Hands on from PAX East 2011

[korly]

I spent about an hour with the game over two days, and here are the facts:

B button grapples, and LT+B does a strong grapple (slower grab obviously).

Once in a grapple state you can press X or A for a front grapple, B for a back grapple, or Y for a hammer throw.

All 4 buttons show up under each wrestler and kinda like Tecmo Bowl, if your opponent guesses which move you're going to do, he counters it.

The only time I saw that your opponent couldn't counter was after a successful parry (more on that in a minute) or a back grab.

RT is the block button and depending on your "luck" stat it will sometimes turn into a parry (the glowing orange hand from the gamespot article). It doesn't seem to be timing based.

X button does quick strikes and 3 hit combo strings. A button is your heavy strike (big boot, dropkick, etc).

LT runs, but you can't do any kind of running strike/clothesline. If you run toward someone and hit x/a you'll just stop running and do your standing strike. The only way to execute a running grapple is to first run toward the ropes, and then run off the ropes toward your opponent. The problem with this is that it seems pretty hard to line up exactly with your opponent and hit them with it, especially since they can easily move in any direction and "groggy" states seem extremely rare. Also, a quick strike will always beat a running attack.

You get one downed attack using the x button. It might be a stomp, or a submission (even though there aren't submission wins in this game that I could find) or maybe a spanking. if it's one of those grapple type moves you will kick the opponent until they spin into the right position and then have to hit x again to execute the move.

B at a downed opponent will kick your opponent to a standing position but they'll be able to immediately attack, and probably will by mashing x.

If you hammer throw to the ropes you can do a rope rebound grapple. If you hammer throw to the corner they'll just bounce out of the corner. No corner grapples.

RB does top rope moves, and planchas to the floor. Y button climbs ropes or leaves the ring. I don't think there are any foreign objects.

The 3 meters are heart, spirit, and stamina. The stamina meter decreases a set amount for each move you execute, but doesn't seem to really matter in the early going as most moves that are initially unlocked have a very small stamina requirement. If your stamina gets too low, your wrestler will start to sweat, and if you just stoop attacking for a minute the meter will refill. I don't know if you are more likely to get pinned with low stamina, and there is no breathe button.

Life meter is exactly what you think it is, and spirit meter fills when taunting (Left, right, or down on the d-pad) and doing moves. More variety = more spirit. When it is full press up on the dpad for finisher taunt (which can be interrupted, so make sure your opponents are down) and then you are in finisher state. Any attack will knock you out of finisher state though. If you successfully grapple whilst in finisher state you will go into the finisher animation. If it's a tag team match you can't do your normal finisher, because it will always be a tag team finisher.

You get an avatar award ( a lucha mask) for completing all the tutorials (or maybe it was all of the tier 1 campaign, I can't really remember).

Bottom line = 4 front grapples (2 weak, 2 strong), 2 back grapples, 1 light strike, 1 heavy strike, 1 downed move, 1 top rope move, 1 outside dive, 1 rope rebound move, 1 finisher, 1 tag team finisher, 3 taunts, 1 finisher taunt.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some other important info, but does anyone have any questions I might be able to answer?

[SonnyBone]

This s GREAT info. Thanks a ton for this.

Was there a single station for playing FPW or did they have it set up at more than one kiosk?

Could you hear the entrance music at all?

What kind of sounds are there during the match? Crowd? Music? SFX?

What kinds of finishers did you see? Singe + Tag team?

How well did the game control?

What is your overall opinion after playing it? And what did other people think of the game?

[MrMDK]

Looks about right from the video. I got the impression that the guy playing it had no idea that the wrestler sweating was a bad thing, he just kept going though his meter was empty.

So you've outlined the controls but what people want to know is how fun was it despite the early build and is it as bad to play as it was to watch? Do you kind of not notice the sloppy animation when playing?

[SonnyBone]

It's not an early build, I'm afraid. The game is gonna be out within the next 2 months, so I wouldn't expect anything to change. They're probably just testing the net code, setting up DLC, and finalizing a few things. It's way too late to start fixing that choppy mess.

[MrMDK]

You think what they sent to PAX is the latest build?? Get outta here...

[korly]

I couldn't really hear any of the sound.

It was on 2 stations (right next to the new Double Fine game Trenched).

Finishers must take FOREVER to unlock, because even at level 20 (I played for kind of a long time) I only had to finishers unlocked. A Moonsault, and a rolling german suplex into a pin. The only 2 tag team finishers that were inlocked was a stack up back drop and a double lariat.

The animation is the way it is because it has to work in terms of avatars. So yeah, you notice it. I'm sure an XBLIG developer could talk more about the limitations of animating the existing avatars, but they do about as well as can be expected.

Was it fun? Well, I had more fun with WWE AllStars (won a tournament on that at the Mad Catz booth) and that's kind of depressing. It is far better than the XBLIG wrestler that came out a few months ago (Action Arcade I think it was called) and it's kind of cool to be able to unlock a FPW mask for your avatar, but it is NOT FIRE PRO. I had an ok time with it, but with a limited number of moves to do in any given match, longer matches get boring quick. And it's too mashable (b button grapples don't reall jump forward at all, so I think the defender has a ver easy time of striking you out of most grab attempts). The real fun is just the guessing game between you and your opponent (not so much the AI) trying to guess which grapple the other person is going to do. Of course, then it just turns into a hammer throw fest, because no one ever tries to counter that.

I'll still buy it, but I'd suggest any serious wrestling fans try the trial when it's finally released (probably as part of the Summer of Arcade).


http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/attach ... 1300122967

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/attach ... 1300122967

[korly]

You think what they sent to PAX is the latest build?? Get outta here...

I'm pretty sure that what I was playing was the final build.

[korly]

I did forget one major piece of info:

20 edit slots.

Once you create someone, I couldn't figure out how to edit their base appearance again though, just their costumes.

[Carlzilla]

20 EDIT SLOTS! HOW GENEROUS!

[MrMDK]

I'll be shocked if that's a final build. If it was final why the delay? They've got to still be working on it.

It did seem to take a long time to wear down the opponent. Normally that wouldn't be an issue but when the guy playing it kept doing the same moves over and over it became highly obvious that something was wrong.

Did it seem to lack moves or was it just the guy playing? Any info on moves per character or even total moves available? Most things looked locked when the video was scrolling through the edit mode...

[korly]

I'll be shocked if that's a final build. If it was final why the delay? They've got to still be working on it.

The way XBLA works is that there is usually only one game released per week (although there are exceptions) and as such a lot of games end up in a bottleneck (finished but waiting to get pushed out when it's strategic). This is a 1st party game, so it's being held most likely until "Summer of Arcade" but who knows. I played a completely finished version of Bonk HD at NYCC back in October, and that's STILL not out. I played a few games at PAX that were obviously still in debug mode and sadly, this is not one of them.

If they get more time to polish, that's great, but I wouldn't count on it.

[SonnyBone]

I think Spike has done their work and the game is in the hands of MS now.

[korly]

OFF TOPIC:

I know it looks like I'm a noob here, but I lost my old account. I first came to FPC when Mike Quackenbush mentioned it at an indie show I went to a little while before the Dreamcast Fire Pro came out. He made his own official edit of himself on the Saturn version.

[MrMDK]

Let's all pretend to be from some concerned parents group and email microsoft about our pyromaniac kids being easily influenced. Maybe they'll change the name to xbox pro wrestling...

[MrMDK]

OFF TOPIC:

I know it looks like I'm a noob here, but I lost my old account. I first came to FPC when Mike Quackenbush mentioned it at an indie show I went to a little while before the Dreamcast Fire Pro came out. He made his own official edit of himself on the Saturn version.

I don't think anyone really cared, you're not acting like some noob or anything. Your name actually looks familiar to me...

[korly]

Let's all pretend to be from some concerned parents group and email microsoft about our pyromaniac kids being easily influenced. Maybe they'll change the name to xbox pro wrestling...

It really should just be called Avatar Wrestling, or Fire Pro Wrestling ARCADE

[SonnyBone]

I was thinking the same thing about his name.

Thanks again for the info.

Or maybe we should let these guys know that somebody has stolen their name in vain:
http://www.pro-wrestling.com/displaynew ... &sid=40406

[MrMDK]

I'm thinking it'd be real easy to change "Fire" to "Xbox" since it's the same amount of space and accurate since it's an xbox-only title and how it's not fireprogoddamnnit...

[SonnyBone]

Yeah I know... but the game has FIRE PRO WRESTLING stamped all over it. It's in the crowd, on shirts, on hats, in the backgrounds...

[MrMDK]

ah the old christian wrestling fed. I can't believe they're still around...

[Carlzilla]

Yeah I know... but the game has FIRE PRO WRESTLING stamped all over it. It's in the crowd, on shirts, on hats, in the backgrounds...

It's probably a simple fix still, it's just a couple of textures that would have to be changed. If they can't whip that up in 2 months...I don't know what the hell is wrong with them.

[MrMDK]

They could always delay it...

You hear me microsoft? YOU CAN ALWAYS DELAY IT.

11-11-11 right boner??

[Jason Blackhart]

I think Spike has done their work and the game is in the hands of MS now.

Yeah, from the tweet the Spike CEO posted last week, it looked like he couldn't say exactly when the game would be released because Microsoft are the ones publishing it:

I will think that it is possible to play by summer though the XBOX version cannot be said in detail because MS is a publisher.

And I doubt they'll change the name here, seeing as Spike went through the troubles of getting "Fire Pro Wrestling" trademarked internationally and MS most likely foolishly paid them extra to whore out their brand's good name...

[MrMDK]

sometimes you're a real buzzkill, ya know that?

[SonnyBone]

Face it, doodz. We're now posting on an avatar wrestling game fan board. Good call on closing the registrations, MDK. Good foresight.