When Spike Chunsoft announced Fire Pro Wrestling World at GDC 2017, I knew my social life was doomed. Every version of the celebrated Fire Pro brand, which began with the late great PC Engine, has elements of everything I love about video games: exciting action, mind-tickling simulation, and a playpen where my creativity can run wild. The $29.99 Fire Pro Wrestling World is the first series installment to be released as a PC game, and the possibilities are endless.
Fire Pro Wrestling World debuted as a Steam Early Access beta in 2018. Despite its flaws, the game’s timing-based gripping features and basic control scheme made it a promising start. It blossomed into something lovely despite some new and old annoyances. Fire Pro Wrestling World is the best wrestling game on PC, with comprehensive customization and smooth online play.
PROS
- Unique character-building tools
- Stunning matches
- Excellent Steam Workshop integration allows for collaboration.
- A lot of mates
- Ease of use
- So many moves
- Imports digital music files for background and entrance music.
CONS
- wacky
- Interface is cluttered and unclear.
- Some DLC should be included.
- Mission Mode locks a few moves and Edit Points.
- No cross-play with consoles
FIRE PRO WRESTLING WORLD (FOR PC) SPECS
| Games Platform | PC |
| Games Genre | Sports |
| ESRB Rating | T for Teen |
Backstage Fun
Though Fire Pro Wrestling World appears simple with its classic 2D sprites, it hides deep features. Spike Chunsoft built the game to mirror real-life sporting events. Light moves early in a match, medium-strength moves as you wear them down, and then your haymakers—high-impact maneuvers and finishers—after they’ve been fully worn down. You can make your most lethal moves right away, but your opponents with stamina will likely reverse or counter them. So, from getting to know each other to unleashing massive smashes, this approach provides matches momentum.
Rest is an important part of pace. You can’t just rip off move after move without consequence—your wrestler becomes tired. Since Fire Pro Wrestling World lacks visible health bars or stamina meters, you must gauge your grapplers’ weariness by their body language. If your wrestler hunches down and sucks in air, she’s absolutely out of breath and will be put on her back by any move. To avoid fatigue, make your wrestler take regular breaks by hitting the designated breathe button. This energy management adds another dimension of strategy and strain. After example, many classic pro wrestling matches have instances where the suspense is simply who can stand up first.
Taking Off
Fire Pro Wrestling World has several game types to keep you entertained. There are singles, tag-team, and gimmick matches. The game features steel cage fighting, UFC-style gruesome fighting, landmine and barbed wire deathmatches (popularized by “garbage” promotions such as Big Japan Pro Wrestling and Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling), tournaments and leagues, battle royale, tornado, and S-1 rules (based on the defunct K-1 kickboxing promotion) (which resemble the guidelines set by the Pancrase hybrid wrestling promotion). There’s a lot to do. You may also play online in single, tag, or battle royale matches.
After more than 60 hours using Fire Pro Wrestling World, I can confidently state that I’ve rarely witnessed a laggy match. You can also play against other players in ranked (Cement) or unranked (Pro Wrestling) matches, though Spike Chunsoft should rename the options. Fire Pro Wrestling World also keeps track of your win-loss record and your percentage-based match rating.
Moves Worth PPV
Fire Pro Wrestling World‘s matches feature a wide range of wrestling moves, from basic to devastating. The Burning Hammer and Tiger Driver ’91 are two violent top-rope moves.
Okite Yaburi and the ability to trade blows are new to Fire Pro Wrestling World. Okite Yaburi lets you steal your opponent’s finishing move once per battle. Use Shawn Michaels Edit to powerbomb Kevin Nash with his own jackknife powerbomb special technique (more on Edits and Edit Points in a bit). The wrestler who wins the exchange is determined by how quickly the person controlling it can mash buttons during the sequence. It’s astonishing how well a game with simple graphics can capture the look and feel of American, Mexican, and Japanese professional wrestling.
In addition to the Mission Mode, Fire Pro Wrestling World offers various basic fake wrestlers. Mission Mode is a detailed tutorial that lets newbies learn Fire Pro Wrestling World’s gameplay by completing tasks with the default roster. The aims are to understand the lock-up timing, execute a basic technique, and dive attack an opponent outside the ring. Mission Mode is a wonderful location to start for new Fire Pro players.
Even Fire Pro veterans should try Mission Mode, as it unlocks new moves and Edit Points for customizing wrestlers. That annoys me. This bothers me because I’ve been playing Fire Pro since the Dreamcast version (the famous Fire Pro D!).
Fire Pro Wrestling World continues the series’ long tradition of mediocre striking. To land numerous punches and kicks, you must be ideally aligned with your opponent, which might be frustrating if your opponent is a boxer or MMA fighter. Reduce whiffs by equipping your fighter with rapid, straight strikes. Opponents can easily evade punches or kicks with wind-up animations.
Superstar VFX
Edits, or wrestlers you develop, are important in Fire Pro. Many popular real-world wrestlers are included in Fire Pro Wrestling World so that dedicated fans can create their own versions of Asuka, Hulk Hogan, Kenta Kobashi, and hundreds of other male and female wrestlers. The option to apply up to nine layers to each edit segment is new to Fire Pro Wrestling World. Some of the most creative and coolest-looking Edits I’ve seen online are Bob Ross’ Joy of Painting, Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.
But the customizing choices go far beyond looks. You can make your Edit a techie, a shooter, a heel, a high flyer, etc. You can also give them voices, such yelling during a moonsault splash. In addition to movement speed and recovery, editing strength parameters costs Edit Points. In the game, you start with enough Edit Points to create a skilled wrestler.
To add your favorite songs as an entrance theme or background music, you may now use digital music in Fire Pro Wrestling World. The game accepts MP3, OGG, and WAV files, therefore Hulk Hogan can appear in “Real American.”
In fact, Fire Pro Wrestling World overdoes it. Lance Manyon, one of my favorite Edit grapplers, has 293 Edit points, making him an unstoppable beast. So I capped Manyon’s Edit Points at 243 to give other people a shot. Come on, bro.
Like the pros, you can name your finisher in Fire Pro Wrestling World. For example, after Lance Manyon wins a bout with a superkick, it says The Show’s Over on the win screen. Nice touch. Finishing and other designated moves are Critical in Fire Pro, meaning they instantly take out an opponent. This long-running Fire Pro aspect provides a level of randomness to every battle, as Criticals appear out of nowhere.
You can also share championship belts, rings, and referees via Steam Workshop (more on that in a bit). RetroMania Wrestling, an arcade-style wrestling game for PC, lacks customizability.
Three-Counter
In addition to the above customization, you can program your creation’s CPU Logic to battle how you choose. Tossing an opponent outside the ring, Lance Manyon rarely pursues them; in my headcanon, he likes to fight on the mat. He’ll taunt them from afar. When an opponent is weak, he goes headhunting with superkicks. Creators can use CPU Logic to reproduce renowned locations as well as give their wrestler a unique personality. He ran to the opposite rope and rebounded with a match-ending Leg Drop. Despite taking the L, I couldn’t be furious.
The Steam Workshop enriches the Edit process by allowing you to share your creations with the Fire Pro Wrestling World community. Others can subscribe to your Edits in the Fire Pro Wrestling World Steam Workshop and use them in their matches. To keep your characters up to date, any modifications you make are instantly downloaded to subscribers’ PCs. Spike Chunsoft claims you can store as many Edits as your PC can store.
Talk DLC
Spike Chunsoft added 12 DLC packs to Fire Pro Wrestling World after it exited Steam Early Access (one free, 11 paid). For example, the $19.99 Fire Promoter lets you play as a wrestling booker. This should’ve been included in the base game. It adds 39 wrestlers and numerous Edit sections and themes for $19.99. I’m pleased it’s not part of the base game, in case Spike Chunsoft loses the NJPW license.
On top of the $29.99 main game, there’s almost $100 in DLC. That’s a lot of money to spend on Fire Pro Wrestling World.
Fit Pro Wrestling World on Your PC?
As the graphics suggest, Fire Pro Wrestling World isn’t a difficult game. An Intel Core i5 CPU, a DirectX 9-capable GPU (512MB visual memory), 4GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and Windows 7 are required to operate the sports game.
The game tested nicely. It ran at 60 frames per second on my gaming PC with an Intel Core i5 processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card.
It also enables remote play on phones and tablets, remote play together, Steam Achievements, and Steam Cloud Saves.
Champ du peuple
Wrestling Pros Wrestling returns to great form after the embarrassing avatar-based Xbox 360 exclusive Fire Pro Wrestling. World adds online play and Steam Workshop connection to a terrific Fire Pro game. Overall, it’s a fantastic product, despite the problematic menu design.
PROS
- Unique character-building tools
- Stunning matches
- Excellent Steam Workshop integration allows for collaboration.
- A lot of mates
- Ease of use
- So many moves
- Imports digital music files for background and entrance music.
CONS
- wacky
- Interface is cluttered and unclear.
- Some DLC should be included.
- Mission Mode locks a few moves and Edit Points.
- No cross-play with consoles
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