Following a protracted crowdfunding campaign, indie grappling sim Pro Wrestling X has finally entered Steam Early Access.
Although the developers, Wrestling Gamers United, have admitted that the initial build of the title is in an extremely unfinished, unpolished state – in which gamers can expect to experience “terrible, broken things and not a whole lot to play with at the start” – their ultimate goal is recapture the magic and classic gameplay of the wrestling titles of the mid-to-late 1990s, developed by the likes of AKI.
After securing over $17,000 CAD in Kickstarter funding on a goal of $6,400 earlier in the year, the development team have been working tirelessly to produce an initial build of the game for its Early Access release. Despite its bare-bones status, project lead Dave Wisnowski said: “I can confidently report that the critical core game mechanics (movement, striking, grappling) are all working (relatively) well and even looking pretty in most cases.”
The team’s ultimate goal is to create a wrestling game that recaptures the fun of WWF No Mercy for the Nintendo 64, while providing the same level of depth as Fire Pro Wrestling, a cult-classic Japanese 2D grappler.
Pro Wrestling X is currently available for a price that wrestling fans will already have cemented in their minds if they’ve watched any WWE programming over the past year: $9.99.
In a release that coincides with the current-gen launch of WWE 2K15, WGU will be hoping to capitalise on the public’s appetite for purchasing for wrestling games – and maybe even on some of the disappointment that is being reported over features missing from 2K’s latest entry.