Gaming Target - Game Boy: Fire Pro Wrestling

Written by Kyle Williams on June 19, 2001

Review: The only thing this is missing is Hulk Hogan, but you can design him yourself.

Game Boy Advance is showing itself to be a powerful little handheld system and Fire Pro Wrestling is a good is a good example of what you can pack into a tiny little cartridge. Without the affiliation of any pro wrestling organization you might think that this title just wouldn't have what it takes to be successful, but that is not the case. What FPW lacks in big name stars it more than makes up for in options and features.

The first thing that you notice when you pick up this title is how much you have to choose from. There are 150 wrestlers that you can play as, each with his own look and fighting style. True, there are a lot of similarities between the various contestants, but if you look long enough, you will find exactly which wrestler you are looking for. If by some chance you can't find your man, you can always design him.

That's right, a handheld game is finally offering the kind of customization that we have seen on console titles for some time now. You can select everything from name and appearance to special skills and individual moves. The wrestlers are not the only thing you can customize in this game. You can also set up your own league with up to 64 different wrestlers and assign the various combatants to any of a number of either preprogrammed or customized organizations.

Once you finally get to the meat of the game, you are treated to a surprisingly in-depth fighting engine. Every button on the GBA has a different function for every situation that you find yourself in. While confusing at first, this slowly becomes intuitive and, once you begin to master them, a great deal of fun. Honestly though, the game is extremely difficult when you first pick it up, and it takes several matches before you are able to get a feel for the timing you need to be effective. The saving grace here is that there are 10 different CPU difficulty levels, the lowest of which a beginner might actually have a chance against. In addition to having a lot of wrestlers to choose from, you are bombarded with match styles as well. From single fall matches to four-player battle royal, you can play this game for hours and never run the same type of fight twice.

The graphics of Fire Pro Wrestling are done very well. Each wrestler is animated accurately, and every character actually stands according to his individual fighting style. It is amazing how much detail has been crammed into a portable game. The only complaint in the visual department is in how small things are. Some of the detail that has been put into the game is lost in the fact that it is so tiny. It is also amazing how much is done with the sound in this game. Each wrestler has his own theme music and the crowd actually roars along with the performance of the wrestlers.

All things said, this is a very solid title that only suffers from having a difficult learning curve. The difficulty can be frustrating at first, but with persistence, you will finally get the hang of the game and have a great time executing pile drivers, body slams, and arm bars. With all of the options that are available, you will find yourself coming back to this title time and time again.