General

Just played my first match on Fight Forever. Hangman vs. Andrade. gosh darn was that a fun time, the gameplay feels very tight (in the good way). It's nice to have an arcadey game like the old 90s games but with much more fluid gameplay, everything flows really well.

I'll note that there are very mild "hiccups" from time to time on the Switch version. Just little drops that don't really hinder the experience at all and that could easily be patched out, but they're definitely there.

Haven't gotten to play around with any of the other modes or anything yet but I can definitely see myself putting some serious time into the game, just playing exhibition matches and whatnot. If they implement some major changes in the updates (a better CAW mode, multi-man options for some of the match types, cage/blood and guts matches ,etc), I could easily see this placing in my top tier for wrestling games.

You’re making me want to buy this and I don’t want to.

I'm only basing this on a spread of various reviews I've checked out on Fight Forever. I think it's definitely something I'll keep an eye for, but I don't think it's a game I'd pay full retail for ($60 CDN plus tax ). I see it as kinda like Bomberman games and most sports games...it'll be ok to kick back with once in awhile but not something I'd see myself getting immersed into enough for the current cost.....plus I'm a cheapskate when it comes to games unless I know 100% it's something I need to play through.

Moving on to regular wrestling stuff, I'm digging both AEW and WWE lately. Both have their things that seem like filler but both are doing some interesting stuff, too.


Random thoughts....WWE

I'm not sure what's going on with Damien Priests ring attire lately. It seems to be going backwards. He basically dressed like a jobber this week again.

I wish Charlotte Flair would just go away and stay away or invest herself into actually being around and relevant instead of showing up, winning the title, and basically disappearing until she goes on hiatus again...rinse/repeat.

I feel WWE is missing the boat with Xia Li just as they did with Ember Moon/Athena.

I'm digging the whole LA Knight stuff. He's clearly over with the crowd and I'm a fan, but, objectively, he's probably been jobbed out too many times recently to be taken seriously as a threat to either main title. Credit due to Seth Rollins for selling Balor as a real threat to the title after he received similar treatment and to Finn for stepping it up..

WWE needs to revisit a legit and supported cruiserweight division. I'd rather see Tozowa go for 15-20, along with others like him, instead of the hour and a half of recaps every Raw.

Montez Ford is frustrating. It might be a good time for him to get 'injured' and come back with a new gimmick that isn't being a joke. His in-ring stuff is great, his promos are sub, and he needs to build a character that people get behind beyond being a 'spot guy'.


Moving on to AEW...

Wardlow....what happened to this guy? He was so over a little while ago...had good in-ring stuff, decent character, etc.... got a stupid haircut and now seems like a second rate Ryback.

Similar for LuchaSaurus....this guy is insane in the ring. AEW doesn't seem to know what to do with him.

About time Jungle Boy grew up. It was good to see the start of that this past week.

I miss Serena Deeb. It's depressing how much female talent the AEW locker room has but still feels so stale.

It's unfortunate that Mercedes Mone was injured and missed Forbidden Door.

When will the 'Young' Bucks adjust their name?

Props to AEW for keeping recaps virtually non-existent and presenting a lot more actual great matches....but the picture in picture thing annoys the hell out of me.

Sammy Guevara and Pac are insanely skilled. They deserve more.

I don't hate Orange Cassidy, Saraya, Jay Lethal, or The Gunns...but why are they on every week when so many other (superior talents) are left off every week? The roster is huge. I get that. Maybe they need to look at some sort of brand split between the 3 shows, turn Rampage into something that matters, and generate some consistency.

Only random thoughts.

BucketofJustice wrote:

If you're that on the fence about it, I'd just wait until they release an update or two. At the time being, there are certain very standard things that are missing from the game - stuff like multi-man ladder matches. You can literally only do 1v1 ladder matches in exhibition. There are no trios titles, and in fact, no trios matches at all. You can't do multi-man hardcore matches, etc.

Again, these are all things that can be (and I truly believe WILL be) added to the game via updates considering they constantly talk about how this game will be updated over time as opposed to them taking the "annual release" route. So in lieu of a new game every year, I imagine these updates will need to add new match types/modes to emulate the feeling of getting a fresh experience.

So yah, if you're on the fence, I'd say just wait. Apparently August is rumored to be when the Stadium Stampede online mode will drop, so I figure that would be a good time for a bit more content to release with it, so the game will probably feel a bit more complete in a few months. But if that missing stuff doesn't really bother you and you just want a wrestling game with straight up FUN gameplay and the likelihood that it'll only improve in the coming months, then go for it.

Y2k wrote:


I absolutely agree. I follow her on Twitter, she is always busting her ass in the gym. She's clearly willing to put in the work, but it's up to them to realize her potential.




Both companies are dropping the ball lately. I saw on Twitter today that between Raw and Dynamite being a combined 5 hours long, there was a total of 4 minutes and 28 seconds of womens wrestling this week.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

I agree both companies could do a lot better with booking their women's division for sure. I sort of expect it from WWE at this point unfortunately, but yah, even this week's Dynamite was a major bummer for women's wrestling, but even more so because they're usually far better with the time allotted to that division. Their actual stories may lack from time to time, but they usually at least book enough matches to scratch the in-ring itch, but this week was a different story entirely.

I will say ROH's women's division is TOP notch. The matches always get time and Athena(/Ember Moon) is doing GREAT work right now as ROH Women's champion. She puts out banger after banger and makes any opponent she faces seem that much more important. Her recent feud with Kiera Hogan was great and really elevated Kiera. I know it's hidden away behind the ROH paywall, but I personally find the new shows worth it + the back catalog, and the women's division is a big part of that.

I can confirm Road to Elite mode is a bit of a mess in Fight Forever and could have used some major rewrites. Only played up to the first PPV so far. Without spoiling too much, the first month of the "career" was spent in an "unlikely alliance" tag team angle that was dropped out of thin air after the first PPV, despite things happening AT the PPV that would suggest it should've continued. It's a bit like they wrote the start of a decent storyline, but then realized the mode was only 4 in-game months long, so they just moved onto a new story. A little disappointing, but the actual mechanics of the mode itself are fun enough and, as I've mentioned, the actual gameplay is enough to keep me going.

I didn't know that Jungle Boy was Luke Perry's son...

RIP Droz.

I think they did something a little while back acknowledging it. Something with his mom and Christian I believe. I might be thinking of someone else, or some other family member. They’ve slowly been saying more that his name is Jack Perry and dropping the Jungle Boy thing.

Lol that rules

Love it haha

Money in the Bank was a great show.

It was fun for sure. The two MITB matches (especially the women’s) and the main event were great. The rest seemed like a fun WWE show overall, but fairly run of the mill imo. Rhodes/Dom was especially sorta boring, which sucks for Rhodes. That whole angle seems like forced filler, but it wasn’t BAD, just underwhelming. I dug the Baszler turn in the tag title match a lot though.

The overseas crowds are really helping elevate these recent PLEs. Has me looking forward to All In at Wembley even more.

I thought them saying Cody and Dom was the main event was a sure fire Brock appearance but then they threw it on in the middle and it wasn’t great. It was a competitive squash in my eyes, only competitive because of Rhea Ripley.

I still haven't seen the whole show yet, but pretty much know all the outcomes thanks to seeing spoilers on Twitter when I opened it to send a DM to a friend.

I saw the men's ladder match, which was really good. I know the people in the office are high on Damien Priest at the moment, but LA Knight is way too over for them to ignore it for too much longer. Cody and Dom was alright, just felt like they were put on the show because they are over enough that fans would want to see them, even if the buildup to it was kinda lackluster. And the women's tag title match was the other match I saw. The Shayna turning on Ronda part kinda confused me because I know Ronda has been vocal about how they've been dropping the ball with the tag titles and them changing hands so often. I did like the reaction it got from the crowd though, that's a genuine reaction because nobody saw that turn coming, especially this soon.

In an interview with Uproxx published 2 days ago, Kenny Omega officially revealed Fight Forever's Stadium Stampede mode. It doesn't have a date yet, but the trailer (below) says "Coming Soon", so it shouldn't be too far off. May be even sooner than August, which is what folks were theorizing. He then doubled down on the concept of consistent updates for Fight Forever, noting that they'd be adding new wrestlers & match types. He also hinted at updates adding more content to the Creation suite, as well as representation for ROH and NJPW as far as new wrestlers go.

That's all wonderful news and I'm very much looking forward to what they add to the game. Omega said that we "haven't seen everything yet", only a little, but not everything that he's excited for us to see. Cool stuff.

Here's that teaser for Stadium Stampede:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzNoJf8ZfNw&pp=ygU...

I hope that a lot of the additions are free and not DLC that adds up to cost as much as a yearly game. But we’ll see what happens. Still planning to get this on a sale down the line.

Yah same. I think the main updates for match types and CAW will be free, but I imagine most wrestlers will be paid DLC like the 3 packs they already announced. Stadium Stampede mode is confirmed free though, so that’s neat.

That sounds pretty reasonable to me. More wrestlers are more money but quality of life updates and most cosmetics should be free.

I hope that they can fix the Switch stutters. I’m was watching a couple videos and it hiccups every little bit for like half a second. It runs way better than that 2K WWE game they put out but still.

I hope they deliver. I still haven't opened my copy yet but right now it feels like a sneaky way of releasing a console game as "Early Access" like how indie developers do on Steam.

@PizzaTheHutt For what we got, it definitely lives up to what they promised: a return to the N64-style arcade wrestling game - no more, no less. They delivered what they said they would. Great throwback gameplay with a short story mode (but with more replayability than most), multiple match types (despite the multi-man issue) and a (limited) CAW suite (+ mini games, which is just a nice bonus). What they had always promised upon release, they definitely followed through on... it's just up to each individual player to decide whether or not what they got scratches their personal itch. For me, it mostly did, but I do think they need to be hasty when it comes to an update featuring major content additions if they want to keep people hooked. I admit that's mainly because we're all so used to top tier wrestling games having several different modes like the 2K games.

But as was mentioned in this thread previously, they didn't even advertise the Stadium Stampede mode. That would have been nice to find out with the trailer instead of with a data miner leaking it, but that's a whole huge multiplayer mode that no one was expecting for free, which alone buys them some goodwill imo. If they continue releasing free updates (or at the very least, reasonably priced updates), I think it's overall a net positive.

@BucketofJustice Yeah I definitely hope a patch fixes the stuttering, but to be fair I stopped noticing it fairly quickly. You could have told me they DID patch it and I would have believed you. It may be more noticeable if you're just watching someone else play, but in the heat of the game it went away for me haha

I don't know how it is doing in sales so far, but once they start to slow down I wouldn't be surprised if they look to get it added to GamePass or PS+ Extra game catalogs to bring in some people who were on the fence due to the mediocre reviews, and as a bonus potentially lure in people who hadn't heard of the company before.

Digital Foundry finally got around to comparing the game across all platforms. As usual they only cover it from a graphical standpoint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff7C881qwzc

@PizzaTheHutt Yah, I wouldn't be surprised with a move to the different subscription catalogs eventually. It'd definitely be a smart move.

The mediocre reviews do sorta dumbfound me a bit, I can't lie. The game is exactly what they said it'd be. Aside from the few small bugs (and the PS4 issue which wasn't indicative of the game itself), the only MAIN flaw with it is the creation suite and how limited it is. But even then, nobody really should have been expecting a ton more considering the type of game they were touting. It's at least as good, if not better, than most of the old arcadey games they were imitating.

Having read plenty of reviews before playing through the game myself, it really really does feel like the mediocre scores were largely influenced by comparisons to WWE's recent output as far as "what to expect from a wrestling game" goes, whether intentional or not.

Jeez, the kind of things these guys have to put up with. Ryback is no stranger to saying stupid things himself, but I don't know how he tolerated this mentally disturbed dude for so long. I had to turn off the video after 15 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWdKJ7b_xOY

So...three whole matches tonight? That was it? That opening segment with Bloodline went too long, I couldn't even sit through all of it. That was such a hot crowd too, as MSG always is, but they deserved a better show. Of course Vince was backstage tonight. Just once I would like to see a show's original script leak, and then another leak of the script after Vince has made his changes to it.

The AJ/Kross match was like 2 minutes too. The show was entirely too angle and promo heavy. Edge and Waller was pretty good. I don’t even remember the other match.

I loved all the Bloodline stuff, but yeah that first segment went too long too. Could’ve accomplished that in literally half the time. I also didn’t like how half the entrances for the matches were during commercial breaks. It felt like Vince made a lot of changes, like the camera cuts when Jey was beating on Solo at the end. It was almost back entirely to the every half second cuts and it was annoying as crap.

Theory/Sheamus, Styles/Kross, Edge/Waller.. that was it..

On the other hand, Rampage was pretty friggin good tonight, and had 4 matches in half the time.

Doesn't vince realize that wrestling on a wrestling show is necessary..
a 2 hour show with what, 20 minutes of wrestling..

One thing WWE needs to do is bring back the cruiser-weight championship.. there are SO many guys that could fight for it.. and it would be hella entertaining...

I don’t trust WWE to do a good cruiserweight division. Maybe once Vince is completely out, as in when he dies, but not before that. The last time they did it, was missable at best after the admittedly great CWC.

Edit: YIKES at that Ryback video. Got about 1:30 in. When Ryback is the sane one, there’s a problem.

Just got caught up on Smackdown. I dunno guys, the Bloodline angle may have officially jumped the shark last night. The melodrama is being dragged out to corny degrees now imo.

I still am into the angle itself, but there is just no excuse for any talking segment to go for 30+ minutes. A lot of times they lose me after the 10 minute point (even the old "This Is Your Life" segment was longer than it needed to be). But if you really think you need more than 30 freakin' minutes, film something like that and put it up on Peacock, but don't waste precious TV time like that.

Same. No reason that had to go 40 minutes. It’s not like they have to fill 3 hours like RAW either. It’s a concise 2 hour show and that 40 minute segment could’ve been cut in half an still been effective and we could’ve gotten a longer AJ/Kross match and the women’s segment could’ve been better, since those were the things most affected by the Bloodline angle.

Thinking about making my personal forum a Wrestling Discussion forum. Would people go to it, or does everyone think this topic is good enough?

I’ll post in it. Heck I’d even make little fantasy booking threads and crap. (Not sure if that makes you want to do it more or less haha)

Should be active now. At least, if I did it right it should be active haha

https://gametz.com/forum/USER%3A119412

Was effing around with the iPad last night and decided to draw a fictional wrestler in his 80s attire, and then add a layer for his revamped 90s look. Used a photo of Snuka for reference, but added the “I love you” hands because Snuka wasn’t doing the gesture in the photo. Not perfect but whatev, it was a fun time.

Been doodling/drawing simple webcomics via the iPad for a bit now, think I’ll add some more wrestling drawings to the ol’ portfolio in the future.

image

I need to track this down one of these days. I've only ever seen bits and pieces of it posted on wrestling message boards back in the day that aren't even around anymore. I'm sure the full documentary is up on YouTube, I haven't even searched. I want it on DVD but seems I can only find ones that work on PAL DVD players.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki7YXFkhrKA

I finally bought a ticket to Collision on 8/12.

And unrelated, but GUNTHER is just 55 days away from breaking the Honk-a-meter and becoming the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all the times (well, maybe not because that'll always be Mr. Perfect, but GUNTHER will make a great runner-up)

FTR vs. BCG from this past Saturday’s AEW Collision was one of the best tag team matches I’ve watched in a long time. They went almost a full 60 minutes.