![]() Hulk Hogan ripping off his shirt in a match is as guaranteed as you getting annoyed and lost in each area you explore. Navigating the areas, you encounter a mix of avoidable and unavoidable fights as well as timed obstacles and at times clunky puzzles. ![]() There is only one quest ever active at any time but the marker on the minimap is vague and misleading at times. This is the weakest part of the game, as finding where you need to go is as hard as getting out of figure-four leg lock on the mat. You wander overland, head into areas to find treasure and fight enemies, and solve minor puzzles on the way. The exploration is fairly similar to old-school RPGs like Final Fantasy VI and Chronotrigger. The core gameplay is split into exploration and combat. On the way other wrestlers join their roster or get in their way, as well as managers and NPCs handing out wisdom or tirades or simply joking about the wrestling world. With the stories established the game unfolds in a pretty linear fashion, often switching between Santos and Logan as they move towards their fate. Logan is joined by his cousin who is part man, part moose (they live in the Great North after all) which shows us that not all wrestlers in this game are created equally. Logan also gets his shot, but unlike Santos who needs to doggedly chase down his next challenger, Logan finally gets noticed by PAW (the top league in the game) and heads to join its ranks. He is the expert on execution and the best of the best from his wrestling family, but he understands the game of give and take, lose when the story calls for it, and win when it is your time. There is a parallel storyline focusing on Brink Logan, an obvious homage to Bret Hart. ![]() He starts on a quest to obtain local championships so he can make it to the majors and win it all. He truly believes in the sport and that it consists of real blood-and-guts contests between wrestlers and not a staged, albeit physical, show. Santos dreams of making it in the big leagues. ![]() In this world the classic wrestlers are held up as heroes and whole regions are dedicated to them. WrestleQuest starts with a focus on a megafan called Randy Santos who becomes a wrestler, dubbing himself the Muchacho Man in reverence to his hero Randy “Macho Man” Savage. Taking a step back to our corner, let’s discuss what this game is all about. There are many pieces here that could be part of a standout experience, but gameplay and design choices hold the game back. Well, having played the game I can say that there is plenty to like about the experience, in particular the wrestling callouts, but the execution of the core game is not as masterfully done as Bret Hart’s signature Sharpshooter move. When I saw that Mega Cat Studios was making an old-school RPG called WrestleQuest focused on this world and had collaborations with many of my childhood wrestling heroes, I was beyond excited. While I may not follow wrestling anymore, those matches and those personas loom large in my thoughts of my dad and just pure entertainment. I saw wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Macho Man, the British Bulldogs and my all-time favorite Bret “The Hitman” Hart and others at live matches many many times when I was young. Full disclosure: I am a massive old-school wrestling fan, or “wrassling” as my dad used to call it.
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