Rasslin' Video Games

[AxB]

RetroMania Wrestling (the one from a few years ago that is based on Wrestlefest, but with an utterly random roster), is 70% off on PSN store right now.

[Cliff Hanger]

On 6/17/2025 at 4:18 PM, AxB said:

RetroMania Wrestling (the one from a few years ago that is based on Wrestlefest, but with an utterly random roster), is 70% off on PSN store right now.

Grabbed this and, boy, you weren't kidding about a random-ass roster. So far, I tried Ten Pounds of Gold mode and managed to lose as ZSJ to Big Stevie Cool, which is a little embarrassing.

[Ramo2653]

I think the issue with RetroMania was that the speed didn't match Wrestlefest so it felt a little off.

[Cliff Hanger]

Abyss intro is up on Youtube. Not a HUGE surprise that they got his music, given that TNA is practically a vassal of WWE at this point, but good to see.

https://x.com/WWEgames/status/1937308228628398340?t=yUZZnwOgC5v0McmVd4cCCw&s=19

[Ramo2653]

WWE2k25 locker code BIGMANJ4MZ gets you a basic Punches and Promos pack and a basic Legends II pack. I pulled the Solo card from Punches and Promos and the Eddy from Legends.

I've hit the point where I finished the live events I can do so I just do random Faction Wars runs. I've also gotten into the habit of going for countouts so I'm just being a crowd killing heel at this point.

[Cliff Hanger]

So I'm seeing from the patch notes that the "Wrestlemania 41 pack" came out today but only the arena? Maybe they should just never announce "TBD" characters again if they're going to be this kind of hassle.

[Chaos]

This has been kind of my turn brain off and play game instead of touching my endless backlog. I mess with MyFaction a lot, but I wouldn't say I have unlocked everything. In the weeklys, I've gotten slightly stuck on the 4 man HIAC match. I did have one of my most rewarding wins ever in one of these 2Kgames with the Cody/Kevin Owens Myfaction ladder match.  The ladder mechanics are so bad this year that I was able to withstand multiple should-lose moments and pull down the briefcase.

I did login at lunch today and looked at the live events.  I decided to open a Legends II pack and got the Mr. Perfect card needed for the HBK 94 card (first time I've ever had that kind of Pack luck). 

[Cliff Hanger]

1) I hadn't realized Retromania is still getting updates, but they've promised a pack for Sept with Demolition Ax and Smash (a deal presumably done before they reconciled with WWE), the Rock n Roll Express, Magnum TA and a mystery 6th wrestler.

2) finally contacted 2k support about the "game crashes when I try to update a women's Faction team" problem, and fixed it by clearing my PS5's cache. So I finished the first Numbers Game and got the Amethyst Big E.

3) happily, the "welcome" missions for the DLC are less obnoxious than the Vaquer and MCMG ones. Sadly, they aren't repeatable and only net you one Superstar II booster.

4) I'm not LOVING the Island, but some of its sheer unhinged-ness is pretty fun, like Truth's Coasterquest, the weird historical artifacts Bearer's ghost digs up, and the whole mob movie nonsense with Cena playing Elliot Ness and D'Angelo rolling the barber shop for protection money.

 

And I almost hesitate to mention this, but all the youtubers seem convinced that Celebrity #1 Travis Scott is falling thru and will be replaced with another wrestler based on some Twitter leaker? I should stop looking at WWE2K YouTube. 

[Casey]

Aleister Black had some stuff added in the latest patch that came with the DLC that's made some people think he's being added to the game.

[NikoBaltimore]

2 hours ago, Cliff Hanger said:

1) I hadn't realized Retromania is still getting updates, but they've promised a pack for Sept with Demolition Ax and Smash (a deal presumably done before they reconciled with WWE), the Rock n Roll Express, Magnum TA and a mystery 6th wrestler.

Looking at Steam the last update was February last year.  I understand games and content take time but if they promise September for all that then I'll believe it when I see it.

[Tromatagon]

They fixed light tubes in 2K so they have a little puff of powder when they break.  GOTY

[Cliff Hanger]

Switch 2 version of 2k25 will be out 7/23 and will be in the ecosystem with PS5/XBS and will have the Island. The Switch listing also confirm that KSI is the 5th char in thr 7/23 DLC drop.

 

July MyFaction updates: new factions, all red cards. One of them seems to have been unlocked already? New cards of the month are all 84 OVR. Naomi is the Star of the Month and the new Numbers Game is 63-70 with an OVR 89 Stephanie Vaquer as the prize for getting all 8. I had 3 of the cards (Lola Vice 64, Julius Creed 66 and Kofi Kingston 69) and it seems easier than last month's already not-hard matches as the opponents are greens. 

[Ramo2653]

I knocked out the Cody birthday event last night (I have no shame in getting count out victories), the Bret birthday event (same thing) and the July Smash and Stash event. All of those packs netted me the Ruby jumpsuit Roman and a bunch of in game currency so I was able to do the encore Roman/Punk event to get the Amethyst Roman. I'll probably but the cards I don't have for the July Numbers game event.

[Joe vs the Algorithm]

Bought WWE 2K25 last night. I guess there are only 100 CAW slots?  Is there any way to get around that? Multiple game saves or profiles or something? Last wrestling games I bought were WWE vs. SVR 06 and Fire Pro Returns. Those games both had caw limits, but you could get around that somewhat by swapping multiple memory cards. Anything similar for 2K25?

[Cliff Hanger]

7 hours ago, Ramo2653 said:

I knocked out the Cody birthday event last night (I have no shame in getting count out victories), the Bret birthday event (same thing) and the July Smash and Stash event. All of those packs netted me the Ruby jumpsuit Roman and a bunch of in game currency so I was able to do the encore Roman/Punk event to get the Amethyst Roman. I'll probably but the cards I don't have for the July Numbers game event.

I barely managed to do that Cody challenge, and only did when I woke up an hour and a half earlier than usual. I always, always forget about count-outs; I'll start a match planning to do one, then by the time I have the 90 points the thought has escaped my head. Thankfully, the card packs made it a wildly productive morning: I got Legends II DDP and Faarooq, the last Oddity I needed for Elite Wyatt, and then I saw that I now only needed one Bronze (Tozawa) to finish a Superstars block and snatch some tokens, I didn't notice that that Tozawa would put me over the top to get the Diamond Jacob for collection. Loaded him up with shitty bronze plates to get THOSE tokens, and then I had enough along with the 100 from Cody to buy two reds from the token shop. 

Shame the Jacob is the only thing I'm likely to use out of all that. As for Numbers Game II, I'm gonna *try* to only buy Rude and the 70 (Miz?), brcause I know that I will never buy cards from those blocks again. 

Does anyone know why Shaq's theme song is called "Bible Fight"? All i can hear in my mind's ear when I see it written is Peter Griffin yelling that.

[Ramo2653]

14 hours ago, Joe vs the Algorithm said:

Bought WWE 2K25 last night. I guess there are only 100 CAW slots?  Is there any way to get around that? Multiple game saves or profiles or something? Last wrestling games I bought were WWE vs. SVR 06 and Fire Pro Returns. Those games both had caw limits, but you could get around that somewhat by swapping multiple memory cards. Anything similar for 2K25?

Kinda. An issue as a result of moving to storage on the system instead of memory cards. WhatsTheStatus who is a prominent creator in the 2K community recently had to create a new profile to be able to upload more CAWs to users but that also means a fresh save file so he had to do all the unlocks again. 

[Casey]

https://x.com/WrestlePurists/status/1942920668779299266

Link won't embed but talks have "heated up" regarding another AEW video game. They know where they went wrong, and they won't announce anything until closer to a planned release date (if it happens).

I've been playing Fight Forever a little bit on my SteamDeck since it's on the Steam Summer Sale. I haven't touched this thing on PS5 since it came out, probably the Stadium Stampede update. It's not as terrible as I remember, gameplay wise I actually quite like it, but the customization and the career/season mode are both still real, real low points. So bad it actively brings down the rest of the game.

If they do a Fight Forever 2 and just build on top of what they already have and fix issues that fans had with it, I'll be fine. I don't need a community creations thing like WWE has (a return to CAW formulas would be fun actually). I don't need a battle royale mode, either - even if it was kinda fun the first few times just for the novelty of it.

[Technico Support]

27 minutes ago, Casey said:

https://x.com/WrestlePurists/status/1942920668779299266

Link won't embed but talks have "heated up" regarding another AEW video game. They know where they went wrong, and they won't announce anything until closer to a planned release date (if it happens).

I've been playing Fight Forever a little bit on my SteamDeck since it's on the Steam Summer Sale. I haven't touched this thing on PS5 since it came out, probably the Stadium Stampede update. It's not as terrible as I remember, gameplay wise I actually quite like it, but the customization and the career/season mode are both still real, real low points. So bad it actively brings down the rest of the game.

If they do a Fight Forever 2 and just build on top of what they already have and fix issues that fans had with it, I'll be fine. I don't need a community creations thing like WWE has (a return to CAW formulas would be fun actually). I don't need a battle royale mode, either - even if it was kinda fun the first few times just for the novelty of it.

Right!  The actual matches were fine.  I don't need half hour struggle sim style matches, or minigames to get a pin or sub.  But god damn did everything else drag it down.  Getting unlockables by replaying the same limited, repetitive, branching story was a chore.  I shouldn't have to dig up an Google Docs spreadsheet on a subreddit to figure out what choices to make to unlock what. 

Other things to fix aside from what you mentioned:

• They need to figure out tag team matches.  Either let me control my partner who I just tagged in, or make my partner AI work in a way that makes sense like in FirePro.  I found myself just winning tag matches on my own without tagging out because the partner AI was so bad.  
• Finalize the roster closer to release or do updates more frequently.  The game came out in 2023 but I swear the roster, attire, belts, venues, etc. were mostly from 2020 when they first started working on it.  The game felt stale on day 1.

 

Edited July 9 by Technico Support

[Casey]

It mostly feels like the 2020/2021 roster with random drops of talent from the following years. I remember they released Toni Storm and she was already doing the Timeless gimmick, and she was the rockstar/Outcasts version in the game.

I haven't played any tag matches actually, I've been doing the Beat the Elite mode and slowly working my way through the boring ass career mode with Jamie Hayter. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed that Stadium Stampede is dead as a doornail because I actually DID have fun with that mode. But I remember it died fairly quickly upon release because nobody was playing the game anymore when it was released anyway.

I liked the idea of having a base roster then releasing updates peppered throughout multiple years, instead of what WWE does with their yearly games. I'm not sure if they did this, but if the updates added new modes, gameplay tweaks, more customization items/moves/music, etc. then it's my perfect model for a wrestling game. I'd be yearly season passes for that as long as they weren't crazy expensive.

Edited July 9 by Casey

[Cliff Hanger]

2 minutes ago, Casey said:

It mostly feels like the 2020/2021 roster with random drops of talent from the following years. I remember they released Toni Storm and she was already doing the Timeless gimmick, and she was the rockstar/Outcasts version in the game.

I liked the idea of having a base roster then releasing updates peppered throughout multiple years, instead of what WWE does with their yearly games. I'm not sure if they did this, but if the updates added new modes, gameplay tweaks, more customization items/moves/music, etc. then it's my perfect model for a wrestling game. I'd be yearly season passes for that as long as they weren't crazy expensive.

It felt very much like they used the fighting-game model for DLC rather than the sports-game model. I think that works better if you do one pass per year rather than finishing what was announced at launch and turning around and saying "for another $25 we'll give you another pass with fewer wrestlers but it'll have a neat arcade ladder!" before the game is even 6 months old.

As for both the terrible tag AI and the lazy-man's-No-Mercy story mode, I never did unlock Brodie Lee and I blame tag matches.

 

Two weeks til Bull Nakano in 2k!

[Technico Support]

When you game has awful tag team AI but also makes sure it gives the player the choice of being vegan or a meat eater, your priorities got fucked somewhere along the way.

I liked most of the player models, but Sammy Guevara just looked weird and Ricky Starks looked like Butt-Head.  

And it goes without saying, but the creation suite was rough.  Only one option for beards and one option for long hair means my Chris Hero CAW  and the John Blud CAW that the devs created for the community creator DLC look exactly the same, and that's not right.

Edited July 9 by Technico Support

[tbarrie]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

I liked most of the player models, but [...] Ricky Starks looked like Butt-Head.  

I mean, I hadn't noticed it before, but looking at a picture of the real Starks and a drawing of Butthead...

[Cliff Hanger]

Retrosoft announced the mystery wrestler for their fall update, and it's Randy Savage? I wouldn't think that was possible unless his Legends deal is expiring and not being renewed.

[Casey]

I don't think Randy Savage's Legends deal is an exclusive one. He still gets figures and merch outside of WWE. Just a week or two ago Bulletproof Studios announced officially licensed Savage ice cream bar statues of four eras of his career that come with trading cards. Major Figures are still doing Bendies and Big Rubber Guys. If I had to guess, most legends or their estate could make this deal if they really wanted to (see: Jake the Snake) but probably couldn't have figures/merch/be in video games from anything AEW related.

[Ramo2653]

WWE2k25 patch has a chance the screw up the custom images used for Creations. Redownloading the creation fixes it. Patch also loaded more stuff for Allister Black so he's probably getting added as extra DLC or as the replacement for the mystery wrestler from the first DLC.

On the MyFaction end looks like the next card pack is Money In the Bank based. Granted they're a month behind in tying these to PPVs but oh well.