Fire Pro Wrestling World PS4 Review: 5 Ups & 2 Downs

Ups...

5. Fighting Road Delivers

This is the game's equivalent of a story or career mode, and it sees your created character start out as a bright New Japan young boy, slowly working your way to the top of the card, making bags of friends and enemies along the way. Typical wrestling game fodder, basically. There's nothing remarkable about it, but its simplicity is in keeping with the rest of FPWW, and it's enough to get players hooked without delving into needlessly dramatic soap opera tropes.

Fighting Road is an effective framework that gives players something to do outside the usual array of exhibitions. It brings progression and purpose, and while the narrative is basic, all most players will really want is a way to move from A to B in smart, logical fashion. Fortunately, it ticks all of these boxes.

The story is delivered in expectedly straightforward fashion, with stills of New Japan Pro Wrestling roster members delivering unvoiced lines via text. It's not the most compelling way to do things, admittedly, but this is a small development team, not the 2K juggernaut.

Most who buy this game won't be doing so because they want a big, Hollywood-style story, but a simple roadmap to experience that fantastic Fire Pro gameplay with greater purpose. Fighting Road works.