling series. Every other wrestling game I ever played since childhood I either didn't like at all or I did like but would get bored with them after a few months. The Fire Pro games are the only ones I play consistently. I'd play one up until the next one came out and those only come out every like 10 or so years seems like.
While I disagree as I can name a number of other great wrestling games. Fire Pro is top tier. It’s so good and with release of Fire Pro World, it’ll never die. Just watching the CPU playing itself is fun. So good. You also can’t top the roster. I love fire pro.
@@misterelom
I definitely have to get it for PS4. I played Fire Pro Wrestling for PS2 and liked it.
Unironically i think Mdickies Wrestling Empire is the best wrestling game out there, Fire Pro Wrestling is probably second best.
WWF Warzone was terrible because it had alot of missing wrestlers especially Savio Vega, Vader, Chyna and Sable. I kind of like WWF warzone because it reminds me of Mortal Kombat 4 because of how dark the Raw arena is
For the ps2 version you could only play as Suicide, but for the 360, and the ps3 versions you could play as a caw
technically Suicide is CAW, since you only wrestled in costume for like, two matches? and then the mexico thing happened and you get to modify everything on him anyways(under the guise of surgery)
@@tedjomuljono3052 I didn’t you could change the look or go with the costume
Stevie Richards talking about cross play, Star Trek Bridge crew and other such things - made me so happy. I always feel so alone being nearly 50 and a huge gamer still. I feel shamed by young people, shamed by old people and only accepted by people my age or so who still game and even then, it's still laughed at. Knowing he plays games, let alone has a Steam Deck now, plays on PC (though I assume was a console gamer first, which is fine) and loves cross play etc. makes me smile. So, thanks Stevie and James for even doing this segment and talking about gaming at all. It's shocking how much overlap there is between gaming in general and wrestling (and wrestling games, obviously).
Fight Forever doesn't belong anywhere near the top 5 worst imo. There are not enough modes, create a wrestler is trash and the roster is missing a lot of names that have been there since the beginning, but the gameplay is at least decent enough. Not nearly as buggy as he makes it out to be either.
Acclaim could take up 4 slots alone. Nitro and Thunder both deserve to be there more as well.
I am a man who likes WCW Backstage Assault.
Correction. Your the 1 man who liked this game.
Make it 2, and qlso make it you're while you're at it. 😛
never played it. i think after Revenge i might had played Mayhem. i kmow i didnt like WCW vs the World
That's rough.
WCW on the NES was crippled by the fact that you were pretty much screwed unless you had turbo controllers. Apart from that, the game was pretty good.
Btw, I read somewhere that the wrestlers who had more influence at the time inserted themselves as the playable characters on the game. Also, most of the wrestlers in the game had left the company by the time the game was released.
My mate had an N64 so had WCW vs nWo revenge. I had a PS1, i bought WCW Nitro thinking it'd be the same. I was bitterly disappointed
Fight Forever is the most frustrating wrestling game ever because the pieces are all there, but it's been developed so haphazardly and sloppily that it falls apart in practice. Customization of anything is locked or restricted. Matches are too short. Wrestlers don't regenerate health at all. The A.I. is so broken that the CPU still can't perform certain special moves. These things could have been fixed with dedicated patches, but the sales performance was so bad (largely because of these things) that THQ Nordic stopped all support. It feels like a stripped down and broken No Mercy wannabe.
I was a Tecmo World Wrestling guy when I was a kid. I bet lot's of people would say it wasn't very good though.
Loved Tecmo as I loved the design they had that was inspired by Tiger Mask.
Tecmo World Wrestling on the standard NES controller: mid experience.
Tecmo World Wrestling on the NES quickshot joystick: Goated NES experience
Was waiting for you to do something like this Stevie. I've played most wrestling games starting with the old Nintendo "Pro Wrestling" and "Tag Team Wrestling" and was hooked on Mat Mania and Mania Challenge in the arcades. Personal best wrestling video game, to me, is the Japanese import "Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 (the Japanese counterpart for WCW vs. nWo: World Tour) for the N64, After that, Fire Pro Wrestling 6 Man Scramble and then Fire Pro Wrestling World off of Steam. Great video and agree with you completely on the list.
TNA Impact for DS was a better game. You picked a wrestler and had mini stories with them all. The big knock on the game is it had a Curry Man story without the Curry Man entrance. It was just the show open.
The main problem with AEW's game is that it lacked any flow, it just feels dated and they didn't achieve the level of fluidity something like No Mercy or even Revenge had. It's the same problem the TNA game had.
Those ECW games were somewhat enjoyable cause at least they were a straight up re-skin of older WWF Akklaim games. They were easily better than Nitro or Thunder on PS1.
Backstage Assault was an all-around dumb idea cause they should have built upon the Mayhem engine, which wasn't atrocious. It's just that the models looked dull and without any personality and continuing that with a game without a ring was something only a guy like Vince Russo would have thought was a great idea.
i remeber Nitro had the PC version. Ion remember Thunder video game
Stevie covering video games?!? Yes more of this please lol
5:29 TNA was a shockingly bad game but Legends Of Wrestling (and Legends Of WrestleMania, and even WWE All Stars) was completely unplayable.
I love all stars. You are the only person I ever heard of that thinks the game is awful
All Stars is awesome!
legends of wrestling was cool. i liked the different arenas. WWE ALL STARS Legends of WrestleMnaia tried to recapture that aracade feel when aracades been dead.
I played tf out of low, it did get a bit repetitive but I don't think it's as bad as everyone says
How exactly was WWE All-Stars alledgedly unplayable? Are you thinking of Battlegrounds?
AEW Fight Forever is amazing if you love the good N64 wrestling games cuz it's EXACTLY THE SAME. As a ps4/ps5 game, it is NOT up to standard at all
It's not exactly the same, though it was clearly inspired by it. No Mercy actually had competent AI, in depth match editor, and a fun story mode.
In my opinion, Fight Forever comes up short in those areas.
@@PowderedVoltage Yeah, I hear you. I was just over-generalizing, i guess, in terms of how the momentum and grapple/striking system is exactly the same as WCW/NWO Revenge, etc.
I'm guessing Stevie hasn't played that many wrestling games for TNA Impact to show up. It's not worse than the other PS1 WCW games Nitro and Thunder unless he's overvaluing them because of the funny character screen promos you could enable.
@@markula_4040
I remember renting WCW Thunder and glad I never bought it.
Wcw thunder was horrible. Only kinda cool thing was you could change guys factions.
TNA & AEW are both better than Nitro, Thunder, Raw on Xbox, Wrestlemania 21, Royal Rumble on Dreamcast and both Backyard wrestling games
WCW Mayhem was pretty average…
Wtf who knew Stevie was a gamer
The AEW game is… fine. I thought it played okay. Just needed more features. Kind of dumb that there was no cage match in a wrestling game in 2023. Also, the story mode was laughable. Gameplay-wise, I thought it was fun since it controlled like No Mercy. It’s a decent game that could have been a great game if they focused on fleshing out certain modes instead of adding mini games and charging through the nose for additional characters.
I got AEW and WWE for free via PS+. And in my very limited time with both of them, I'll give AEW the advantage from a gameplay standpoint as it does have that somewhat Revenge)No Mercy vibe to it.
At some point I'm going to try to play both games to really give my full thoughts on it.
Barebones is the best way to describe both Impact and Fight Forever. They both had a ton of potential but fell short. Particularly, the Ultimate X match was insanely fun to play. Plus, being able to throw people over the ropes to the outside made it even more fun.
Backstage Assault used to be the worst Wrestling I have ever played and then WWE 2K20 came around. It was awful
2k20 is horrible. Agree.
I watched the interview you did where you were told to lie about how many surgeries you had (and omitting your brother’s death) and you sounded so much like you currently do! I know that’s an obvious thing, but my mind went into thinking I’m listening to your current show without realizing it.
Stevie Richards when someone says AEW’s game has no bugs: I’ll show you! You’ll see!😭😂
2:32 Damn! I was playing that game quite a bit at one point! I'd love to play that game with Stevie Richards! It's a ton of fun when you have a full player crew ship!
WCW Nitro/Thunder are lucky they have those epic wrestler rants haha
STEVIE please talk about the current state of how tags are executed compared to how it should be. I noticed in the past few years when guys tag they do it at head heights or above their heads. always lifting their hands up instead of tagging at waste heights
I am curious when this weird tagging technique started
Backstage Assault is the only game where you can have Vince Russo wrestle Eric Bischoff. I was hoping AEW Fight Forever was going to keep with their plan of releasing a base game, instead of annual games, create a steady stream of DLC updates so you only had to buy one game ever.
ECW Hardcore Revolution introduced me to ECW because GameStop was giving out “best of” VHS tapes to promote it.
Are you, or have you done, a video about the MLB 2K11 Million dollar challenge for pitching a perfect game?
Wow, an American that actually calls the NES by it's proper name instead of N.E.S. like what most Americans call it
I'm impressed Stevie.
I've always pronounced it Ness like in Loch Ness, never N.E.S..
I always thought WCW Backstage Assault was the worst wrestling game ever. I mean, it didn't even have a ring! What kind of wrestling game doesn't even have a ring?!?!?!?
def jam vendetta
I'd like to see a video where Stevie talks about playing fire pro and other games back in the day. Stuff like 6 man scramble and FPG moreso than more recent games because these were the big games during the ECW and attitude era when he was at his peak. I'll bet theres lots of stories of playing these games with the boys. Might not be able to share them all but I'll bet there's some good ones.
I remember all the hype for the Super Wrestlemania game. We got the SNES version and it was a major disappointment. Everyone had the same moves with no finishers. It had no tournament mode or anything. Great graphics but that was about it.
I will say this...the character models in TNA Impact were incredible for the time and still look great today
@The Stevie Richards Show
I can't wait to hear Stevie's Top 5 BEST wrestling games
Raw on the original Xbox was an abomination.
One of the worst games ever, never mind just the worst wrestling game.
As a wrestling fan and a Halo fan I only got an Xbox for Halo because Raw is easily one of the worst wrestling games and feels like a budget title and it came out a year after Halo CE which easily killed the hype for the game.
I remember feeling kinda bad for my friend who only had an Xbox and the Raw games at the time.
I used to bring my GameCube over to play Day of Reckoning with him.
@shishioh I tried to like it so much, but it was absolutely unplayable.
The entrances were kinda cool, especially because you could use your own music, but the game itself was beyond awful.
I never understood why the game was as slow as it was.
The OG XBox was hella powerful during that era in terms of capability.
Love how the ring is the size of a football field in that game lmao
Fight forever isn't that bad. While there were a lot of mistakes, there are worse games. Like backstage assault. Kenny is actually one of the reasons why. He really wanted mini games. Those should've been their own thing.
TNA Impact was actually really good when you get used to the controls, it took me some time but once I had it down pat I couldn't get enough
Thank you for not saying 5 Star Wrestling which I worked very hard on LMAO
I had the WCW game for NES. It had cool moves for the day, but it was impossible to pin your opponent.
AEW is a good couch co-op game with good mechanics. Everything else is Disapointing.
Good couch co-op when there’s literally nothing to do in the game ? If you have 3 friends, you guys could only play 4 match types which is fatal 4, standard tag and casino. Thats absolutely pathetic seeing how games on the n64 offered way more matches to play with 4 players. FF is an absolute joke
I really hope they can still salvage AEW FF because I want a finished videogame with everything that was initially promised, minus all of the bugs. Such a waste of time and money! Take your time and do it right the first time guys!
I'm surprised 2K20 didn't get an honourable mention. That was a shitshow of a WWE game.
AAA: "Heroes Del Ring," was also another game that had a lot of promise and under delivered.
I really would have liked to have played it, because it was the first crack at a game solely based on Lucha Libre (which I'm still fairly new to..) 😅
I enjoyed fight forever.
AEW game is valid, we got basically half a game, it's very strange to play. Like instead of finishing the mode/feature, they just started another in the middle and move on lol.
TNA was incredibly fun to play, just lacked depth. Needed a sequel.
But the fact this list is missing WWE 2K20 is crazy. It was such a broken, embarrassing mess, panned universally that it caused the 21 sequel to be skipped right to 22.
Honourable Mention for WWE 2K15 which sold strong based on Sting's pre-order inclusion. Only to be broken for 3 months in which all save data would erase itself over and over, rendering it unplayable outside of exhibitions. By the time it was patched the game was 1/3 the price and Sting was available in the store for 99p. I never pre-ordered again after that mess.
I'm glad you did this because I said for years that you can tell, the decline of the "wrestling company" based upon how good or bad the game is.
One of the worse things about AEW fight forever is the money grabbing that it has the several season passes you have to buy to get extra content and the constant updating of complete editions it's really bad
Fight Forever should be proof enough that because you are a fan of something, doesn't mean that you should be hands-on with it. I love Football, Soccer for the Americans, for example, that doesn't mean I should be a part of the coaching staff for my favourite team.
TNA had some pretty good mobile games. The Pre-Hogan era release I remember being really fun.
Midway did a pretty good job creating the TNA game from scratch. It did need more work though, so when the engine was reused by THQ for WWE All-Stars we got a much better game by then.
The Xbox 360 version also shipped with a bug where there wasn't enough sensitivity for the analogue stick when kicking out of pins so you had to wiggle 4x as much as other platforms. So Stevie probably had to deal with that too.
I wouldn't put "Fight Forever" in a list of "worst", but definitely disappointing. The foundation was there, but they went in the wrong direction in trying to craft an experience in the same vein as the N64 classics. Instead of focusing on adding match types, improving the creation system, and fixing the bugs before it hit the streets instead of focusing on mini-games no one cared about, "Fight Forever" could've been the wrestling game equivalent of "No Man's Sky".
Shocked "WCW Thunder" or "WCW Nitro" didn't make the list. Stiff, collision detection issues, terribly pixelated models, and a control scheme that obvious adopted the control from fighting games (in not in the way the "Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game" & "In Your House" did) made them rough experiences. Mind you, I spent my little, saved-up money on these games as a kid and spent way too many hours playing both to unlock everything.
And in regards to broken games, very few major releases comes close to "WWE 2K20". I was able to do, I believe, four montage videos of glitches I experienced playing that game with one all from release day alone.
Easily one of the worst games of all time. I wanted to love this game but it was a disgrace
@@agwtaw2 Didn't just say "one of the worst wrestling games of all time," but worst of all time no matter the genre. To quote The Company Man, "Yeezus!"
@@fasjab Nitro and Thunder were definitely terrible games. I remember Thunder(The sequel) didn't improve on the mechanics.😂
@@BUPMY1 It actually played worse! The only thing it did better was the wrestler promos in the select screen mostly because a majority didn't care and just hilariously phoned it in.
I loved WCW Thunder as a kid.
I've still got Nitro and WWF RAW on PC. They both play the same and neither are fun.
The TNA game was let down by lack of moves. It just felt unfinished. The presentation was top notch though for the time. The character models looked a hell of a lot better than anything WWE had at that time. They fleshed it out better with WWE All Stars which was developed by the same team and used practically the same frame work
Would love to see Stevie work with Neckbreaker visceral wrestling game
I played the shit out of Warzone, Attitude, Hardcore Revolution & Anarchy Rulz on the PS1 with my good friend at the time. Looking back they all sucked gameplay wise but at the time they were amazing until I got an N64 and those wrestling games. They all hold a special place in my heart despite how bad the PS1 games were, good times.
Silver lining for Backstage Assault.....Chris Candido and Shane Douglas are in it.
The yeti hug hump are we sure that’s a glitch and not an Easter egg lol
The hulk Hogan wrestling game for Xbox kinnect was absolute cat vomit. Soooo bad. There are so many worse games than ones mentioned. Love you anyway Stevie
Fight Forever has one of the funnest gameplay engines I've experienced in a Wrestling Game. Definitely lacking in the game features which sucks, the story mode was the biggest disappointment as I'd of been happy with it emulating No Mercy's and it didn't even manage that.
It's far from the worst wrestling game I've played though. The price killed it.
Even though RTC made me stop watching wrestling, I have to admit, Stevie is a great guy
There's no reason for the game to be that bad tony Kahn has billions to work with.
Fight Forever's biggest issue is that it's overpriced. It's a fun game to play couch co-op, but that's really all it has to offer. The single player modes are boring, and the create-a-wrestler options are laughable. Definitely needed a $19.99 price point.
Boiling hot take, but I felt the same way about WWE ‘12. It was pretty much unplayable for me. WWE ‘13 was awesome though
I agree that the TNA game was pretty bare bones, but I remember it playing closer to the N64 AKI-style than anything else that's come out since. Samoa Joe was reportedly quite hands on with the development. I thought that they had a pretty solid base to build on if they'd gotten a second game.
AEW was hot garbage but I think the royal rumble game for dreamcast is worse. Alot of people didnt play it so it flew under the radar
Like how they showed Chyna and kat
On the intro despite not being in the game.
False advertising.😂
Stevie Richards owns a Steam Deck, i feel theres something right in the world.
I said the same thing.
The AEW game has the graphics of the Smackdown PS1 games from the early 2000's. Wow.