10 Ups & 4 Downs For AEW: Fight Forever - REVIEW

3. Limited Match Types

AEW Fight Forever Casino Battle Royale
THQ Nordic

While AEW: Fight Forever is fun to play, it's hard to argue that its match types aren't extremely limited.

Of course, the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match is something that grabs the attention, but that can't distract from the bare-bones nature of the types of bouts on offer here.

There's a Ladder Match option, with the ladder itself being easy to use and the mechanic of reaching up for the casino chip a really fluid one. That contest, much like the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match, is only available as a one-on-one battle.

In terms of the other match types, there's a standard singles bout, there's a three-way singles, a four-way singles, a standard tag team match, and the Casino Battle Royale. Oh, and your standard singles match can be turned into a Lights Out affair or a Falls Count Anywhere battle.

Where the Casino Battle Royale is concerned, that's a real disappointment.

In real life, AEW's Casino Battle Royale concept features 21 wrestlers, split into four groups of five and one Joker. With the intention to be the last person standing in an over-the-top extravaganza, the match starts with a first group of five, then another five are added every three minutes, until the Joker enters last.

Unfortunately, the Casino Battle Royale on Fight Forever is only a Casino Battle Royale in name. The bout starts with four wrestlers... then a new wrestler can only enter when somebody has been eliminated. Yes, the Casino Battle Royale will only feature a maximum of four wrestlers at any one time.

For whatever reason, Fight Forever can never have more than four wrestlers - and a referee - in the ring at once; at least in offline play. Considering 2000's god-awful Royal Rumble on Dreamcast - another game developed by Yuke's - allowed for eight wrestlers in the ring, it's crazy to see Fight Forever's in-ring limit here in 2023.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.