Fire Pro Wrestling Is Here Now!

(I'm not sure why I'm doing so many video game-related posts recently, but fuck it.I'm going with it for now.)

Even though I've cooled off a lot in the past few years, I've been a video game fan for a long time.In that time there has been a handful of games I've obsessed over:Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy Tactics, Mario Kart, Street Fighter II, Disgaea, Dark Cloud II, Castlevania( any version).If I had to pick one game that I've spent more time with than any other game/game series it would be Fire Pro Wrestling(which I will hereafter refer to as FPW.)

Back when I was in my final 1 1/2 years of college, I was working as dorm security.One of the other guys working security noticed that I liked to play games and also that I liked wrestling.He had a Super Nintendo with a device that let him copy games and play Japanese games, of which he had hundreds.He introduced me to this Japanese wrestling game called Fire Pro Wrestling.FPW is a hardcore, very realistic wrestling game.It is known for having huge rosters of real life wrestlers, changed ever so slightly to avoid copyright issues.It also has the best create-a-player feature of any wrestling game.

I was hooked my first time playing.I would be at the guy's dorm room daily for gaming sessions.Eventually, his game converter came out with an upgraded model, and he sold me his old one and let me copy as many of his hundreds of games as I cared to.I probably ended up with 150 or so games on 3.5 inch floppies, including 3 fire pro games and about 6 or 7 other japanese wrestling games.None had the impact of FPW though.

Over the years I grabbed as many FPW games as I could find and play.I was always teased unmercifully from my other gaming friends, who would mock the game's less-than-stellar graphics and sound effects.They didn't get it.Why would I play the polygonal PS1 wrestling game with 1/4 of the moves and 12 characters when I could play FPW?It was never about the graphics.It was all gameplay and customization.

I seriously got into this game.It's hard to put into words how much this game has meant to me over the years. I would create dozens of characters, from versions of my friends to musicians to other video game characters to , of course, other wrestlers.I set up tournaments, title belts and story lines.The older games didn't have that stuff built in, so I had to write it out on paper.I would let the cpu go at it and watch the matches in real time.I would recreate famous cards, like the various Wrestlemanias.I could never even begin to guess how much time I've spent playing FPW cumulatively, but I would say it easily surpasses the 500 hour mark.

The last FPW game that I seriously got into was called 6-Man Scramble.It was released for the Sega Saturn about 10 years ago.(I had a mod device for the Saturn to play Japanese games.)There were two FPW games on the Game Boy Advance, but they didn't thrill me.It was something to do with the lack of face buttons on the GBA.It seemed to limit the playability.

This month, Fire Pro Wrestling Returns was released for the PS2.It took a little bit of work to find because it was not a high profile title and many stores won't order a game if no one pre-orders it.I got it this past Sunday from an EBGames near me.Now I have a fully featured, ENGLISH copy of my favorite game of all time.There will be no more stumbling through kanjii-filled menus or relying on 20 page FAQ's to translate.I've already renamed the entire roster of 300+ characters.I haven't been to bed before 2AM since getting this game.I even joined the Fire Pro Wrestling Club so I could take advantage of their transferrable edit save files.This game has effectively booted Guitar Hero from my PS2.

A former obsession has returned to my life.Happy Days!!If you are a real wrestling fan, walk right past that copy of Smackdown Vs. Raw and buy this.Forget about being a graphics snob and you will find the deepest, most customizable wrestling game ever made.If I didn't have to go to work, I'd be setting up a lighttube deathmatch tournament right now.