The AEW Fight Forever release date has been officially announced and you know what that means, as professional wrestling superstar Kenny Omega presents a video revealing when the sports game (yes, sports game) is coming out, and it’s incredibly soon. As an avid AEW enjoyer I can’t wait for this, and I hope it reignites the wrestling fandom for games in a way we haven’t truly felt since WWE Smackdown Here Comes the Pain.
First up, AEW Fight Forever is coming to all current consoles and PC on Thursday, June 29, 2023. The officially licensed game has a lot to offer us wrestling fans, which I’ll get to, but as long as I can control exactly when MJF shouts “cut my music!” during his entrance, I’ll be happy.
It’s no secret that AEW Fight Forever has been delayed a few times, but I’m actually one of those people that quite like the slightly cartoonish designs they’ve gone for with this game, and think the whole arcade approach could make it a good rival to WWE’s more grounded style. Plus, I don’t care what the style is like as long as Adam Cole can don his Master Chief armor, to be frank.
Omega has also already said AEW Fight Forever wants to emulate the AKI-style wrestling games, so if you ever played Virtual Pro Wrestling, you should be right at home here.
AEW Fight Forever features
There’s a lot on offer in AEW Fight Forever, so let’s do a quick breakdown.
- Ten gameplay modes: singles, tag-team, 3-way, 4-way, ladder, casino battle royale, falls count anywhere, unsanctioned lights out, exploding barbed wire death
- Customization options: wrestler attire, move sets, entrances, teams, and arenas
- Variety of mini-games
- Career mode
- Over 50 wrestlers and more content down the line as DLC
While we can expect the AEW Collision Saturday show to be announced this week on Dynamite, it’s currently unclear if AEW Fight Forever will incorporate the new show into the game in any way, but I’m sure we’ll know when Collision is rolled out, or soon after.
I will add that it still feels incredibly odd that we’ve seen next to, or just straight up none, Tag Team gameplay footage of AEW Fight Forever. Not sure if it’s because there have been issues with it since day one, or if there’s a more arbitrary reason for it.
I’m most excited for the Career mode, as I hope it’ll blend together with backstage deals in a way that makes progress with a character feel authentic to how AEW is presented on a weekly basis, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
It’s no secret that plenty of AEW’s wrestlers like games, Adam Cole streams on Twitch as TheCHUGs, and Kenny Omega has both come out to the ring dressed as Sephiroth and is even in Like A Dragon: Ishin. In fact, Omega’s finishing move is the One Winged Angel, and he even has a move called V-Trigger too, so a lot of the talent doesn’t go to any effort to separate their love of games, and I adore that.
If you want something a tad similar to AEW Fight Forever while you wait our look at the best fighting games is sure to tide you over.
