Topic: AEW Fight Forever

So I guess Stadium Stampede is going to be an online Battle Royale mode according to some data miners. Which is an interesting concept. While it won't be here at launch some are predicting that it will be out by the end of the year.

@NintendoByNature

Got a chance to play for a few hours before work today and I am loving this game. They have pretty much put out a product that they advertised. Gameplay wise it reminds me alot of the older GameCube, PS2 WWE games. It's easy to pick up and play and is not nowhere as technical as the WWE 2K games.

Performance wise on the Series X which I am playing it on, it's running good, I had an instance when some clipping was going on, my son was playing as John Silver in a Lights out Match and he ended up clipping through a table that was set up.

There is alot to do from Daily and Weekly challenges to get you cash for the AEW Shop, and you even earn a good amount of cash from playing exhibition matches with your friends. There's online Rank modes as well.

I haven't tried Online yet but honestly I can't give it an honest go due to my internet connection. Roster is a bit small but if they stay true to their road map, it will only get better.

Overall I am quite pleased with my purchase and its basically the wrestling game I have been waiting for since WWE went to 2K. A fun arcadey style that doesn't take itself serious the way a wrestling game should be.

@JaxonH is it me, or do you also see some of the pauses mid gameplay?

The game is great on PS5. I am having a ton of fun. I am surprised (or maybe I am not) that a lot of people are dumping on it. The reviews are mixed and it definitely has some flaws. There's a few 8s, a lot of 7s, a lot of 6s and a small handful of 5s, so really not "bad" by any means, but people do seem to be stuck in the mindset that anything less than a 7/10 means the game "sucks" 🤷‍♂️

I appreciate 616's review. That guy really gets wrestling games, I have been watching his content for years.

I’ve been reading a couple of reviews, the most interesting bit I’ve read so far is the AI is good in particular tag team partners aren’t useless plonkers. That’s a big thumbs up from me!

Now that I’ve seen the reviews I’ve ordered the game. With a little luck I’ll be done with Zelda by the time it comes.

@Reprise I fudging hate that about gamers, this weird thing with rankings and 10/10s. Like are they so insecure they need reassurance to validate the game they are playing or they are so elitist they must play the only greatest experiences which is measured exactly? I’d be happy if they do away with scores or use a much simpler scale.

@jump Yeah, I don't really get it either. People seem to seek out a particular review that validates and "confirms" their own opinion (whether it's positive or negative) and then use that one review as "proof" that the game sucks (or is amazing) and you are wrong for having a different opinion (even though they ignore any review that doesn't align with their own opinions). I found the same thing with Sonic Frontiers, which I really enjoy and is actually one of my favourite Sonic games since the classic 16 bit era. The weird thing is I find a lot of times, these are people who haven't even bought or played the game their dumping on. They have just read or watched a few reviews and decided the game sucks (usually they made their minds up before the game was even released)

I don't know if it's doubly worse here because wrestling fans also seem to be very tribal and petty online.

I agree about scores. I don't pay much attention to them. I just get the general gist of what the game plays like, what kind of longevity/replay value it has, aspects like the story and make my mind up based on a few opinions before I take the plunge. Sometimes there are flaws that don't impact me at all as well. Fight Forever has the perfect example with the limited creative suite, since I haven't care about that stuff in probably two decades, so it doesn't impact me in the slightest. The lack of cage match also doesn't bother me, since I don't enjoy cage matches. But the lack of three and four way or tornado ladder matches and match modifiers does bother me, but isn't a deal breaker.

Overall though, this is the best playing wrestling game (other than Fire Pro World) I have played in probably 15 years. Gameplay is king as far as I am concerned.

Alright, grabbed the switch version. Gotta finish pikmin 1 asap now.

I'm looming forward to the game, although I'll probably wait until next week to buy it as it's a long weekend and I'll be busy with the family. I plan on getting it on the Switch, as I already have an AEW universe mode set up in 2K19 on my PS4.

Started a Road to the Elite mode tonight. I am enjoying it, it is pretty basic and reminds me of the old PS2 wrestling games story mode. One thing I liked about the Road to Elite is now I get why mini games where added to this game. It totally makes sense when you play through that mode.

Started the game about 30 min ago.

My thoughts

At first, playing in handheld mode, I was devastated. The in game cutscene models were so low res I got Wolfenstein 2 flashbacks. Was seriously debating archiving the game.

But then the match started, and it looks way better during gameplay. I mean, it ain't perfect, but it's good enough that I don't feel like I'm playing a blurry mess. And it's fun! It really is fun. I have noticed a brief micro stutter but, so far it seems infrequent enough and brief enough that it's not really a dealbreaker. Just a micro annoyance from time to time.

Honestly, this morning has been a roller coaster. Went from excitement and curiosity, to having expectations in shambles, to then feeling relief and excitement again.

This is dope. It's actually a playable version of a really fun arcade wrestling game on Switch. Do I wish it was better and the visuals were a bit sharper and the occasional micro stutter was fixed? Of course. But we work with what we've got, and right now, I feel like I just unwrapped a massive W on Christmas morning.

Easily the best arcade wrestling game I've played since I was a child.

I have been playing a lot over the last few days. I had today off work, which gave me a chance to really get deep into it.

The more I play it, the more I love it. It really does play like a modern take on No Mercy, with the kind of additions you would expect. Gameplay is faster and so it ends up feeling like an amalgamation of No Mercy, Day of Reckoning and early SvR games. The moment to moment match gameplay is a lot of fun.

What may impact on my enjoyment is the relative ease of the game. Now I have more or less mastered the game's mechanics and what abilities are available to you to utilise, I can win quite easily without much challenge. I play a lot of No Mercy, so unlike some people, I completely get the reversal timing for strikes and grapples and can pull them off without issue. That said, I am playing on normal difficulty, so I will bump it up tonight and see how I get on.

The Road to Elite mode is tons of fun. I love the direction they took with it and it works very well with a CAW. It's nothing mind-blowing, but for what it is, I like it. I like the whole almost Japanese visual novel/Yakuza inspired bits and pieces you can do between matches, like going to the restaurant, doing the mini games etc. Having "random" encounters with other wrestlers makes it interesting too. The actual storylines are reasonably basic, but are enjoyable and I like how it seems to branch out.

Speaking of the CAW/creative suite modes, I haven't been interested in that side of things in about 20 years. That said, I enjoyed the simple options available to me and made what I feel is a cool looking CAW.

The match types are limited, but there are a couple really cool inclusions (obviously the barbed wire match and the lights out match) which does keep things diverse. It's not such a huge thing for me, because whilst lots of gimmick matches are nice, I don't actually end up playing most of them. It's similar to my opinion on large multiman matches, which is they sound better on paper than in practice (so similarly, the limit of just 4 wrestlers is fine for me).

That said, I do hope they add a few more match types. Cage match is the most obvious omission, but a tornado tag would also be cool, as would just basic match modifiers.

Overall, Fight Forever is a fantastic game to play at a fundamental gameplay level. However, I do hope it gets substantial support over the coming months to ensure there is enough depth to keep people playing. Just adding new wrestlers as DLC probably won't cut it here. At the minimum I expect a few new match types and some free upgrades in the coming patches, but it would be nice to also get new story content in the Road to Elite mode, new items for the shop, improvements and new options to the creative suite and then some other single player mode. I don't know what, but I feel it needs something extra on top of the Road to Elite mode.

So a neat little notice to detail here, apparently if you play as a wrestler on thier birthday, the will be a birthday message in their entrance. For example today is Dax Harwood's birthday and on his name plate it said Happy Birthday Dax!!!

Just got home and docked my Switch. The in-game cutscenes, while still by no means impressive, look notably improved when docked. It feels like they optimized the game for docked, but also optimized the gameplay for handheld, but not the in-game cutscenes for handheld. Which, it's kind of annoying seeing such rough looking scenes in portable play, but at least the core gameplay holds up.

But for real though. I freaking love this game. This is it. More serious wrestling fans may have deeper cutting criticisms with roster and modes and that sort of stuff, but as someone who just wants to experience pick up and play arcade wrestling reminiscent of the N64 glory years, I'm grinning from ear to ear.

I was flabbergasted at how much more fun the game was than I expected. Once you're in the ring and going at it, instinct takes over and it's a non-stop blast.

I completely agree!

Anyways, I was playing tonight and I completely forgot to bump up the difficulty, but it did lead to a cool moment. So after complaining that I was starting to feel the game is too easy, I was playing Road to Elite and managed to trigger a little mini event. I won't go into details, because I can't work out if we can spoiler tag here, but it involved facing a wrestler that felt borderline impossible to beat (I know you can beat them though). I lost, but we had a phenomenal match, lots of back and forth and countering. I thought I had them at one point, I was about to nail their finisher on them and then they reversed it and then managed to finish me. It was so close.

I've created my wrestler and did a few matches on the road to elite or whatever the story mode is called. So far so good. I've got my signature down. And unlocked 2 finishers. Only problem I can't figure out what finisher I want to go with 😅. Something simple and effective, perhaps a classic? Or over the top. I change it every match until I figure it out lol.

I do have a couple of minor gripes though. I find having multiple people in a match to be cumbersome. Tag matches can be quite difficult depending on how well your tag partner responds when you pin an enemy.

And finishers/signatures confuse me at times. I end up flicking the wrong stick at times. It's a me problem, but it I'll figure it out eventually. All of the other controls seem to be good and fluid. The controls menu doesn't tell you how to do everything though unless I'm missing it. I had to figure out on my own how to pick up a wrestler who's down.

Other than that, all good. Solid wrestling fun.

It needs a few more reviews to be listed, but currently the Switch version's MetaCritic score of "47" would make it tied for 3rd-worst game of the year (all platforms). Out of almost 400 games.

It's a "65" on PS5 and "68" on PC.

Is the Switch version really that much worse than the other versions? It doesn't seem too bad from what people have been saying. NintendoLife gave it 7/10 too. Weird.

@MontyCircus @Reprise
Imo, I'd rank the game 8.5 on other platforms and 7 on Switch.

But that's just me.

I bought on SteamDeck and it's truly excellent. The Switch version's only issue is the ridiculous resolution of cutscenes in handheld mode and the occasional microstutter.

But, you can't really say scores are "wrong". They are what they are. I certainly don't agree with it, be it the Switch score or for other platforms. I think they're both 15-20 points too low. But the fact other people do is important to note, because it means there may be others who will feel the same.

Wouldn't worry about scores so much, as if they're an iron declaration of objective truth, and take it more as a "usually biased, but nonetheless helpful indication of what journalists think". Combine it with word of mouth, gameplay videos and your own tastes. Then make an assessment accordingly.

@JaxonH Most of the people who are saying AEW.Fight Forever is because they are comparing it to WWE game which is like comparing Apples and Oranges. I don't know if those people are just uneducated,, ignorant or just doing it for the lulz.

IMO they did exactly what they said they were going to do. Now if the spent the last 2 years since that this game was on the same level as WWE 2K games and it came out looking like this, then I would expect the low scores.