Fire Pro Wrestling Avatar Review (XBLA)

The Fire Pro Wrestling franchise has been around for a couple of decades now, and it has always provided something different than the usual crop of North American wrestling games. There's been a depth of modes and creation features unparalleled in comparable games, and the simplicity of the presentation has imbued the series with a retro charm that provides a great deal of replay value. Add to that a gameplay engine that is full of depth, thanks to its progression-based moves and grappling, and you've got a game that's been tailor-made for wrestling fans.

This legacy makes it all the more unfortunate that the Xbox Live Arcade release bearing the same name is such a disappointment. You would think that adding avatar support, online play, leaderboards, 3D visuals and some exaggerated charm would build upon what came before for the Fire Pro brand, but the developers at Spike Chunsoft have actually watered down the experience so much that it loses a great deal of its depth and caters poorly to any potential audience — casual, hardcore or otherwise.

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