AEW fight forever finally released this month, and fans who have been waiting a long time for a new wrestling title rejoiced. The video game is the company’s first, but they have a lot of help from them. Fight Forever is developed by Yuke’s, the company that was previously behind the WWE 2K franchise.
However, AEW Fight Forever promises to be a different title. The game is an arcade-style title, which has a lot of things that players can spend time on. However, Fight Forever is far from perfect and has a few flaws that fans need to be aware of.
10 The worst: failures
It’s a small issue and honestly expected, but there are some glitches and bugs in AEW Fight Forever that fans should expect. Again, this isn’t much of a surprise, considering the fact that it’s the first game in the franchise, and sadly, most games these days release a bit early.
Honestly, the game runs fine overall, but there are some framerate drops, even when using the create-a-fighter mode in a rather weird way. While most of these bugs will be fixed over time, fans should still be aware.
9 The best: Creation Suite
In this writer’s experience, the create a fighter mode could sometimes crash, drop the frame rate and even crash. It’s a shame, considering the fact that there are a plethora of options fans will have in creating their fighter.
There aren’t as many options as WWE 2K23, which is expected. However, the creation suite in AEW Fight Forever is excellent, even beyond the fact that fans of creating a fighter can create their own arena and more. It’s nothing new, but the Yuke team made the creation suite fun.
8 Worst: Moveset
AEW Fight Forever has a solid roster with all the top names one would expect. That said, the game commits one of the worst sins a fighting game can commit: everyone feels the same way.
Aside from a few minor differences, most of the fighters in Fight Forever feel the same way. A lot of that is due to the moveset and the amount of moves that are shared between artists in AEW.
7 The best: The return of Owen Hart
Since the tragic passing of the great Owen Hart in 1999, his family has been very protective of his legacy. For years, they’ve barely licensed his name or likeness to anything, but that has recently changed.
With Owen Hart’s tournament paying tribute to the legend, it felt appropriate to include him in Fight Forever. It marks his first appearance in a video game in almost 20 years, last appearing in 2004’s Legends of Wrestling.
6 The worst: limited list
The AEW Fight Forever roster has just about everyone you’d expect. CM Punk, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and just about every major star is in the game. In addition, there are shocking fighters in the title, such as Owen Hart and Cody Rhodes.
However, the list is extremely basic. Not exactly a surprise considering they don’t have licensing agreements with old-time legends like WWE, but disappointing nonetheless.
5 The best: types of matches
In real life, AEW’s attempt at an exploding barbed wire death match wasn’t exactly a success. That said, in Fight Forever, it’s the exact opposite.
The exploding barbed wire deathmatch is great fun, but it’s far from the only type of special combat. There’s everything you’d expect, too, plus Battle Royal Casino and more. Plus, each match type feels different and unique, which adds to the fun.
4 Worst: DLC
Arguably the most disappointing part of AEW Fight Forever’s launch is the heavy focus on DLC. As stated above, the game has a bit of a small roster, made even worse by the fact that THQ Nordic has gone all-in on the DLC.
FTR, Hook, Danhausen and even Matt Hardy are locked behind a paywall. While it’s understandable that some fighters would be included in a future DLC pack, locking some of the company’s biggest names behind a paywall is disappointing.
3 The best: story mode
No offense to WWE 2K23 and its MyRise story mode, but if you played it once, you basically played them all. For years, wrestling career modes have mostly felt the same, and they’ve felt very uncreative and uninspired.
AEW Fight Forever feels different, and that’s amazing. In Road to Elite, players can customize a lot, right down to the diet their fighter will have during the game.
2 The worst: fluency
The biggest problem with AEW Fight Forever as of now is that everything in the title feels a bit out of place. The gameplay isn’t bad, in fact, when the game is at its best, it’s a lot of fun. The problem is that he is not at his best often.
In contrast, Fight Forever is susceptible to frame drops often. While that will likely be fixed, the game itself feels incredibly unresponsive at times, especially when trying to chain combos together or counter an opponent.
1 Best: Arcade-style gameplay
The good news for wrestling fans is that AEW Fight Forever is a much-needed return to the arcade genre. While some games in the genre have come out in recent years, like WWE 2K Battlegrounds, those titles weren’t particularly great.
Meanwhile, Fight Forever is well done and a very fun title that dwarfs its sim counterparts. Fans have waited a long time for a good arcade wrestling game, and they finally have it.