Action Arcade Wrestling is a ’90s style professional wrestling game that takes players back to an era when wrestling was more about glamour and over-the-top antics when we all thought wrestling was real. As a kid, wrestling was larger than life for me and with Action Arcade Wrestling, I’m able to go back and relive those childhood memories. Developed by Vico Game Studio, Action Arcade Wrestling is wrestling at its finest.
I love games that get right to the point and Action Arcade Wrestling is all about the action. The game features over 30 wrestlers, 25 playable game modes, and tons of iconic moves. There aren’t any crazy story modes you have to play or career modes. This game straight-up just throws you into the action.
The game isn’t too hard to pick up and learn either. There are some basic button presses, which are just attack and grapple, but a combination of those two and directional presses can perform strong attacks, strong grapples, whips, aerial moves, ground attacks, etc. It’s just knowing when to perform them and where to perform them. Luckily, there is a really good tutorial section in the game that I highly suggest everyone do before playing. Otherwise, you won’t really know how to perform any of the advanced moves and tactics.
What’s great is that a lot of the classic moves are there. You can slam opponents into the turnbuckle, whip them across the ropes, throw them out of the ring, and even climb the top ropes to perform an ariel move. Most of the over-the-top moves you grew up loving are here despite the fact that the game doesn’t have any licensed characters. However, it seems like you’ll be able to create your own characters to at least resemble some real-world ones once the feature goes live on release.
Graphically, the game doesn’t look too bad either. It does look pretty retro though. I like the look of the characters and how they’re cell-shaded. The ring looks like a ring so there’s that. The background however is kind of bland and lifeless even though there is a crowd back there. It just looks really sad like they’re having their wrestling matches in a dark high school gym and not in an arena packed with thousands of screaming fans. They could have done a better job with this, but in the end, it doesn’t detract from the fantastic gameplay.
So is Action Arcade Wrestling a buy? If you can get past the fact that there aren’t any licensed characters or arenas, then yes. This is a solid pro wrestling game with controls that are easy to pick up and provide non-stop action for wrestling fans. I like that it isn’t bogged down by a career mode and instead, just throws you into some good old-fashioned wrestling matches. With that said, obviously, it’s a better game if you have friends and family to play with seeing as playing with real people is always more fun than against the CPU. So take that into consideration too.
Action Arcade Wrestling is available now on the Nintendo eShop.
Disclaimer: Received game from developer and/or publisher for coverage purposes.
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