Since the company’s debut in May of 2019, All Elite Wrestling has provided fans with some of the most-iconic moments in pro wrestling history. We have seen Cody Rhodes face Dustin Rhodes, Chris Jericho not only become the first World Champion, but use his legendary status to elevate two factions-worth of talent and career-best runs for veterans like CM Punk and the late Brodie Lee. Icons like Sting have shown up and found new fire in their career and added to their legacy. It has been a melting pot for all styles of pro wrestling and replicating so many different styles can be a challenge. Fight Forever has things like 3 and 4-way bouts, hardcore Lights Out matches and even a barbed wire exploding ring deathmatch alongside battle royale options.
Thankfully, AEW Games partnered with Yuke’s, the creators of 3D wrestling games 28 years ago with the first Toukon Retsuden game to create something that does the AEW roster the same level of justice in 2023 that the TR series did for the New Japan roster throughout the late ’90s. When you have a roster full of luchadores like the Lucha Bros., brawlers like Jon Moxley, and legendary technical masters like Bryan Danielson alongside those who blend all styles together like Kenny Omega, you’ve got your work cut out for you. AEW: Fight Forever delivers a wide variety of match types alongside a robust roster that can already be expanded right away - with more roster additions coming down the line.
The core main game roster is already fairly impressive and with intergender matches being available, you can expand your match selection to a greater degree than any licensed wrestling game over the last 20 years outside of Fire Pro Wrestling Returns' NJPW and STARDOM DLC. Having a match in the game feels very similar to something you would see on TV, while the gameplay is designed to be similar to what was done with No Mercy in 2000 or for a more modern example, the GameCube’s Day of Reckoning games. There, you have a light grapple and strike system in place for variety and a required grapple for most moves - very similar to what we have here in Fight Forever, only FF takes things further with more organic interaction with the environment. Like No Mercy, there are degrees with which you can interact with your surroundings and Fight Forever takes things a step further with things like barricade dives and throws through barricades and parts of the set like the video wall.
It very much feels like a modernized version of those games, but with a modern roster. On day one, you can add Matt Hardy in both Broken and Hardy Boyz form for $4.99 or you can get the FTR Revival pack to add FTR and two mini-games to the lineup for $11.99. The season pass is the best overall value and that gets you FTR now alongside the Limitless Bunny Keith Lee/Allie DLC and then the HOOKHausen pack later on. The Elite Edition is the best value if you don’t already have the core game as that gets you everything listed for $79.99 normally, or $69.59 with the launch discount. AEW: Fight Forever is available now on Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC with an introductory discount of 13% taking it down to $52.19 for the base game. It plays wonderfully on the Steam Deck, although if you’re playing docked, you do want to have a keyboard ready as the on-screen keyboard can be finicky.
