AEW Fight Forever

[7.0] "In ring gameplay was fine. Fun even. Where the game really suffered is the lack of features and things to do, and an atrocious CAW mode. Hopefully they learned from what didn't work for whenever their next game happens."

[6.0] "It's OK, I guess. The microtransactions are a little much, and they're lacking in content, but it's pretty fun to play."

[10.0] "Honestly, despite some shortcomings - I find this to be an incredibly fun professional wrestling game. I have never been a big fan of the WWE 2K games general feel, and this is much closer to what drew me to wrestling games in the first place. I am also able to come into this game late with the roster that the Ultimate Edition provides, which can be got on sale for 40$ regularly. I have a ton of fun with this game, instead of bored frustration, and that's basically what I primarily look for in a game."

[5.0] "I'm super mixed on this one. The throwback to the N64 style of wrestling games is welcome and enjoyable to play, but AEW's roster doesn't have nearly enough representation here, but that's at least somewhat improved by the admittedly overpriced and unnecessary DLC. Most of these characters (minus new signings like Adam Copeland) should've been in the game from day one. I've occasionally gone back and enjoyed this one for a handful of hours, but there's little in the way of replay value. I was rooting for this one, but its a mixed bag. Let's hope we can get an even better sequel, the wrestling game genre desperately needs major releases other than whatever 2K has been doing."

[5.0] "[5.4] The core gameplay loop is good but what killed this game is just that there's very little substance or variety. Its something different to 2K's series, going for something more akin to No Mercy, which is respectable, but it doesn't quite hit the mark. You can really feel that the game spent a long, long time in development hell, on top of overpriced DLC, launching extremely out of date, lacking options for customization, overall just not very good. Here's hoping that with the rumors of Fight Forever 2 starting to swirl, they can get it right next time."

[8.0] "I think if the game had come out sooner than it did and was more up to date it would have been looked upon more fondly - SO many great wrestlers are missing or not their best versions. The gameplay is fun and I'd imagine future entries would have meant more stuff to do. Was not a fan of the mini games, or stadium stampede. But there is appetite for a more up-to-date version of this game. Perhaps one with less of an No Mercy focus as I think I speak for all of us when I say we have had enough games going for that."

[7.0] "Totally acceptable and competent wrestling game, but I was highly disappointed in the overpriced DLC with Street Fighter named Finisher EVP Kenny Omega around and the customization options were substandard for a 2020s video games. He knows how it should be... Either make it a indy title price and add to rosters with DLC like Fire Pro... Or do a AAA price and ask for no DLC charges... Don't be a WWE2K Junior. Forge your own path. That's what FF2 needs to do. Do what 2K will not do with the WWE Series... Also, being able to be Abadon and Yuka Sakazaki in a career mode is a fun time..."

[9.0] "Surprised at the low average rating. Definitely plays better than some of the older nostalgic games with higher ratings here. The career mode was a slog near the end, but I still really enjoyed seeing AEW's first crack at a video game. Only wrestling game I enjoyed enough to get the platinum for, too."

[5.0] "A let down for a AEW debut game. The controls are very very confusing, the CAW create sucks and the graphics are in the style of 2K battlegrounds."

[5.0] "The first complaint I have is easily the most important one: an abysmal CAW suite. You can't adjust individual parts of a person's face; instead, you can only select from a handful of options. That's embarrassingly bad, especially since even games like WWF No Mercy had more to choose from several decades ago. I am also not a fan of the abundance of DLC that AEW Fight Forever offers, as I feel it's overpriced for the little content you get. Now for the good parts: the core gameplay is fine for having quick matches. The characters in the base game are also good, and the minigames are goofy in a fun way. The potential for a good game exists with AEW Fight Forever, but it really, really needed more effort put into the CAW suite since that's what gives wrestling games an unlimited shelf life. I would also prefer matches to be longer on average, plus a better story mode. Seeing some sights and learning some facts about random things was cool, but like the CAW suite, it's ultimately too barebones in the final product."

[0.0] "Genuinely, this game was the biggest disappointment I have EVER had from a game. It took so long to make, with so much talk of greatness and promise and it is absolutely broken and trash. The game FAILED and it is sad to see. The guy who gave this a 10 needs his brain tested."

[10.0] "Look, this game isn't perfect. No game is perfect. But this game is a work of art and a treasure, a testament to the wrestling world outside of WWE. This also isn't the only non-WWWE game out there, but this deserves a 10/10 rating alone just for telling the tale of how a few guys set out to put on a wrestling show in front of 10000 people, and ended up laying the foundation for the biggest promotion not owned by Vince since WCW (which Vince ended up buying, of course) There are some technical issues (Announcer inadvertently misgendering the competitors sometimes, poorly organized menus, limited hair styles and outfits, occasional glitches) - but none of that is enough to detract from how awesome this game is. I'm very grateful AEW exists, and equally as grateful for this game. (editing just to say, the little unique sounds that each wrestler makes, especially Danhausen and Anthony Bowens, gives me life! )"

[2.0] "Honestly, a bad game. PS2 graphics, wonky controls, a bland and uninteresting career mode, a limited CAW... For a game that was overseen by a man that purports to love video games, this thing landed like a turd in a toilet bowl. Nothing really worked and development took an extremely long time to boot."

[7.0] "Core gameplay is easy to pick up and learn. It's not all that hard to master which is nice. I really enjoy the simple, arcade approach to controls. The biggest problems are the lack of features, outdated arenas, outdated roster, and lack of a roadmap or communication. While it's a better functioning game than 2008's TNA Impact, it's still going to be remembered in the same way. Ultimately I rank this favorably because the game is a lot of fun and I play at least 20-30 minutes at a time every day or every other day. It's pure arcade style action and I enjoy that."

"AEW Fight Forever promises arcade-style wrestling fun but fails to deliver on many fronts. Priced at $10, my criticism may be lighter than that of full-price buyers, but the game's flaws are undeniable. Its controls feel outdated, relying too heavily on nostalgic mechanics from the late 90s and early 00s. Movement is janky, and directional control is lacking, leading to frustrating gameplay. Watching CPUs perform slow, glitchy movements as they attempt to re-enter the ring further detracts from the experience and the repetitive gameplay against them makes the game lose its appeal quickly. Locking top talents behind DLCs, including the last two AEW World Champions, and the underwhelming CAW system are major letdowns. The Road to Elite mode offers little in terms of content and lasting enjoyment, with progress resetting upon completion. I completed Road to Elite within a week of purchasing the game and to my surprise, the game resets your CAW back to the default with its decreased move set and no abilities. You can use your currency to add finishers/signatures, abilities, match perks and since it resets in the end, it means nothing. Some of the minigames are fun, others I feel like this could be a mobile game. For the amount of development this game was in, this is a huge flop."

[6.0] "Fight Forever has the bones of a great wrestling game. The gameplay is fun, allowing for all sorts of antics. However, the issue is lack of content. The career mode equivalent is extremely bare, theres a dire lack of match types, arenas and wrestlers and the mini games arent particularly engaging. I feel like an eventual sequel could be great, but as it stands Fight Forever isnt what many fans were hoping for. This was announced way too early and needed more time in the oven."

[3.0] "This is the definition of a game that lasted a week. The fact that it took close to three years to produce, and the absolute lack of content (thats not behind a paywall)(and even still there is no reason to get the dlcs) makes this game a 3. I hate that I preordered the deluxe edition expecting to play it night and day for a long time. Basically, if you arent playing it with your friends for the first time, its not worth it."

[2.0] "i cant believe i payed full price and for the deluxe version for this crap. most of the current AEW champions arent even in the game including the AEW World Champion Samoa Joe. they fail at almost everything.. such a waste of 100 dollars. just get WWE 2K and add AEW wrestlers via CC"

[1.0] "Might just be an unpopular opinion but Fight Forever is just as bad as WWE 2K20, if not worse. This game is horid looking, messy controls, glitchy and worse offender of it all, boring, leeching off to maximum prize, I even pirated it and yet it still feels I was robbed. This is just a button masher and not even the fun kind."

[3.0] "Such a frustrating game. Frustrating because it could be so much more. The bones of a fun, great game are there, but the whole thing just feels like an unfinished beta still. The game does feel like No Mercy but lacks that overall intuitiveness that NM had. I dunno, it's fine but just doesn't hold my attention that long. You kinda run through everything there is to do in terms of wrestling moves kinda quick and it's honestly just too damn easy. After three or four matches I was winning all my matches on Normal within three minutes, and on Hard I'm winning all my matches with almost no problem within about 6 or 7. Create a wrestler is a joke. I mean it's like almost insultingly bad for a game made in the 20's. Free mobile games have more options in their character creation than this. Luckily there are six different kind of camo pants to choose from though. Road to the Elite is just a mess. Each campaign is broken up into "blocks" that each contain their own little story that plays out over three episodes of Dynamite and then a PPV. If you expect any of these blocks to tell a cohesive story relative to each other, sorry, they're chosen randomly and what you do before or after them mean literally nothing to each other. The career mode was the strongest part of No Mercy *because* of the deep, branching storylines where every match actually mattered in determining where the story goes. This is just a handful of lazily compartmentalized micro-campaigns. And I could write another thousand words just about the scummy sales model they use for this game but you can read elsewhere for that. And *then* there's all the little things, like only being able to have up to four wrestlers onscreen at one time, the relatively small and outdated roster, the lack of newer belts, events, and locations, etc. I was lucky to play this game during Game Pass free weekend so now I know not to pay full price for it. If I stumble across this game for like $10 I might pick it up but while the 2K games still exist this game will be irrelevant to me. Honestly they should just go the free-to-play route and charge for cosmetics at this point. And it sucks because it's so, so close to being an amazing, arcade-style alternative to 2K. Maybe Fight Forever 2 will be worth it."

[6.0] "There's aspects of the game I like. The wrestlers all look like who they are meant to be but also look kinda retro, funny and cool at the same time. The moves look just like they do in real life and fluid and hard hitting. The game's initially a lot of fun to play but it has little to no replayability. In part that is down to the fact that matches don't swing back & forth: when someone kicks out, they can be pinned immediately afterwards, instead of gaining back some strength and swinging things back in their favour a bit. Secondly, there is almost nothing to get your teeth into as a single player there's no really career mode, there's a lack of match types (why no cage match when we had cage matches in games back in the late 90s / early 00s? ) and nothing fun to unlock. The entrances are also far too short. Overall a quite basic game which for the price is not great to be honest. The exploding barbed wire deathmatch is fucking cool though I will give them that!"

[8.0] "It's tricky in one sense due to many reasons: the modes are lacking, Road To Elite is barely a version of the No Mercy format, the CAW mode is one of the most bare in years and there are a good number of weird quirks and bugs. However... I cannot stop coming back months later as in another sense it's all about the bout to bout gameplay and I personally found it excellent. Moves and pace is fast and explosive yet has a nice meaty feel and weight to everything, in part due to the fantastic sound design, held together with tight controls. Matches ranged from amusing squashes to very competitive back and forth battles, sometimes bizarrely unpredictable at times but in the best possible way. At time of writing, another rounds of content updates is one its way, including modes, hoping that they do follow through with the regular long term updates."

[5.0] "God, I don't know where to start. First, I preordered the Elite edition and the price was fucking mad. About the game... kinda average. I liked the wrestlers models and the 1 on 1 matches but that's everything good I have to say about this game. The story mode is ridiculous: too short and not at all thrilling, almost like a joke. The creation suite is too limited, from the wrestlers to the move-sets. The Exploding Barbed Wire is my preferred part of the game but the rules are a shame, not at all near to the real ones. The Ladder matches are not so interesting and in the empty arena there are few epic possible uses with the weapons. Also, there are no trios, steel cages, submissions etc. and AEW's signature battle royal isn't the real one. I'll be blunt, this game should have been better than this to show that wrestling games are more than 2K but unfortunately they failed. **1/2"

[5.0] "Insane to release a game in 2023 with such a lack of create a wrestler options. It's extremely barebones in that regard, but the custom entrances and being able to control pyro is super cool. Game is actually fun to play which saves it as well. I definitely think given another shot they could make a great game, but this is far from great."

[3.0] "The one good thing about it is the core gameplay during matches, and even that is ruined by how quickly they end and how repetitive they feel. Road to the Elite is terrible. Same storylines for each wrestler. Exact same cities, in the exact same order, with the exact same restaurants (which, like...it's a wrestling game. Why is going out to eat at a restaurant even included in the first place? ) each time. Pointless minigames. Again, why were they included? Truly awful CAW, significantly worse than the wrestling games this is meant to be a tribute to. Could go on but I don't want to. Fair price for the game would have been $20, at the absolute most."

[6.0] "It's a fun game but for some reason it doesn't feel like it has the re-playability of the old N64 games I loved so much. The biggest issues for me are reversals (or lack there of) - blocking (particularly when someone attempts to tie up/grapple) feels random but then when you actually ARE in a grapple and try and do a move then a reversal never seems to happen. So you can start a match and hit someone with a powerbomb as the first move. But then you pull them to their feet and try a weak punch and they counter. On top of that, it really is light on content. The career mode is fun, but there's not that much to it. There's also not much to unlock really, beyond Owen Hart, as everything else you can get after one playthrough. Overall I'd say it's a decent first effort, even given the above, and hopefully it's the start of a series that keeps improving. I'm glad I bought it, but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone."

[9.0] "Very good, it still needs more items and contents, but I believe they will be added in the future, the gameplay is very cool, it's not as arcade as WWE All Stars/Mayhem/Batllegrounds, but it's not a simulator like the series of games from 2K Sports, is very similar to the series games WWE SmackDown VS. Raw, even the companies that produced the game are apparently the same (Yuke's and THQ Nordic, replacing the old THQ that went bankrupt)."

[6.0] "[30/06/2023 [5]] Boy this is a let down. The controls are not great, the movements are a little rough around the edges. The moves lack impact. The models look strange. I'm such a huge AKI fan, and I love AEW, but this is disappointing. I have no problem with the limited CAW, I actually like the graphics for the most part, but the controls don't feel like the old games. I am probably being unreasonable, but I just wanted something that had the feel of the old N64 games, this feels closer to the old smackdown games. [01/07/2023 - [6.5]] Edit: I've had a few days to bond with the controls and I have to say it's deeper than I thought. It still lacks the tightness of the old AKI games, but the gameplay will keep me playing for a while. A PPV mode would be most appreciated"

[6.0] "AEW Fight Forever - In terms of gameplay, this is a cool compact fast-paced arcade game that tries to replicate the success of the legend "WWF No Mercy" but unfortunately AEW Fight Forever has been labeled as a "dubious game"! because the game is very empty, in terms of - 1. roster 2. content 3. restrictions on the creation of characters and arenas ... I mean, it seems to me that AEW deliberately made a small roster in order to force fans to overpay for each new DLC in the future, for example, so that we fans to play in the future for Jamie Hayter, Toni Storm, Claudio Castagnoli and the rest of the main people at the moment in 2023 will have to overpay even though they must be in the main game + while the game was being created, many wrestlers have already managed to change musical themes and gimmicks and therefore the same Chris Jericho or Jon Moxley need to be updated, and as for me the game is already outdated at the time of release, let's get back to the DLC, that is, the mode for creating arenas and wrestlers will also be updated, and even for new elements of arenas and clothing items you will have to overpay? It seems to me that even WWE has never acted on such a strange scheme in relation to fans. I also want to note Road to Elite, I really liked the implementation and the base, the fact that each wrestler and diva has their own storyline is very exciting, but there is a minus it is so short that it kind of hurts in my soul, because it looks very interesting and decent in terms of implementation and you want to play it more and more, and how sad it is to realize that this mode is very fast... My conclusion is that the game is very fun and fast paced, but I absolutely dislike the dubious decision to make the game empty to force fans to buy DLC."

[6.0] "The game itself isnt bad. The gameplay is good but the game as a whole is so bare bones. Once you play through every match type you only have road to elite left to experience. When you have completed that, the game is over. Everything else will just be repetitive"

[7.0] "As a game. The gameplay is exactly as advertised, it is a modern day variation of no mercyhowever, even though it is like that. It still has problems, namely that its too difficult to kick out of pins and get out of submissions, meaning that it takes one finisher to end a match, which would be fine if there was a way to show how close you are to kicking out. It feels limiting and is the only gripe I have with the game so far, if that was not the case, the game would definitely be higher."