After a bit of trouble, which resulted in a small, last minute delay, WrestleQuest is finally launching. From my understanding, the delay was a result of cross-save issues on one of the consoles it’s launching on, and seeing as it’s launching everywhere, even Netflix, your guess is as good as mine where the issue stems from. WrestleQuest is an action-adventure game that feels similar to Golf Story in the overworld, but something more similar to Mario & Luigi in combat. Throughout the game you’ll play as various different wrestlers with only one true goal to be the very best, like no one ever was.

Where WrestleQuest lacks, it more than makes up for in other areas. The music is lacklustre, and with no voice acting outside of one line for each character every so often during long cutscenes, there isn’t a lot to talk about. When I say the music is lacklustre, what I mean is it feels as if it just doesn’t exist. There is a music minigame that you can participate in, and either there is no music to actually follow along to, or the music is for some reason mixed into the game so low it’s just not possible to differentiate from the general ambient noise. Which is really unfortunate when you look at some of the song titles.

That said, that is essentially one of my only complaints, so I wanted to get it out of the way as early as possible. WrestleQuest is, as the name would suggest, full of quests. So let’s start with the music sidequest. It’s a rhythm minigame that looks like Dance Dance Revolution, as you can probably guess, all you do is press the direction as it lines up with the bar on screen.

Completing the minigame and impressing a sentient broccoli is a part of the game. There are two small issues in the minigame, the first being the UI doesn’t exactly lend itself well to the minigame/sidequest. While the rhythm track is on the left side of the screen, the score, time left, and all the other information is on the right. The main issue for this being a problem is the time left isn’t simply how long is left in the song, because the speed of the notes, and therefore how many notes you can hit, is based on how much of a streak you can manage.

The other issue is that the input doesn’t feel to line up with the line you’re aiming for, which can make it easy to miss notes. I don’t mean to hark so much on a minigame, but each song has a reward available for getting a set amount of points that can be very useful, so locking that behind something a bit finicky can be a bit frustrating when it feels as if you’re not doing anything wrong.

Onto the main portion of the game. The overworld is pretty bare, which is fine. Essentially it’s a Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest style overworld to quickly transition from area to area. There’s not much to see in the overworld, but that’s fine, as you won’t be spending much time here anyways. The actual cities, or smaller areas, that you go into are well designed. From snowy landscapes, to dark-dingy cities, there is a variety of backgrounds to explore.

Each area actually feels unique, the snowy area is bright and every character you talk to feels more open and happy, while in the dark and rainy city, each character is a bit more gruff and feels more mopey. The characters themselves all feel unique, and are all given names based on their design. Take for instance Stag Logan, the moose with a hockey stick, or Loachador, who’s part luchador and part fish.

The combat is turn-based, but before we get to that, you’ll need to select a playstyle. Not just for you, but your entire party, which can have up to three characters. The styles will change how you use everyone, like having a sidekick for heals, or using a character that’s more for taunting. WrestleQuest’s combat uses a hype meter, which importantly can earn you additional money, or items, after winning in combat.

Mixing up the moves you’re using will earn you more hype, and more importantly, not getting beaten up too badly. Every turn your characters will have a choice of four options, a simple attack, which when used you’ll need to time a random button press with to do the full damage. Sometimes enemies will knockback off the ropes, which gives you a chance to press another random button and land a follow up attack, if you miss then the opponent will land one. This goes for being attacked as well, if you’re knocked back, you’ll be able to land a follow-up, but miss and they’ll hit you instead.

Basically if you miss, you’re always punished, and the timing is not super forgiving. Other key moves are gimmicks, which are essentially your special moves like a piledriver, because wrestling. You’ll also be able to use tag moves, which are similar to the Bros Moves in Mario & Luigi, but again these require a random button press to go correctly. There’s also a taunt, which makes your character the main focus of attack, and item, which I think is pretty self explanatory.

WrestleQuest has a fairly long main story, with some dialogue options, pretty much entirely to talk smack before fights. On top of that, there are a fair few side quests, and if you’re looking for the 100% each area has a counter for how many chests you’ve found as well. There’s a lot of time you could easily sink into WrestleQuest, and outside of the small complaints laid out, it’s quite a fun experience.

With the supposed option for cross-saves, it would make sense to play through on your console of choice, as well as your mobile option of choice, this means even if you double up on buying the game, you won’t have to play multiple fresh saves. Plus presumably, if you’re an achievement/trophy hunter you could go for 100% on one, and get it on both, which is a neat option. That, or play it on Switch, and then download it on your console of choice for all the achievements. Assuming the cross-save bug has been fixed, be safe with that.

Overall, I have really enjoyed my experience with WrestleQuest. There are a lot of great influences that this game takes from that work well and blend smoothly together. The gameplay is fun, the art style is adorable, and there’s a lot of zany fun to be had with it. Hopefully, with the small delay that the game had, plenty of people will still give this game a chance, because it’s worth it.

 

Graphics: 8.0 WrestleQuest looks quite good. The animations are all well executed, and the main areas are consciously designed. The overworld is a bit boring, but you won’t look at it much.	Gameplay: 8.5 WrestleQuest features turn-based combat, which plays similarly to Mario & Luigi. The only real faults I found were the occasional unforgiving inputs.
Sound: 2.5 The one spot where WrestleQuest really drops the ball is the sound. I’m not sure if all the audio is just mixed in too low, or there just wasn’t enough time to get it all to work, but the music in music minigames seeming non-existent, and characters only having one line of dialogue takes a bit away from the experience.	Fun Factor: 9.0 Overall, I found WrestleQuest really enjoyable. The game plays similarly to other RPGs that I adore. Assuming that cross-saves work on launch would be an additional massive win for this game, but if not it’s still a great experience to pick up on your platform of choice.
Final Verdict: 8.0

WrestleQuest is available now on Netflix Gaming, Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of WrestleQuest was provided by the publisher.