Fire Pro Returns With a World of Possibilities
This review pertains to an early access version of the game (v 0.9001).
In one way or another, Fire Pro Wrestling has been in development since the NES version of Pro Wrestling was released in 1986. After the NES game, project lead Masato Masuda went on to create Fire Pro Wrestling. Nearly 30 years of revisions to the highly respected series have culminated in Fire Pro Wrestling World for PC, and it not only lives up to the legacy, but finally expands it to the degree fans have wanted since the 90's.
Aside from the godawful and baffling mockery that the 2012 XBox 360 Fire Pro Wrestling game was, the Fire Pro series has always appealed to people for its "realism" (as real as pro wresting can be, anyway) and customization more than graphics or presentation. In fact, aside from a few effects added here and there, the graphical style on Fire Pro Wrestling games has not really changed since Fire Pro Wrestling D, released for the Dreamcast in 2001. The cartoony graphics have always seemed at odds with the deep gameplay and customization of the series, but it has never hurt my enjoyment of the games.
For the first time in the series, a mission mode serves as a tutorial for how to play the game. The Fire Pro style of gameplay, largely based around timed button presses and building up a match from minor attacks, to medium attacks, to ending with major/finishing move attacks, has always caught new players off guard, so it's surprising it has taken this long to integrate something that teaches you how to play. The tutorial stages of mission mode give you a feel of how the timing works and should serve to help players get acclimated to the gameplay style.
The customization is as deep as ever. The list of moves to choose from for created wrestlers is beyond staggering. The appearance options are a bit more limited due to the simplicity of the graphics, but if you're patient and willing to dig through piles of clothing/head/body options, you can create just about anyone you can think of. As has been custom for the series for decades now, the CPU Logic editor allows you to dictate how your created wrestlers behave, be it a super-aggressive ass kicker that tries to knock you out immediately, a coward that runs away and tries to blind opponents with poison mist constantly, or a giant monster bad guy that gets right up after a big move and can finish you off early. Fire Pro Wrestling remains the only series where it can actually be fun to watch CPU vs CPU matches, as they can play out in a dramatic and entertaining fashion if the created wrestlers have well done CPU logic.
The Fire Pro series is known for having a default roster consisting of just-outside-copyright-lawsuit wrestlers - witness past entries in the series that contained Stone Cold Steve Austin clone "The Bionic Man Steve Majors," Hulk Hogan wannabe "Axe Duggan," Billy Gunn-alike "Niggy Bann," and so on. This time around, to avoid any potential issues with the major wrestling promotions, they have done away with that and gone with a fully original roster of a few dozen men and women. This change is completely irrelevant though - as this is the first incarnation of the Fire Pro series to appear on the PC, they have blown it wide open with full Steam workshop support. This means that pretty much any wrestler you can think of is already available to download. You could have the entire WWE, Lucha Underground, Impact Wrestling, and New Japan rosters in your game in a matter of minutes. It doesn't stop there, with everyone from Randy "The Ram" Robinson to Jason Vorhees to whatever the hell this is to Jeff Gerstmann and his possible brother Ref Gerstmann available. Early access note - in the future it is expected that logo imports and custom music will be supported to further be able to simulate real world wrestling organizations, but at this writing those features are not yet available.
With the customization and gameplay spot on, there is still one nagging issue that the game has in its current state - a lack of any kind of true career or management mode. Management-based modes have appeared in a few past Fire Pro titles (including the GBA title Final Fire Pro Wrestling) and do a lot to expand the appeal of the game after the creation and simulation aspects have become familiar to the player. As Fire Pro Wrestling World is right now, there isn't anything to do beyond have matches and create wrestlers/referees/belts/organizations once you've gone through the 50 reasonably quick mission mode objectives.
Even with a lack of a career mode, the features and limitless content available for this game make it easy to label this as the cliched "last game you'll ever need to buy." While that's probably not the case, Fire Pro Wrestling World is more than enough to keep wrestling game enthusiasts occupied for many years to come.
(Fire Pro Wrestling World available now on Steam, coming to PS4 "someday." The content created for PC should be available to PS4 players per the developer).