WrestleQuest Switch Review

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It’s safe to say that many people would admit that their guilty pleasure is enjoying Wrestling. The campy storylines, heroes and villains, and high-flying acrobatics are certainly a spectacle to behold. Now what would happen if you took all of that, and mashed it together with Final Fantasy? You would get WrestleQuest.

WrestleQuest is a very unique concept, dressed with an outstanding pixel art style. It is set in a world obsessed with wrestling, and follows Randy Sanchez along with others, as he works his way toward superstardom in Wrestling while facing moral decisions, training newbies, and making friends along the way. It’s a surprisingly wholesome story similar to Ted Lasso, and it’s hard not to get attached to your ragtag group of misfits you pick up along the way. While it’s certainly a Wrestling game clearly made with love by Wrestling fans, WrestleQuest is an old-school RPG first and foremost.

It’s this unique combo that may be off-putting to some as it does have the old-school RPG tropes for better and for worse. The pacing is slow to start as new mechanics are introduced hours into the game, and sometimes the story bounces back and forth between Randy and a “Brett The Hitman Hart” style character, Logan. Sometimes you will fight your way up to a conclusion of a chapter, only to have the story flick to the other characters you follow. While these may be grating to some, I really loved the characters and story due to their well-written personalities and styles.

Combat is definitely the highlight of WrestleQuest, but will prove to be the most divisive due to its reliance on Quick Time Events. Special moves and retaliatory attacks require QTE’s to counter, or deal bonus damage. While I generally dislike quick-time events in games, I wasn’t bothered by them in WrestleQuest as it felt like I was actually landing counter-kicks or heavy attacks. It could get frustrating at times due to the lack of my skill, but by the end of my session, I was wrestling with the best of them. To defeat enemies, after dropping their health to 0, you need to pin them to get them out. There’s no real grinding in WrestleQuest, which I found to be odd. Enemies don’t respawn so ensuring you’re strong enough means taking on as many enemies as you cross paths with to level up. It keeps the game challenging, although I remember learning this the hard way when I tackled my first boss, a giant junkyard rat.

Defeated enemies drop items that help you power up your characters further, as well as recovery items for your moves and HP. Items that improve stats are presented as toy parts to help modify your character. You can also set your party roles for different stats and bonuses during combat. There’s a significant amount of customization in WrestleQuest, which all adds to the fun and experimentation of the game.

The art style is really well done with fantastic characters full of life and personality. Animations are smooth and damage and spell effects work really well in the context of the game. Healing moves are done by slapping a comically large bandaid on characters, and crowd control specials like giving the enemy detention when teamed up with a school teacher Barbie (but not a Barbie for trademark purposes) made me laugh. There are triple threat tag team moves, managers can be used as special stat modifiers, and you can also use summons to help you in your journey to the top. You can also customize your entrance for stat modifiers as well on sanctioned matches, adding extra fireworks and flair. There’s a hype meter during fights that grants bonuses or penalties, which switches strategies up depending on how your match is going.

There’s a morality system at play as well, facing Sanchez with decisions to make along the way which will see him become a “Face” (Good Guy) or “Heel” (Bad Guy.) It was a great addition to the game and on my playthrough, I tried to be as good as possible to fit in with what I believe is the wholesome nature of Sanchez himself (who is a Macho Man fan.) There’s also an insult mechanic pre-match, allowing you to build up hype before your sanctioned matches. There are also some other gameplay mechanics which are a once-off, which are introduced but never to be seen again.

It’s clear that WrestleQuest is a heartfelt tribute to the larger-than-life Macho Man, Classic 80’s WWE, and Snes Era RPGs. If you like any of these 3 things, you’re sure to enjoy the wonderfully crafted world on display here. Much like a real Wrestling match, there are highs and lows, but WrestleQuest ultimately kicks out of the 3 count to rise like the cream the Macho Man talked about. It’s surprisingly wholesome, fun, and had me smiling throughout my adventure.

Macho Man was once quoted in an interview saying “What a great way to see all of our legacies live on, through the video games.” WrestleQuest honours that legacy, with a heartfelt tribute to the man himself, and by hopefully introducing a new generation to this larger-than-life era of entertainment.