The Sad Decline of AEW FIGHT FOREVER: 6 MONTHS LATER 

Good career mode? No ,lots of match types? No, full roster ? No, universal mode? No, only minor bugs and glitches? No, good pin system? No, wasted potential of a good game? Yes

People keep saying WWE is more focused on simulation gameplay but they keep forgetting you can literally go into the options and get rid of all of the simulation aspects of the game. Its literally right there in the options.

When people today refer to N64 wrestling games as arcade it reveals alot. It was actually the Smackdown games on PS that were the arcade type. The No Mercy type games were the slower, simulation type.

People on reddit SWORE they loved this game. They were kidding themselves

People wanted a game that reminded them of 90s wrestling games, not a wrestling game that felt like it was made in the 90s.

All that time spent on those awful mini games would have been better spent expanding the match types and adding more layers to the main game mechanics. What a complete waste of time and effort. WWF No Mercy never had all that crap, it focussed entirely on good gameplay, a solid branching career campaign, and excellent match modes that were all fun to play. I feel bad for Evil Uno having to promote this and he never even got to be in the game. What a slap in the face.

It’s funny how just about every criticism of this game could also apply to the company itself.

I consider Mdickie's Wrestling Empire as the spiritual successor to the N64 era of wrestling games.

"Decline?" Dude, that suggests that the game actually had a peak. It was hamstrung the second it came out, and never even bothered to correct its off-the-shelf problems prior to losing any and all direction. I'm hard pressed to think of another game that had so much hope and goodwill going in, only for the devs to squander it with such an aggressive level of ineptitude. You expect that crap from shovelware on steam and EA/Ubi/2K, but these dopes pulled the heel turn of the decade in how they've treated their supporters.

What’s really sad is I want to play it but I’m not buying it at the price it’s at. No demo. No trial. Not a big enough sale… I wonder how they’re doing in the sales department. That price has to drop. I can’t really give an opinion on it until I play it myself. For WWE 2K23 I can spend HOURS just cresting a wrestler. Thats not to mention creating an entrance for them and a moveset if I chose to do so. Im not buying AEW Fight Forever even at $40 if its customization is so limited. So sad.

I just want a remake of Here comes the pain. To this day it's still the best wrestling game for me at least.

Just goes to show that nostalgia doesn't always sell.

I weep knowing Owen Hart is in this failure of a game.

I remember reading tweets from AEW and Tony Khan fanboys that this was gonna be the game of the year lmao

How do you have a wrestling game without even a basic cage match?

Fight forever's problem is that it tried so hard to be like no mercy but didn't aspire to be anything more than that.

Yukes should’ve went for a smack down feel and not a no mercy feel

Very fair and accurate review. The game is desperate for more depth in terms of matchtypes which it's currently severely lacking.

Even in the video game space, AEW tried desperately to be like one of WWE's products.

they should be sued for comparing this game to No Mercy

If they made AEW : Backstage Assault I would played it 😆. I would played as CP Munk.

It's crazy we live in a world where more players on playing WWE 2K19 via steam than AEW Fight Forever

"The last few years people having been asking for a video game that captures that same energy of those N64 titles" Nah... the mistake was thinking that. Only a certain group of fans grew up playing those 90s games. A 16 yearly old wrestling fan today could care less about No Mercy on N64.

Honestly, I could forgive a lot of things about this game but 2 things kill me: -Customization SUCKS. This is not a secret, but like god damn it's disgraceful how few customization options there are for CAW. -Mash to kick out. I get no feedback from this system, I don't like it at all. The 2k stick-flick up for kickouts isn't great but at least I feel in control.

I vividly remember when Kenny Omega hyped the shit outta this. Very disappointed.

Kenny Omega gets to tug it publicly by telling people he's a video game character and developer: missions accomplished!

Wrestling fan here, favorite video game...Here Comes the Pain.

The game feels to me as though they had problems with development, finally got things generally working and then just as they were about to flesh their basic ideas out, someone said "right - time's up. Release what you've got. Oh and by the way, there's no budget to continue working on the game after launch so get the DLC sorted and we'll leave it there." There's massive potential in this game but every aspect of it needed another 6 months to refine and build upon and that clearly didn't happen.

The whole eating and training thing in the career mode was so boring. Pretty much what stopped me playing.

if the create a character was good the community would've saved this game

I played this game for a good solid week then never went near it ever again

A very fair review! Its limitations really let the game down. I enjoyed the general tone of the game and the old style mechanics. Road to Elite was fun the first couple of plays throughs, but not long after I started it up for the third time I gave up on the game all together. The fact there's no acknowledgement or title storyline after you win one sums it up. It had lots of potential, but there's not enough to keep the user coming back.

Why tf don't they have entrances for more than five seconds

All the missing modes and CAW stuff could have been fixed if they didn't waste time on a sh*tty fortnite wanna-be mode and stupid mario party modes nobody wants to play. Give that budget to most wrestling fans and they would put out a better game.

Once I seen how limited the CAW options were I knew i wasnt likely to buy the game. Then seeing all the mini games that took up space that sealed the deal for me.

A decadent game released almost 1 year ago and still expensive here in Brazil

great vid. fair assessment. btw, love the song in the backround. thats from a PS1/SegaSaturn game called MachineHead

I was pretty excited for this game till I saw the graphics. That made me wait for the reviews. Even the reviews that were good the gameplay looked bad. Hopefully they learn and come back with a better sequel.

I had high hopes honestly since Yukes made Day of reckoning on the gamecube. Those games were my favorite.

One of the biggest Wrestling Gaming Flops ever. It's still since 29.06.23 a Early Access Beta and 90% Content behind a Paywall. What a huge Flop. It had Potential, yes but with all these Paywalls etc Bugs etc. broken cheesey Mechanics etc.. it's over! Nobody will really coming back to this Game.

The good news is that money mark doesn't have to make money on wrestling, video games, or anything as long as pops keeps giving him an allowance of car bumper patents.

Everyone should've known better. Writing was on the wall from the first gameplay pics and screenshots.

So the game is repetitive with not much for storylines and has lots of glitches. It sounds spot on to actual AEW shows

Is there a meme where AEW Fight Forever replaces the Waterworld arcade game Milhouse deposits 40 quarters into?

I hadn't been this excited for a game in years. I deleted it the day it came out after 3-4 hours of playing. Small, incomplete game and with 100% sincerity...I can say it felt like getting robbed of $80 almost immediately.

Its not a sad decline.... everyone except YOU saw that this game was DOA.

Fight forever is the worst wrestling game that I've ever played. Worse than wcw thunder on the ps1 or wrestlemania challenge on the nes. This game is the drizzles

'Decline' implies there was some success to begin with, there wasn't, this game was a flop out the door. You really should retitle this video

No Mercy still absolute 🔥 in 2024!

I think smackdown vs raw 07 was the best wrestling game of all time.

Good job on the review. I think you were very fair with your assessment and I agree with a lot of your points. It's such a shame as the game has so much potential to be something special.

I still can’t get a decent online match. Never had luck getting a tag match. It’s horrible. Don’t get me started on vs. the ai matches. Holy hell

nothing worse than wasted potential,the game promised so much and delivered very little!

My mom rented it from the NYC Public library for me... was a cute gesture and also surprising it was available for a rental lol

I feel like to make a good wrestling game you have to focus on customization and ai

At no point in its release was Fight Forever ever going "smooth".

What I like about WWE2K is GM mode, picking a roster and booking matches, how they didnt put that in here makes no sense.

Half the roster has defected to wwe by this point Brody Lee passed away. CM Punk fired Jack Perry and Moxley quit. Sting retired. That's a ton of wrestlers that's left to make it feel outdated

I'd say this game was pretty successful. In getting suckers like me to plunk down that sixty on day one. Well that's how it goes...

I hope they add backstage brawl where we can fight backstage, ambulance match,and other wrestlers 😢😢

If you unlock tickle bunny cosplay mode by hiding tony's uppers to distract him so the evps can play grabass you unlock corny n he has a stroke

Hey, remember those wrestling games from 20 years ago, here it is for $60 and more. Who asked for that? Only dumb marks who never played the originals. No Mercy and Revenge were good FOR THE TIME PERIOD, as AEW just showed, it sucks today.

The problem with stadium stampede is that nobody is ever online to play it.

The wrestlers that were added post launch shouldve been free

Played this when it came out and it made me think of the PS2 WWF smackdown games, so I dug out my Smackdown Here comes the pain game and played it on my PS2 instead. Hopefully the sequel of the AEW game has better graphics if they ever do one

rumble roses on the 360 is a far better game in every aspect

Every time i see this game on a store page im blown away that it actually released

How many millions did Omega convince Tony to invest in this again? 😂

Should have season mode for 25 years with storylines

I redownloaded this game to play with some friends yesterday …. We did a 4 way match which was almost unplayable with how glitchy it was ….. oh that’s the only option for 4 people matchups. Nice. So we did the rumble. Just tons of glitches anytime more then 2 people are in the ring

I was really hyped at first but lost interest within 2 weeks of playing 💀

I find it crazy that it's 2024 and here comes the pain is still the best wrestling game period

The AEW fanbase has fallen off since one bill phil departed.

For a day or 2 I was like this is soo cool and unique on release. I bought the ultimate edition and to this day I regret it. I tried 7 times to get a refund all times denied

Here comes the pain always had me 😂🐐

I gotta laugh at the people who bought this game at full price

They didnt even bother putting on sale for Christmas, nobody wants this trash. The sad thing is, those of us who saw this coming and said so in the comments for years during gameplay trailers were seen as negative, or WWE fan boys. Hate to be right.

Is the gameplay, control-wise, similar or identical to that of No Mercy?

Should've been on Game Pass etc from launch to have a chance. Or at least the battle royale should have been. All of my mates would've tried it instead of none of us.

It's almost like the evp's who were heavily involved with this game, are complete idiots

The turn off for me was that the weapons and tables fade out, when someone is front of it

Wow I thought that was clickbait but it literally only has 3 players right now on pc

Graphics 1 star, gameplay 2 stars, originality 3 stars, fun factor 3 stars, longevity 2 stars. All in all a poor effort. The graphics for this gen are unbelievably bad. Really glitchy, restrictive roster, nah.

Anyone else notice he using Smackdowns just bring it playlist music as his background music

Casino Royal … broken trash they refuse to fix. And it’s the fist match of road to elite … Ai isn’t programmed to eliminate. Core problem. They stand and look at you waiting for you to get up , refusing to attack the other opponent, team you , and it’s just randomized chance it’ll work. Inferior a team of workers fail at something that’s their subject. Y’all bread and butter yall fail. But dance around fixing the ai and release dlc ? No seriously f these developers. If yall can’t fix casino royal but make another online mode. They are a joke. No excuses for not fixing that broken trash. Season 2 and since day one the career mode is broken. Eliminate the other wrestlers. Hate seeing them stand there and not attack the other grounded opponents. Taunt get a signature or finisher then turn directly to you. If they attack the other wrestler it’s only to build a signature or finisher and use it on you ! Still no strong grapples in that match either. Never explained why you could never ever use strong grapples in a casino royal match. I’m an artist and people demand a lot I get it. But a team is ignoring core issues within a main match type and do everything else but fix it. They choose to go around what’s needed and ask for dlc. I’m done at this point. truly disgusted they didn’t fix that mode. Said oh season 2 that means career mode is updated and fixed. Let’s go through career mode and see what’s fixed it’s been months. Yea that went badly. No more dlc support outta me. I will not buy anything else from them. They lost me.

I love Revenge, No Mercy, Here comes the pain and most of the Svr and WWE2k. 15 and 20 were dog shit and 22 and 23 have been let downs from glitches ( I can only download 35 caws... We should be able to fit 350 stars, plus 50+ arenas, championships, images, videos etc... ) to every other glitch we know. We deserve a new better wrestling game. AEW was laughably bad. No mercy was good in 99-03 but when they said a no mercy type game I didn't know they meant graphics, gameplay, how barebonrs it felt. We deserve a great wrestling game.

The gameplay is actually fun, but the devs really needs to add a whole lot of free stuff to it

Aew: Laugh Forever

Sad? How about MAD?! At least for us that pre-ordered the deluxe edotion

Anyone reading this, check out WWF Legends Challenge 64 on PC! It's a mod for N64 WWF No Mercy, with a later 80s, early 90s roster & amazing graphics!

I’m glad I never purchased this game ngl

That battle royal mode looks beyond boring!

The game was announced as a long-term game... Translated: there will be some paid DLCs to come.

This game shares much more similarities with the 2 WWF Day of Reckoning games on GameCube than it does the AKI N64 games.

Most people pick up a game, they have their time with it, and then they're done with it and move on. People have moved on. Culturally, this is weird to people in an age where everything is a live service designed from the ground up to have players playing the game for years on end. Most games that aren't live services don't retain an audience like that. There are a few special cases where the player base never seems to get tired of it, but these are few and far between. How deep do people think No Mercy really was to think that people can sit there and play it for months if not years on end in 2023/4? Not when it was released... I mean right now, when so much has changed in gaming since then. As much as some people may not like the yearly release model... think about it. You grab this year's edition, it may occupy you for a few months, you take a break from it for a few months, and then the next edition comes out next year and you're into it all over again with a "new" game (depends on whether the new stuff is substantial or not). You're going to hear about next year's game, you're going to see it on a release list, or you're just conditioned to expect it and you grab it when it's available. If you just have the same game being updated, what happens is that people lose interest and then they may never see when the game gets updates to entice them to come back to playing the same game. Once you're done with it and have moved on, what's going to make you come back if you're not even hearing about the game getting updates in the first place for you to even think about firing up the game? This is problematic for Fight Forever because the intention was to keep building on this game instead of releasing installments as separate games. If you no longer have an audience, then what's the incentive to keep building on it and fix things? Who are you releasing content and fixes for? Sure, some people may come back, but there's a point where the investment isn't worth the return, and Fight Forever may have reached that point. It was a mistake to build the game that way, because now you can't sell multiple titles, and you aren't necessarily making any money by releasing updates if people are coming back for those, but they aren't spending on DLC and shit. If people aren't coming back... then really, what do you have at this point to even bother doing updates? Either they go back on their word and release a sequel, or... I don't even know what they do with this at this point. Sequel or don't even bother with video games at all for now? It was a nice idea on paper to just update the same game over a long period of time, but I don't know... I don't think it had any hope of working out long term. It's not the right kind of game for that. That's something you typically do for live service, multiplayer-centric games.

Maybe it's just a horribly run company that is at it's core, is just a rich kids hobby.

I just picked this game up today for $10.00 at a local Walmart. The arcade style seems interesting. Yet to determine. This is April 2024.

Here Comes the Pain clears No Mercy and Revenge and it’s not even close.

The game exists so AEW can say they have a videogame, that's about it really. It's a checkbox ticked on the way to becoming 'legit'.

It looks cheap, and of what I saw, it seemed like the wrestlers moved quite wonky, so I had no reason to buy it