Mega Cat Studios and Skybound Entertainment have given pro-wrestling fans a different type of adventure with WrestleQuest, and if you are as avid a gamer as I than it may be right up your alley. The game officially released on August 22nd and is available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. WrestleQuest will also be available on Netflix, included with all memberships.
In light of doing a review as intricate as most gaming publications I thought I’d share with you my experience of playing through WrestleQuest after a few hours, which was kindly gifted to Wrestling Headlines by the game’s developers.
WrestleQuest sees you take on the role of Muchacho Man and Brink Logan, two fictitious characters who resemble legends Randy Savage and Bret Hart but don’t shy away from those comparisons during playthrough. Muchacho and Logan both idolize the Macho King by keeping his poster on their wall and both aspire for great things in the industry. They are accompanied by a wide variety of rivals, creatures, and real-life personas, including Diamond Dallas Page, Conrad Thompson, Sgt. Slaughter, Jake Roberts, and Jeff Jarrett to name a few.
What WrestleQuest shares with traditional wrestling games is leveling your character up, but where it vastly differs is gameplay. The RPG-styled fight system is not unfamiliar to me as I have played titles like Final Fantasy or Diablo in the past, but if the “you take a turn” then your “enemy takes a turn” format is new/dull to you then prepare for a learning curve. That’s not to say that it won’t be fun for first-timers, just different in comparison to any other wrestling game.
When competing in matches (or even random street battles that also take place in a ring with a crowd) you have several prompts like “Attack,” “Gimmick,” or “Taunt.” Either of these actions will help you cause damage to your enemy, build-up your hype meter, summon legends like LA Park, or go for the pin in one of the more unique type of mini-games.
Speaking of mini-games…WrestleQuest is littered with them. In the time I did play I personally found the matches and the mini-games to be the least exciting as they tend to be repetitive or completely throw you out of rhythm. However, I was quick to forgive these portions due to the rich world that WrestleQuest had to offer.
The lore of the game is massive, jumping through multiple eras and showcasing the “Territory Days” and the backstage politics that have followed wrestling since its inception. The dialogue is witty and the exchanges are cheesy, but never too cheesy that you draw any disconnection from Logan or Muchacho on your journey. In a few hours I was able to complete multiple Quests with ease. Fortunately, the game offers a tale that is roughly 40 hours long.
The 2D graphics give WrestleQuest a nostalgic charm even though next-gen consoles have really upped what developers can do in the contemporary world of gaming. It reminded me of the graphics of RetroSoft Studio’s 2021 release RetroMania, a throwback to classic WWF arcade games that perfectly hit the notes it was going for. Not everything in WrestleQuest lands, but it has enough hits to make me want to play more.
We ran an exclusive with one of WrestleQuests talented VO artists back in April. You can check that out here.
To conclude, WrestleQuest is not different from any traditional RPG game but it is different than any other wrestling game so I cannot recommend it enough.