AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 1 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Ask any long-time grappling fan what the best wrestling video game of all time is, and they’ll give you one of two answers, both published by THQ: WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain, developed by Yuke’s (which is incorrect) and WWF No Mercy, developed by AKI (correct). For decades no wrestling game has touched No Mercy when it comes to actual gameplay. Granted, more recent offerings look infinitely better and have rosters and mode lists bigger than the Great Khali, but in terms of actual feel THQ’s N64 classic is still the best in many players’ eyes.

AEW: Fight Forever – rather fittingly published by THQ Nordic – is quite clearly built with No Mercy in mind, to the extent that No Mercy director Hideyuki Iwashita was brought on as ‘gameplay advisor’ to ensure the game retained that unique feel. It doesn’t quite manage to pull this off, but it comes close enough to make it a worthwhile purchase for fans of wrestling games.

AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 2 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

The base controls of AEW: Fight Forever are similar to No Mercy’s but not identical. Whereas it had two main attack buttons for striking and grappling, AEW offers three for punching, kicking and grappling. It’s hardly revolutionary but it does show the game’s tendency to lean heavier into striking moves, with players able to string together fast combos of attacks that wouldn’t have been possible before.

For the most part, combat is satisfying enough, with a healthy range of moves available for each wrestler. As well as weak and strong versions of your punch and kick attacks, you can apply weak or strong grapples, essentially doubling the number of grapple moves at your disposal. The only thing that’s a little clunky is running attacks, as it feels like you need quite a bit of a run-up before you can pull them off.

Other gameplay mechanics will feel right at home to No Mercy fans (apologies for the constant comparisons, but trust us when we say it’s important to those who still love it to this day). Whether it’s using the taunt to trigger a finisher, holding the R button to delay getting up or reaching under the ring to pick out random weapons, a lot of it does feel like where we’d be if AKI’s series had continued to evolve and not stopped in 2000.

AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 3 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

Speaking of weapons, AEW: Fight Forever takes cues from its real-life counterpart by offering a generally more violent take on sports entertainment. Your typical steel chairs, kendo sticks and the like are obviously present and accounted for, but there’s a wide variety of other weapons, some of which can be used in unique ways such as spraying opponents with fire extinguishers or putting bins or American football helmets on their head. And wait until you find the thumbtacks.

Then there’s the comically ridiculous Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match mode, which does what it says on the rather large and hazardous tin. Any moves that see the opponent landing near the electrified barbed wire ropes cause a small explosion and extra damage, but there’s also a two-minute timer which causes the entire ring to explode when it goes off, doing more damage to those closest to the ropes.

That’s a one-off match type, however. For those looking for something a tad meatier, Road to Elite is the game’s main single-player mode, and it’s surprisingly silly. After choosing a wrestler from the main roster (or creating your own), you take part in a series of weekly matches across America as you build up to each of the four main pay-per-view events.

AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 4 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

In between the matches you have various options, from working out to build your stats to slightly odder fare like going sightseeing or going to a local restaurant so you can enjoy that city’s signature dish (complete with a waitress explaining its history). You can also bump into other wrestlers and take selfies with them for your photo album.

Given that it only takes around 16 or 17 matches to finish Road to Elite isn’t the longest mode ever, but each of its four ‘blocks’ of four weeks has a few different possible storylines, meaning it’s designed with replay value in mind. When you start the mode you can also filter by wrestlers who haven’t yet cleared it, meaning if you’re seriously dedicated to the cause you could theoretically only consider it complete once you not only see every story and get every selfie, but also play through it around 50 or so times and beat it with every wrestler. If you wanted.

AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 5 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

There’s also online play, in both Casual and Ranked flavours, but we weren’t able to find a connection during the pre-release review period. If we’re honest, we’re a little concerned that it’ll be tricky to find one once the game’s out too, given that there’s seemingly no cross-platform multiplayer and it makes you choose which of the seven main match types you want to play, essentially filtering the player pool further. The odds of you finding another Switch player who, say, wants to specifically play a ranked Ladder Match at the same time as you will be very slim.

That isn’t the only issue we have with the game. Most notably, the performance on Switch isn’t great. It runs at 60 frames per second on other consoles and can only hit 30fps here, but that’s to be expected with most multi-format games these days so we can’t complain too much in that respect. However, it's also quite blurry in handheld mode which, again, seems to be becoming standard at this stage in the Switch’s life.

What’s less forgivable, though, is the way the game sometimes freezes for a split-second, as if it’s trying to catch up. It’s far longer than a typical frame drop, so it can’t really be counted as a stutter: it’s a noticeable pause for maybe a quarter or half a second and it seemingly happens at random.

AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 6 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Other issues are less serious but will still disappoint fans. There’s no commentary during matches, and there are only a maximum of four wrestlers on-screen (which is probably for the best given the performance), which sort of makes the Casino Battle Royale mode a bit pointless. In real life, this 21-man variation on the Royal Rumble starts with five wrestlers in the ring and adds another five after a few minutes, continuing this until the final 21st wrestler who drew the ‘Joker’ turns up at the end. Naturally, this is impossible here, meaning it plays just like an N64-era Royal Rumble mode: it starts with four wrestlers, and when one is eliminated the next one comes in.

This aside, AEW Fight Forever is an entertaining wrestling game that grappling fans would be wise to have a look at. It still doesn’t quite match up to No Mercy when it comes to pure gameplay, but it’s clearly trying to put its own spin on things too, rejecting its simulation-like combat in favour of faster-paced, more arcade-like gameplay with more of an emphasis on striking combat and over-the-top weapons-based modes. In fact, we’ve been comparing it to No Mercy throughout this review but it actually sits more between No Mercy and its successor Def Jam Vendetta, offering more action-focused gameplay than the former without being quite as over-the-top as the latter.

AEW: Fight Forever Review - Screenshot 7 of 7
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

Given that 2K’s efforts with WWE games on the Switch have been hopeless, and given that – with all respect to it – the hilariously silly Wrestling Empire is quite deliberately broken in a number of ways, we can safely say that AEW Fight Forever now holds the wrestling game championship belt on the Switch, even if there’s certainly room for improvement should a sequel emerge.

Conclusion

As a self-proclaimed spiritual successor to WWF No Mercy, AEW had big wrestling boots to fill. While it doesn't quite surpass THQ's classic N64 grappler in terms of pure gameplay, it's nevertheless a highly entertaining wrestling title with a pleasantly silly story mode and some frankly ridiculous weapons-heavy match types. Performance on the Switch leaves a lot to be desired, but it's still the best wrestling game on the system for now.

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