AEW: Fight Forever from THQ Nordic and YUKE’S brings us an arcade-style wrestling experience in the All Elite Wrestling world. Check our AEW: Fight Forever review!
AEW: Fight Forever from THQ Nordic and YUKE’s brings us an arcade-style wrestling experience in the All Elite Wrestling world. It’s the first full-fledged wrestling video game officially licensed by All Elite Wrestling, and it features a ton of wrestlers and game modes. Having YUKE’s as the developer is a huge deal in the video game wrestling world. For more than 10 years, YUKE’s was in charge of developing all video games licensed by the then WWF and later WWE – more on this below – alongside THQ as publisher. The series then moved to 2K and was rebranded as WWE 2K.
If you’re new to All Elite Wrestling, it’s a professional wrestling promotion that is now the second largest wrestling promotion, only behind World Wrestling Entertainment – formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation back in the day until the name had to be changed since the WWF acronym trademark was disputed in a lawsuit by the World Wildlife Fund. You know, so that those who wanted to learn more about the NGO founded in 1961 would not be confused about all the wrestling going on in the name of the conservation of thousands of environments and their wildlife.
How many wrestlers from the AEW will be represented in AEW: Fight Forever? As it turns out… a lot! Here’s the complete roster:
| Abadon | Adam Cole | Andrade el Idolo | Anna Jay |
| Aubrey Edwards | Brian Cage | Britt Baker | Mr. Brodie Lee |
| Bryan Danielson | Chris Jericho | Christian Cage | Chuck Taylor |
| CM Punk | Cody Rhodes | Darby Allin | Dustin Rhodes |
| Eddie Kingston | Hikaru Shida | Jade Cargill | Jeff Hardy |
| John Silver | Jon Moxley | Jungle Boy | Kenny Omega |
| Kris Statlander | Lance Archer | Luchasaurus | Malakai Black |
| Matt Jackson | Miro | MJF | Nick Jackson |
| Nyla Rose | Orange Cassidy | Owen Hart | Pac |
| Paul Wight | Penta el Zero Miedo | Powerhouse Hobbs | Rey Fenix |
| Ricky Starks | Riho | Ruby Soho | Sammy Guevara |
| Scorpio Sky | Sting | Tay Melo | Thunder Rosa |
| Trent Beretta | Wardlow | Yuka Sakazaki |
Yes, that’s not the entire AEW roster. Yes, there are some wrestlers missing here and there. Yes, more wrestlers will be added to the game by way of its Season Pass. Get the Season Pass, and you’ll also get some new mini-games on top of the extra wrestlers! First up will be the FTR: Revival Pack with Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler PLUS mini-games JoinUs and Deth Race-X. Next will be the Limitless Bunny Bundle which features wrestlers The Bunny and Keith Lee PLUS mini-games MJF Car Thrash and Sloth Sling. And then there’s the Hookhausen Very Handsome, Very Evil Pack, which features wrestlers HOOK and Danhausen.
How will you get to enjoy your time with AEW: Fight Forever? There are different options to play. There’s Road to Elite, which works as the game’s main story mode. You’re probably used to how, in other games with a story mode, you need to win it all to be able to make it to the end of your journey. For Road to Elite, the story will change depending on if you win or lose matches along the way.
Along with the cutscenes that will tell your story and how each match you participate in will affect your journey, you will also need to work on improving your wrestler by deciding how you’ll spend your time between each match. The choices you make will allow you to improve your wrestler. Will you train to try and improve your skills, even if doing so could end up leaving your character with an injury? Will you grab a quick bite to relax and unwind for a bit? Or maybe you should try to promote how awesome you are so that you can gain more fans?
There’s also a variety of exhibition options for you to check out, with 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 options, 3-way and 4-way matches, a Casino Battle Royale, an Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match, or a Ladder Match. You can play locally or go online and give it your all in a ranked match. You could also play an online casual match or a private match. And while, as mentioned before, there’s a huge roster for you to choose from, there’s also the option of customizing your overall experience.
This includes creating a wrestler, building up a wrestling team, and even customizing an arena! You can start by selecting if you’ll work on a new male or female wrestler. After that, you can dive into creating unique wrestlers that can be modified as you please. You can pick its name, announce name, crowd reaction, hometown, country, weapon of choice, pose, AI type, and voice. Once that’s taken care of, you can select your ring attire for head, upper body, lower body, or full body. You can also configure your entrance attire and street clothes.
But what will be really important is the move set you select for your wrestler. As expected, this will dictate what you can do during a wrestling match. You will be able to pick moves that can complement your fighting style so that your custom character can shine in the ring. Maybe you’d like to try and recreate the move set of your favorite wrestler? Or perhaps you want to walk down your own path and work on something extra special. Do know that some newly created wrestlers won’t have access to skills, which is why you will need to develop them by playing through Road to Elite. You should also select your taunts to, well, taunt your opponents with the right analog stick.
You’ll control your wrestler with the left analog stick, using the Square and Triangle buttons to punch and kick at your opponent. When you find an opening, use the X button to grapple to grab your opponent. Once you have the upper hand, press a direction and the Square, Triangle, or X button to perform a variety of moves. To defend yourself, you can press the L1 button for a grapple guard or the R1 for a strike guard. Do this at the right time, and you’ll be able to guard and perform a counterattack.
You can also use the R2 button to go out of the ring or to climb up a corner post. Once you’ve dealt enough damage and think that you have a chance of winning a match, you can press the L1 button to try and pin your opponent. The right analog stick can be used to taunt, which can be very useful when you have access to your signature move since this will allow you to charge up your special! Once that’s ready to go, you can grapple your opponent and then use the right analog stick to trigger your finisher.
The game also offers you a series of challenges to complete. These are goals that you can aim at working on while playing. Along with the daily and weekly challenges, there are also many challenges that are available for you to try and complete at your own pace. Complete challenges to earn rewards and obtain AEW Cash, which is the in-game currency that can be used at the shop. Your hard-earned AEW Cash can be used to purchase new poses, objects for arenas, additional special moves, new entrance motions, and more.
Since AEW: Fight Forever is a retail release, that means we’re getting a full trophy list on PlayStation with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. There are 28 Bronze trophies, 6 Silver trophies, and 4 Gold trophies to work on. Since it’s a longer list, there are several objectives for you to complete for this set of trophies. Defeat a COM controlled opponent in an exhibition match, win a match after hitting an opponent with a signature and finisher, win a 4-way match with all COM opponents on hard difficulty or higher in an exhibition match, push over a ladder that an opponent is on and knock that opponent down in a Ladder Match, and you’ll be on your way to adding that Platinum trophy to your collection.
AEW: Fight Forever brings us a packed wrestling game from the experts at YUKE’s that brings to life the recent All Elite Wrestling universe on PlayStation 5. There’s a ton of content to enjoy in this one, with several game modes, many customization options, daily and weekly challenges to complete, mini-games, and more. It’s a retail game that will certainly bring joy to both AEW fans and those new to this wrestling promotion. AEW: Fight Forever is out tomorrow on PlayStation with a $59.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This AEW: Fight Forever review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by THQ Nordic.
