AEW: Fight Forever Review – All In

Much like in the real world, pro-wrestling in video games has also more or less been dominated by a singular company—WWE. Predictably, this has, over time, led to a general lack of choice when it comes to big 3D wrestling games. Outside of a few smaller titles like Fire Pro Wrestling World and MDickie titles like Wrestling Empire, pro-wrestling fans have had little in the way of options aside from the yearly WWE releases. Sure, the last couple of games—WWE 2K22 and WWE 2K23—have generally been of a higher quality than the majority of WWE games we got in the last decade, they’ve still been rather dull compared even to older WWE titles like WWE: Here Comes the Pain on the PS2 or WWF: No Mercy on the Nintendo 64.

Rival upstart company All Elite Wrestling popped up in 2019 to offer some competition to WWE in pro-wrestling, and the company seems keen to do the same in the video game space as well. After spending around four years in development, AEW: Fight Forever is finally here, and much like AEW’s shows, the game also hopes to offer a true alternative to WWE’s games. Where the much larger WWE games tend to feature higher fidelity graphics and gameplay that sometimes gets quite close to realism, AEW: Fight Forever instead has opted for a stylized visual style, and fast, arcade-y gameplay. How well did this risk pay off?

Let’s get the most obvious thing out of the way. AEW: Fight Forever isn’t the most high-fidelity wrestling game out there. Even if you compare it to some of the WWE games from the mid-2010s, AEW’s outing looks more like it would be a late-era PS2 or an early PS3 release. This is largely due to the fact that developer Yuke’s has foregone photorealistic models for the game’s roster, and has instead gone for a more exaggerated look for all of the game’s wrestlers. While it may make the game look rather low-end from the outset, the art style the studio decided to go with adds quite a bit to the fast-paced arcade-like gameplay of AEW: Fight Forever.

"The art style the studio decided to go with adds quite a bit to the fast-paced arcade-like gameplay of AEW: Fight Forever."

However, the gameplay in AEW: Fight Forever might just be some of the finest pro-wrestling gameplay since the old days of playing WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain back on the PS2. The game manages to have an incredibly simple control scheme that doesn’t take more than five minutes to figure out, but the options it allows in strike combos, grappling, and reversals go a long way in adding a lot of depth to the title’s frantic matches. With little more than a button each for punches, kicks, grapples, running, and reversals, AEW: Fight Forever is able to present an incredibly easy-to-understand control scheme that slowly opens up the more you start experimenting with pressing different buttons in different situations.

Of course, this means that the game’s stacked roster also allows for quite a bit of uniqueness in each moveset. Transitioning a simple grapple into a complicated submission hold while playing as Bryan Danielson, or putting your hands in your pockets as Orange Cassidy to trigger his Sloth Style moveset is well within character for each of these wrestlers, and the simple control system makes emulating real matches from AEW’s big shows quite intuitive. Various members of the game’s roster also have unique quirks to their moveset, allowing them to further embody their real-world equivalent. For example, the villainous MJF can pretend to grovel on the ground as a counter to an attack, quickly poking their opponent in the eyes when they’ve let their guard down.

When it comes to match types, AEW: Fight Forever offers quite a decent line-up, be it regular singles or tag-team matches, or more complicated match types like the Exploding Barbed Wire Death match or the Battle Royale match. Every match type in the game ends up having unique mechanics that can be played around with, from usable weapons in No-DQ matches, to whipping your opponents into exploding barbed wire in the aforementioned match types. The extra mechanics work well with every wrestler’s moveset, and even some weapons end up having special mechanics. For example, finding a skateboard under the ring means you can pull off sick jumps and flips. Finding a fire extinguisher lets you spray on your opponents’ face. The list goes on and on.

"Extra mechanics work well with every wrestler’s moveset, and even some weapons end up having special mechanics."

Despite the game’s mid-tier visual fidelity, AEW: Fight Forever is filled to the brim with tiny details that can bring a smile to any pro-wrestling fan. For example, get poked in the eye and your movement controls get screwed up, since your wrestler can’t see for a few seconds. Several wrestlers can pull off surprise moves from the ground, like quick roll-up pins, or a surprise power move as the start of a comeback. There are also quite a few goodies hidden in the in-game shop, which can only be unlocked by earning in-game cash by playing matches or going through the career mode.

Speaking of career mode, AEW: Fight Forever emulates the one from the classic WWF No Mercy. You pick a wrestler, either one from the game’s core roster or a custom-made one, and go through various events in a full AEW calendar year. Along the way you’ll find yourself in various feuds, sometimes over championships, and both winning and losing take you down completely separate branching paths. As you move on through big events in the career mode, you also get a look back at AEW’s real-world history, complete with real footage showcasing some of the biggest moments and matches in the company’s first few years.

Wrestling matches and taking part in mini-games also gets you skill points and money. The money can be used to buy instant quick buffs, while the skill points—usable only on custom wrestlers—can be spent to improve your wrestler’s stats and abilities. In fact, going through the career mode is the only way you can improve a custom wrestler’s capabilities, and if you want any hopes of beating Jon Moxley in a singles match with your custom wrestler on the Elite difficulty setting, you’ll want to get some skill points first. A full playthrough of the career mode also brings new items in the in-game shop that can be unlocked, like match types and minigames.

"Taking part in mini-games also gets you skill points and money."

Unfortunately, not everything is sunshine and rainbows in AEW: Fight Forever, and the game definitely has more than a couple of problems, which largely stem from it being a attempt at this sort of game in a long time. The biggest complaint I personally had is the lack of online community creations for custom creations. Modern WWE games let you share or download wrestlers, championship belts and arenas through its online features; an option that AEW: Fight Forever sorely lacks. There’s also a lack of real tag teams, with big names like FTR being absent until the first wave of DLC hits the game. Some might also find the lack of complete entrance animations a bad thing, but as someone who mostly ends up skipping them after the first couple of matches anyway, I never really saw it as much of a problem.

AEW: Fight Forever feels like a return to form for pro-wrestling games. Long mired in the depths of attempted simulation for the sake of “realism”, the genre has mostly been monopolized by a singular franchise. With the release of AEW: Fight Forever, however, we finally have a decent alternative for those among us who are more interested in the fast-paced, almost fighting game-esque gameplay of the WWE games of the past.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.