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By Puppy Wilde
Confirmed Features and why It feels so good to be a wrestling fan and a gamer once again…
Fire Pro Wrestling will be released by Spike Chunsoft for the PS4 on August 21st. The moment is almost upon us and I can’t help feeling like I’m 13 again. (More on that in a moment). First, let’s have a look at the confirmed PS4 features in a little more detail.
1. CREATION –
We now can now be certain that there is going to be a PS4 sharing platform for a limitless amount of creations, including wrestlers, move sets, titles, rings, referees even entire promotions.
2 ONLINE –
This game will support 4 player online matches in varying match types and combinations. Looking at the PC version this is achieved seamlessly without much sign of lag or frame rate drops. I’ve watched many online PC matches with 4 players that have run almost the same as watching one man fighting the computer characters which is mighty impressive. If even 85% of that capability is realised in the PS4 version then this could be a very special experience.
3 NEW JAPAN
The rumoured story mode got a mention in the launch trailer for Fire Pro Wrestling world. It is confirmed that there is a “Road to the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title” storyline where you start off as a young upstart and battle your way towards the title. You can pick a faction to join and the story will change depending on the faction you follow. I like this idea and the way that it focusses on the one title. but im hoping that this will set up a platform that if proven popular then new and more exciting stories will be added later on. I’d suggest a Tag division Co-op Title story as the perfect accompaniment to a beer and nachos evening with a friend. A lot of love is being put towards this mode and I hope that it continues to grow in content.
4 EDITIONS AND DLC –
There has been confirmed, two retail editions of this game (price to be announced), one of which is the standard copy, and the other with a season pass included. Also, to answer frequently asked question, there IS going to be a physical release of this game in your local games store, not just digital copies.
There also has been confirmation of an extended roster DLC, and another called “Fire Promoter” which is essentially like the popularised GM modes of certain historic wrestling games. It is nice to see someone give that mode a shot again, as hardcore wrestling fans the world over have been lusting to be the booker of their own virtual promotions. It’s a welcome announcement and one I will most definitely be covering here on Stoffel Presents, so stay tuned and I promise far more Fire Pro Content in the future!
5. CONFIRMED FEATURE – SENT ME BACK TO PUBERTY!
Okay, this is going to take a moment but please indulge me whilst I paint you all a picture. When I was a kid, I was a huge wrestling fan. I watched almost bouncing with excitement on the edge of my seat when that time came around, every week without fail. I loved the stories and watching them unfold. I loved the banter, which often resulted in cutting promos to myself in the schoolyard. I loved the outlandish signature moves, which once ended up with me hitting a Rock Bottom on my friend Owen on the school field which caused the both of us to be sent home from school on account of us both covered in mud. I loved having my teenage adrenaline levels taken to new heights as I watched the Undertaker toe to toe with his “brother” Kane or laughing at Vince McMahon as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin humiliated him again and again like a new age rendition of a Tom and Jerry cartoon. All through my week at school, I’d be restless, slugging my way through dreary schoolwork and waiting for that next main event. It was quite possibly, aside from Doritos, the first addiction I ever had.
As It happened I was a massive fan of the games as well, and the excitement of these games when they were announced used to make me go crazy. Me and my friends used to pre-order the games and we’d buy every magazine just to see even one photo of that game we wanted to play so bad. The very idea of being able to control those computerised tributes to the late 90s wrestlers and make them do whatever my wrestling imagination could conjure is the defining happiness of my early teens. I would later go on to be a wrestler for 9 years. During my professional years, I found that I stayed away from the wrestling genre when it came to gaming. I mean hell, I am a wrestler why should I pretend to be one? I had a brief moment with a WWE game back in 2015 but it all seemed very serious and simulation-based, and just not very fun anymore. I thought that maybe the idea didn’t excite me anymore. Maybe the long storied love affair between myself and wrestling games was at its turbulent end. But I was wrong. Which brings me to July of last year.
Not necessarily a man who would go looking for wrestling games, I happened across the trailer for Fire Pro wrestling for the PC and it blew my mind. I could feel my forehead breaking out in spots – I could feel my heart starting to race. It looked… FUN! a word I had not associated with this genre in what seemed like forever! I’m feeling that nostalgic rush of adrenaline once again and ready to get my thumbs worn to the bone one more time. My point is, thank you Spike Chunsoft for showing me that Wrestling games can still look like such fun and make me see life through the eyes of a child once more. I’m 32 going on 13 and I’m loving it! Although that said my fiancée would like me to inform you that random boners are up by 80 per cent and I think my acne is back…..
I loved wrestling and wrestling games when I was a kid too from WWF Wrestlemania on the Speccy to the Smackdown Vs Raw games which stopped after THQ went bust I played most of them but I startered to peter off towards the end of the PS2/Xbox/GC era.
I’ve tried a couple of the 2K games but they’re not very good in my opinion partly because as you say they’re more simulation based now and the controls are terrible compared to thx older games. Also a big part of my love for the games was watching the wrestling every week and being a huge fan of the wrestlers. Now I couldn’t name any of them really.
Looking forward to Fire Pro though it looks like the WCW Vs NWO games on PS1 and I loved those games!
It does have the look of those late 90s WCW/WWF games we knew and loved back then. There’s so much more I could have said about this game I wanted to say in this preview that I was feeling a tad remiss that I couldn’t include due to it not being yet confirmed for this version. For instance, FPW on the PC had a dlc of a wrestler who had broken his neck in Japan early last year and the revenue from the pack went towards his medical bills allegedly. The game is not an attempt by some massive promotion to make money, but rather an old legend back to spread a lovingly crafted celebration of the genre. For too long wrestling games have been a simulation of what is essentially in itself a simulation. It’s flying the flag for fun wrestling games and I’m proud to be flying the flag here on its behalf. Thank you so much for the comment and please stay tuned for more content in the future as I’m far from done with this game. Perhaps once the game’s promoter DLC hits, I’ll take to twitch to debut. Stoffel’s Hardcore Independent Throwdown…. or SHIT wrestling for short. Perhaps we’ll crown a SHIT champion and have colour commentary over the SHIT matches. Come and live the SHIT dream with me.
All SHIT comments are welcome!
Also, SHIT jokes aside, much like the THQ/YUKES/AKI games such as WCWvsNWO Revenge or WWF No Mercy the game is more about timing and building a match at your desired pace as opposed to mastering tons of pseudo mini games in order to tie the mechanics together as demonstrated in the 2k series entries of the last few years. I’m certainly excited to get my hands on it and get to grips with it.
Probably the most exciting I’ve been for over a decade whilst waiting for a wrestling game to be released!