Andre Calvert’s Favorite Games of 2017
Fire Pro Wrestling World (PC)
Developers: Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Fire Pro Wrestling World surprised everyone when it was announced and surprised everyone again when it left Steam Early Access out of nowhere in mid-December. As a casual wrestling fan, I had my eye on this game, but I was waiting for it to leave Steam Early Access before jumping in. When I finally started playing I was instantly enthralled by the flow of the actual matches. Although I didn’t play online, playing against the the AI is just as fun, which makes this game extra unique. The endless customization in the game is the major appeal, as I was able to to very easily go on the Steam Workshop and download all my favorite wrestlers (that players made and uploaded) almost instantly.
I’m not a seasoned Fire Pro Wrestling player, but that is ok because there is a decent tutorial to teach you the basics of how to do moves, which is a much different system than the Smackdown games of previous generations or current 2K games. The grappling system isn’t easy, but it helps make for very exciting matches that I never ever felt when playing other wrestling games. After each match you get a rating based on how exciting it is, which I found to be pretty accurate. It has its faults, like when doing some of the directional running attacks it’s hard to target and striking is somewhat difficult and weird, but that doesn’t takeaway from the overall experience. I didn’t spend much time in all the match types because the ‘regular matches’ were just so much fun. The developers plan on continuing to support the game with updates and I can’t wait to see what comes in the future!
It is disappointing that Fire Pro Wrestling World will be overlooked due to the 1.0 release date. but if you are a fan of wrestling games this is a must buy!
