AEW Fight Forever to me doesn’t seem much like a wrestling game. To me, in my opinion, feels more like an arcade beat ’em-up game, more like Smackdown vs Raw was, and that’s ok.

What I’m not happy about is the lack of a roster. The roster for AEW Fight Forever is really, really weak. There’s no Evil Uno, for example. Granted he did address this, saying

“No, Evil Uno is not a playable character in #AEWFightForever yet.”

The keyword here, I hope, is yet. There are hidden characters apparently, like Brodie Lee, Paul Wight, and Owen Hart. But for the most part, it feels like the roster is seriously lacking. As is the controls, which are very weird, and granted I’m used to 2k games, but things we take for granted, like running, are very strange to control. Overall, I’ve already sunk 2 hours into the game, so I’m unable to return it.

The Problem With AEW Fight Forever

I’ve slowly been plodding through the Road to Elite storyline, and while it’s OK, the promos mixed in with the game are kind of cool, but a lot of things are annoying. The one thing that bothers me is, while my character is the Women’s Champion, I’ve had maybe 3 matches in the women’s division. The rest has been vs men, which is OK, I like that men can fight women, and wish we could in other games.

I’d love to have someone like Kevin Nash beat the shit out of that pitiful excuse of a roster member Rousey. But I did enjoy having her beat the shit out of Phil Brooks, another pitiful excuse of a roster member. However, considering it’s a female wrestler, and she’s the Women’s Champion, why is she fighting men over and over and over and not defending her Women’s Championship?

Though currently the Inner Circle and Pinnacle have split, and I’m apparently fighting both Jericho and MJF for some strange reason, instead of picking a side to join. It’s just one of many issues with the game, strange matches that make no sense while you’re in the middle of a storyline.

As I said earlier, I’m used to 2k’s controls, and THQs are very strange. It’s a lot of button-mashing, which isn’t that great to me. I like how 2k has the reverse buttons and such where you can easily see them, while THQ is like “Just mash this, maybe it’ll work.”

Then there’s the run, which pisses me off to no end. You can “run” sure, by pressing B on the controller (I use a rechargeable wireless Xbox one), but it doesn’t seem to do much. You “Run” towards someone and can hit them, but it’s clunky, at best. The trigger buttons (LB, LB1, RB, RB1) aren’t used all that much, unlike 2k which utilizes all the buttons. I win most matches just by punching and kicking someone to death, with a few moves here and there.

The one thing I DO like is weapon usage. I can get 2 good hits in with weapons and not get DQ’d, which is more realistic than 2k’s One and Done policy.

Overall, I’m not thrilled with the game, hence this very, very short review. I’m hoping that some patches fix the gameplay, like running. The potential is there, the idea is there, but it’s just not implemented correctly yet, and that’s something THQ needs to do.

They knocked it out of the park with the old WWE games on the n64, but they missed the mark on Fight Forever. But not by much. It’s there, it’s ALMOST there. Don’t fall short THQ, make that last leap, get us there. Give us some better roster members, and fix some of the bugs, which they are doing (Patch 1.1 just came out recently). So here’s hoping. As of right now, I’d rate it 5/10. THQ can do a hell of a lot better, I don’t know why this game is so mid-tier.