Ever since the fall of the WCW some 20 years ago, the WWE has maintained such a stranglehold on pro wrestling in the Western mainstream that they’re synonymous with the very idea of it. It’s not like other federations didn’t exist in the 21st century, but none have been creatively and/or financially able to make a product even approaching what Vince McMahon’s megalith was capable of. The same story applies to the realm of video games, where the WWE has enjoyed 15 years of near-total dominance as far as wrestling games go in the West. (TNA Impact!, from 2008, might’ve been a contender if Midway hadn’t gone bankrupt.)
Enter All Elite Wrestling, the first high-profile alternative to the WWE since TNA, the first to truly feel creatively superior in multiple areas, and the first to try their hand at a AAA video game since TNA Impact! WWE’s formula is predicated on years-long, cross-marketed blockbuster soap operas with four-quadrant appeal and occasionally punctuated by a wrestling match. And the games have operated similarly for years. By contrast, AEW—and AEW: Fight Forever, by proxy—focuses on smaller, self-contained, short-term feuds, told with drastically more ambitious, death-defying in-ring performances, in a vast variety of styles, with much less caution thrown to the wind in order to make their product family-friendly.
If the WWE is Marvel, then AEW is A24. So, what does the Spring Breakers or Ex Machina of wrestling games look like? The sneering but accurate answer to that question is “like a 2008 Xbox Live Arcade game.” Character models are years behind the graphical curve, and despite AEW’s stellar announce teams, commentary and ring announcements are minimal. Wrestler entrances are painfully truncated, cut down to 10 seconds. And the create-a-wrestler mode feels downright minimalist compared to the sprawling options fans might be used to, and with a scarcity of moves/options allowing players to go nuts creating wrestlers from other companies.
The soundtrack is populated mostly by great in-house tunes churned out on the regular by AEW’s own Mikey Rukus, but the game cheaps out by replacing some of the licensed entrance themes for big-name headliners like Orange Cassidy (Jefferson Starship’s “Jane”) or Jon Moxley (X’s cover of “Wild Thing”) with generic butt-rock instead of even trying to get legally distinct with it. (That’s especially disappointing for Mox: Death Rider is right there, guys.)
And yet, once the bell rings, all of that fades into the background. Unlike 2K’s in-depth, meticulous wrestling simulations, Fight Forever is a game that sacrifices flash for flair. The incomparable Osaka-based developer Yuke’s is focused less on making sure every thread of John Cena’s jorts has been rendered with care than it is on making a game where a suplex outside of the ring makes an opponent’s head hit the apron. Or both players grappling at the same time sets off a chain wrestling sequence as thrilling as it is on TV. Or making Darby Allin’s skateboard not just a weapon, but fully rideable around arenas, with its own devastating moveset.
Mechanically, Fight Forever might be the studio’s strongest work to date. Easy to pick up and play, movesets are elegant and intuitive (though springboard moves in particular are slightly tricky to pull off), and highly accurate to each wrestler. Ditching a bit of realism means fights have a lightning quick pace without sacrificing how impactful and devastating every strike and slam can be. A perk system is in place where playing the game like a particular wrestler would—cheating as MJF, shedding blood as Jon Moxley, taking to the air as Penta or Rey Fenix—means bonuses to damage or building up to Signature/Special Moves.
However, the freedom of the AEW license compared to the far more sanitized and advertiser-driven WWE means that the developers get to push the envelope in ways wrestling games haven’t in years. Hardcore/Lights Out matches are possible, and the game doesn’t shy away from letting the red stuff flow from a heavy hit. Ladder matches have impact, something a lot of other wrestling games struggle with, and feel absolutely monstrous when metal meets flesh.
Fight Forever’s chaotic piece de resistance is the infamous Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch, where the ring is wrapped in barbed wire, and the match starts with a countdown, at the end of which the ring explodes, destroying whichever player is close enough to the ropes. This is a maniacal masterpiece of a game mode, but AEW fans with a long memory will also understand it as a sly wink to one of the company’s most embarrassing screw-ups. And to their self-aware credit, that screw-up is preserved here, as the explosion can turn out to be a dud.
The game’s strengths and shortcomings are most pronounced in the marquee single-player Road To Elite mode, where you follow a wrestler of your choice—a custom character or a star from the main roster—as they travel the globe for a year after the company’s big 2019 debut (which explains why so much of the roster’s character presentation stops at around 2021). The mode gets by on its sheer charm and the strength of the in-ring gameplay and not much else.
The story has a healthy respect for AEW’s early days and underdog story. The interstitial cutscenes showing wrestlers visiting landmarks, chowing down on local cuisine, and doing press for money/experience points are basic but have an endearing, Yakuza-esque humor, along with some funny inside jokes and meta-references. The dialogue even laughs with and at the idea that they couldn’t afford full voice acting for the mode. Challenges against the Young Bucks for the BTE belt translate as simple, wacky, Mario Party-style timewasters for fun and profit.
But the story isn’t immersive. Most of the consequences for losing matches, or getting wrestlers injured, can be easily fixed with perks from the in-game shops, and the storylines you get involved in are shallow, even occasionally stepping on the actual kayfabe results of established matches, contrasting with footage from the real events thrown in for emphasis. It’s messy, but the spirit of it all, and the opportunities to get back in the ring, mostly make the mode a wash.
Yuke’s has managed to deliver an accessible, breezy rendition of their trademark product, without sacrificing the things that make watching an AEW show unique, pulse-raising, and hard-hitting. And more than this, it feels like a foundation waiting to be built upon. This is a game designed to have a long tail, with a steady stream of DLC on the way and the in-game store already (as of pre-launch) offering a smattering of fun add-ons (ironically, Cody Rhodes, who left AEW in 2021, is a bonus character, meaning he’s in both of this year’s major AAA wrestling games). As such, Fight Forever could live up to the name, and while it may not be the place to go for strict realism, it’s still better than you, and it knows it.
This game was reviewed with code provided by Evolve PR.
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