Review: A little more whoop ass is all we need.
For years the Japanese have known what we in the United States just learned last year; That the Fire Pro series of wrestling titles is the pinnacle of video wrestling. Fire Pro Wrestling on the GBA was packed with more options and gameplay than every WWE title ever made. Sure, the combatants were fictitious, but the fighting engine was deeper than anything I had ever played before. Fire Pro Wrestling was translated for the US audience well enough that it warranted a sequel, this year's Fire Pro Wrestling 2.
If you've never played a Fire Pro title before, then the sheer volume of content packed into Fire Pro Wrestling 2 will astound you. There are more than 200 different wrestlers in the game and together make up 18 different organizations. If that isn't enough for you, you can create dozens of your own wrestlers with an extensive create-a-wrestler mode and populate five of your own organizations with them. These wrestlers pull from ten different world fighting styles and have a total of 1,200 different moves available between them. On top of all of this, Fire Pro Wrestling has added a new mode; Ironman Road. This mode challenges you to win several matches in each of the game's different match styles with the reward being several additional wrestlers that you can unlock.
One of the main complaints about Fire Pro Wrestling (the first one) was that the fighting engine, while brilliantly deep and complex, was very difficult to learn and become successful with. Personally, I spent almost a full week working my way up to that first victory. In order to help the uninitiated, Fire Pro Wrestling 2 has added the Practice Dojo. This tutorial is a godsend as it allows you to practice the timing necessary to execute your moves. There are 13 different exercises that you can go through in order to hone your skills. Even veterans are well advised to come back and run through this every once in a while to polish your fighting style.
Unfortunately, that is about the extent of new content that Fire Pro Wrestling 2 brings to the table. The game just doesn't reach any new goals that scream "buy this game." Last year, Fire Pro Wrestling broke new ground with the fighting engine, the audience matches, and a visual style that really excelled on the Game Boy Advance. Fire Pro Wrestling 2 does all of that too, but at this point it is old hat. I would have liked to see a greater number of new match styles (perhaps some classic ladder matches), a more enthralling single player career, or a unique twist of some kind. The Japanese sequel to Fire Pro featured an RPG-esque wrestling manager system. Why couldn't we have had that.
