Action Arcade Wrestling 2 Initial Thoughts

August 11, 2013 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Games 0

Designed by a three-man team, “Action Arcade Wrestling 2” is an endeavor of the heart. Developer Dave Horn and his team wanted to create a spiritual successor to “Wrestlefest” in the first “Action Arcade Wrestling” and succeeded- the game was a blast, in spite of a few gameplay hiccups.

“Action Arcade 2” is a different animal all together. It isn’t quite a “Wrestlefest” title and it’s not exactly a modern day grappling simulation either. That fact alone may hurt its genre appeal, but overall, it manages to squeak out the early pinfall, simply due to all of the moves incorporated in the game and the pick-up-and-play type controls.

Lets get one thing straight- although it tries to look as much like a current generation grappler, “Action Arcade Wrestling” is not for those looking for an alternative to “WWE 2K14.” However, those who grew up on the NES and Genesis and even the arcade days of wrestling fill find that it can fill a nostalgic void for a while.

Simply put, the problems the game has with collision detection and the animation blending hurts in single player. It sometimes makes the game tedious and annoying. But in a two-player situation, when both players deal with the same problems, it goes completely out the window. Two-player bouts are silly and fun and thanks to a decent, but also buggy Create-a-Wrestler mode, you can put yourself in the game, add all of your favorite moves and even your own ring music.

That’s not to say the game looks bad however. Some of the animations are downright awesome. Just like the DDT in the first game, the DDT this year looks just as cool. Some other maneuvers will give you that “WCW/nWo: Revenge” feeling in your gut. The same thing goes for the gameplay as the matches have a nice arcade feel to them and are fast paced.

Polish like this is a new thing for the 360 Indie Games environment. And after an hour or two of gamplay, you understand that while this team may not have been sure if they were going for a modern title or another retro funfest, the median they managed to hit is still an attractive one that can be enjoyed.

Stay tuned next week for our full review.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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