Fire Pro Wrestling review (Game Boy Advance)

Fire Pro's create-a-wrestler feature is one of its strongest points, with more than 1,200 techniques to choose from as well as hundreds of faces and body parts--all in an intuitive, easy-to-manipulate system that creates fighters every bit as interesting and detailed as those available within the game. Character AI can be edited to determine fighter movement and actions when controlled by the CPU and can thus be manipulated to create the perfect tag team partner or truly aggressive opponent. Assigning skills, offensive and defensive attributes, and special abilities--like "one-minute finisher" or "submission criticals"--is loads of fun and can be used to re-create just about any fighter from any real-life fighting style imaginable. We had the chance to create a fist-fighting specialist modeled after Tank Abbott and had lots of fun knocking people out with mounted punches, basic striking attacks, and the occasional dirty trick.

Fire Pro Wrestling graces players with a multitude of enjoyable play options. Exhibition matches may take place with up to four wrestlers in the ring at once, in standard or "gruesome" (octagonal UFC-style) rings and even electrified cages. You can then participate in tournaments, five-on-five tier matches, and even enter a 64-fighter league. The deepest mode, however, is the intriguing audience match mode, which simulates the crowd-pleasing, entertainment aspect of wrestling. Your fighter competes in a series of matches, advancing from one rank to the next by defeating a predetermined number of opponents and attaining the necessary fan satisfaction rate. The criteria for impressive performances is based on the league you join, which can range from the stoic style--in which defeating your opponent as quickly as possible is the objective--to the Luchador style, in which high-flying, high-risk maneuvers win over the crowd. Completing all four ranks in a style will unlock additional wrestlers and fighters for future matches, as well as mark the victorious wrestler with a star on the character selection screen to denote his champion status. In all the modes, the scalable AI is extremely challenging and can pull off upsets and last-minute criticals with ruthless ability. Fire Pro Wrestling also lets up to four players link together for participating in tournaments, battle royals, or just for trading wrestlers.

Fire Pro Wrestling has made the transition from Japan to the US extremely well. Even though Fire Pro Wrestling doesn't bear any official licenses, when all the superfluous gimmicks and options are tossed aside and the comparisons are made, it shines as an enjoyable, solid wrestling game that will provide hours upon hours of entertainment to fans of the genre.