Fire Pro Wrestling World - PlayStation 4

If you're looking for an alternative to the other major wrestling game on the market, you won't go wrong here. It's Fire Pro, in its purest form, brought to the PS4 - after spending a year on Steam in Early Access. Good amount of wrestlers to start with, a TON of custom content to find and download through the in-game browser (which connects to an outside FPW website), great moves, controls, the works. It is WILDLY different from the 2K wrestling games, and it has a moderate learning curve, but if you're looking for something different in your wrestling games, this is a great game to get.

I can't even begin to explain how happy I am that this series has returned. I've been a fan of and playing the various incarnations of this series over the various systems for over 20 years and I can honestly say they've been some of the best game times I've ever had. It may not has the elegant visuals of the WWE 2K series but the game play is unmatched and the play actually comes across far closer to anything you might see on tv....it never just goes through the motions. In the past week it's been out there are over 6000 edits based on real wrestlers are uploaded to their site and more are constantly being added. Make your own fed. Play. Sim matches. Have fun. Go on Victory Road to win the IWGP Championship. Have a steel cage match. Endure a barb wire death match. Enter the Octagon. Rumbles, every variety of tag match. This is a game you'll be playing for years not months

A classic. With thousands of free public workshop items this is the largest best supported wrestling game ever made. It’s an acquired taste, but I would never give my copy up.

The king of the ring has returned. This is the perfect wrestling game. I love the art style but some people won't be able to get past it and that's a shame. This has and will always be the greatest wrestling video game series ever created. It's fun, deep, and gives you so many customization options that you'll never get bored.

Not bad but it is repetitive and doesn’t have any real longevity as far as a story mode or a “universe mode” type of thing.

For my first review of the new decade (I missed writing any for the last month of last decade!), I decided to review this game. The first thing I'll say is that I'm not writing this review as a hardcore fan of FP or NJPW. Although I susally like wrestling GAMES, I don't really follow Japanese wrestling (for that matter, I don't really follow American wrestling anymore!), and the only other FP game I've ever had (or played) is FPW Returns for PS2. I do like this game, although I don't think it's as close to "perfect" as I've read; there are a number of things that I think could have been better.While the fact that this game has the NJPW license (as far as I know, it's the first FP game to have ANY actual wrestling company license) may be a huge plus to a lot of people, to me it doesn't really matter, since I don't really keep up with wrestling anyway. I suppose the roster is a very good size, with all of the NJPW guys and the "SWA" ones (whom people seem to have a tendency to ignore, at least in their reviews). However, when compared to the literally HUNDREDS of wrestlers on the PS2 game (which I believe came out a little over a decade before this one), the size of it doesn't seem particularly impressive, at least not to me. Also, while that other game didn't have any real-life NAMES on it, many of the wrestlers on it were clearly based on real guys, including many WCW and WWF/E ones (some of my personal favorites among them). I personally think that the roster of that game, even though it's an "older" game for a two-generations-old system, FAR outdoes that of this one. Of course, if I were an NJPW fan, the fact that this game has those NJPW guys (under their real names) might make the roster appeal to me more for that. And yes, you can create (and download other people's CAWs of) missing wrestlers for this game, which is cool, but if the guys had been on it from the start, that would have been much cooler, even if they did have "fake" names!As for the graphics, which are in the trademark FP 2D style, I do think they're kind of neat, and that people shouldn't bulldoze or ignore the game because of them. While a change to larger, 3D wrestler graphics might allow them to be more detailed and look more realistic, the more "retro" 2D ones ARE kind of a nice change of pace from (and make an interesting contrast to) those of the MANY WWE games that have been put out for the PS3 and/or PS4 (and systems I don't have).As far as the wrestling controls (and the "learning curve" that has been written of), it seems to me that the hardest thing to get down is the timing --- I still can't say that I have it "down"! In my experience (which may be different from other players'), trying to do moves at EXACTLY the right moment can be infuriating, at least when you're fighting (or TRYING to fight) an AI opponent, and the AI keeps wailing away on you as you miss executing moves. In fact, I played through the "basic moves" tutorials in Mission Mode, and some of those were rather challenging for me even though the "trainer" doesn't really fight you like in a real match! (You get body-slammed if you miss getting a move off in time.) My bro and I had played a few one-on-one matches beforehand (which was much more enjoyable), and we had actually figured out some of the stuff ourselves by experimenting. (I haven't tried playing in the Fighting Road or League Match modes.) I think the PS2 game had the same or similar controls, but I don't recall getting so frustrated with the timing on it; then again, it's been a long time since I messed with that game, and I didn't often play against the AI. I usually prefer to play wrestling games, including this one, with (or against) other humans rather than the AI.I haven't really messed with this game's create modes, except a bit under "Edit Wrestler" (forgive me if I don't get the names of modes and options exactly right in this review!), and I haven't (yet) completed any CAWs. It's cool that you can give a CAW four outfits, but I find the selection of designs available to use on them to be kind of limited. (A few of the existing wrestlers on the game [from NJPW] have three outfits, while others have two, and a few only have one; ALL of the SWA guys only have one. On FPW Returns, ALL of the guys had FOUR outits --- another thing that I think that game does better!) The CAW process is (or can be) pretty involved, as there are LOTS of things to set: parameters, skills, moves, etc. I can see how some people may prefer to download other people's CAWs rather than go through the very extensive process of making their own and setting everything themselves. (It's possible for a CAW mode to be too limiting, but maybe it's also possible for it to be a bit too deep!) As for the other things you can create, like ring designs and refs, I don't really care about that stuff myself.While I've mentioned downloading CAWs a couple of times, I haven't yet pointed out the fact that the process of downloading them and making them "usable" is kind of cryptic. As far as I can tell, there are NO in-game instructions on all of the (really too many) steps you have to take to proceed. Here they are: 1) Select the "FPW NET" option under the "Edit Mode" options; 2) Select "View Creations" (or whatever the option is called --- it's the first one), which will take you to where you download wrestlers (and other stuff) from; 3) "Subscribe" to the CAW(s) you want; 4) This is probably the most "hidden" step: RESTART the game. The CAW(s) you selected will now download. But you STILL can't use the CAW(s) just yet. That's the end of the actual downloading part of the process, but now there's something ELSE you have to do: assign the CAW(s) to a roster (or rosters), which is done (this is the way *I* found, anyway) under the "Transfer Wrestler" option under the "Edit Team" option in "Edit Mode." Got all that? (The CAW[s] will be under the "Retire" category.) Now you can FINALLY use the CAW(s). I really can't blame anyone for being confused by this not-really-clear and kind-of ridiculous process, and possibly even thinking the CAWs don't download. I REALLY think the developers could have implemented this downloading feature better, especially when it comes to CAWs. It's cool that the game lets you do this (and from what I've read, there are unlimited slots for creations!), but how it works is kind of bonkers, especially the part about restarting the game!There are some other things I could discuss, like the many types of matches and the unfortunate fact that the Fire Promoter mode (which I'll probably get), as well as some wrestlers, are "for-money" DLC (that first item being about $20!), but this review will be a book before much longer (sorry), so I'll begin wrapping it up here by saying that I think this is a good game (though as with any wrestling game, it's perhaps better to play with and against friends and family), but I think there was room for improvement. And keep in mind that all this is coming from someone who isn't a die-hard FP or NJPW fan! (I don't know how much that fact might or might not help...)

Bought this primarily for the Fire Promoter DLC with no regrets. I'm having a blast with that mode. The gameplay is easy to learn tough to master and so much fun to play. I haven't invested this much time into a game in ages.

The reviewer below complaining about not being about to download created wrestlers clearly has problems following instructions, because that aspect of the game works perfectly : you sign in via your PlayStation network in the “FPW NET” part of Edit Mode. Click the subscribe button next to any wrestlers/ring designs/referees you want, restart the game, and ta-da ! All of your selected wrestlers will be available to be sorted into any promotions/stables you like.The game itself is fantastic. Way better than anything 2K has ever put out. Definitely more of an arcade/fighting game feel at times, but still very much wrestling with a DEEP amount of gameplays mode. Once you get the knack for the timing, you’ll have a blast. I haven’t played the series since the Game Boy Advanxe Days, and it took me only a short amount of time to get accustomed to the gameplay.Buy this now if you have a PS4 and you love wrestling. And please - dear god - RELEASE THIS FOR THE SWITCH!