WrestleQuest review: Professional wrestling and RPG gameplay wrapped into a perfect package

As a professional wrestling and RPG fan, I was quickly enthralled by WrestleQuest. When I first heard the game was coming out, I thought I was being ribbed - there’s no way a studio will combine my two favorite things into one place! However, the folks at Mega Cat Studios have done exactly that. It’s not just the professional wrestlers of my youth, either, as modern content creators also make appearances throughout the game.

It’s clear to me that Mega Cat Studios both love professional wrestling and did their homework. WrestleQuest offers fans of wrestling and role-playing games a pixel art masterpiece that they can easily sink hours into.

WrestleQuest blends 80s professional wrestling and turn-based RPG gameplay

Games like WrestleQuest don’t come around that often. I’ve often said that professional wrestling would make an excellent turn-based role-playing game. As an entertainment genre and sport, it requires several things that the RPG lauds as important. I recently previewed the game, and now I'm back to discussing it in greater detail.

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You need an excellent, memorable look. The game is set in a world of toys, where a few action figures have goals of being known as the best wrestlers in the world. They’ll work together with other like-minded allies, pinning shoulders to the mat as they travel this fictional but lovely world.

You and your allies can work together to make it to the pay window (Image via Mega Cat Studios)

You also need incredible special attacks, and perhaps most of all, you need to be able to talk. The storyline is just as important - if not more so - than the action itself. These are all hallmarks of the best RPGs of all time, so it just makes sense to blend these genres into one.

Mega Cat Studios give fans tons of tributes to the sport of professional wrestling without watering down their game’s mechanics and story. In fact, it only adds to the title. It features a character being torn between a flashy, neon-colored surfer gimmick to a more grim look akin to The Crow and a family of technically-gifted professional wrestlers. WrestleQuest has it all.

Several of these characters look mighty familiar ... (Image via Mega Cat Studios)

Several of my favorite wrestlers are featured in the game and are featured in a way that honors their contributions to the Sport of Kings, including Jeff Jarrett, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, the Legion of Doom, and more. Heck, even one of the biggest names in podcasting, Conrad Thompson, makes an appearance.

The game looks great and makes excellent use of professional wrestling as a setting, but how does it play?

WrestleQuest gives RPG fans a hard-hitting in-ring experience

Professional wrestling has been all about real-time action for decades, but it was time for something different, and that’s what WrestleQuest is. Players use a stable of wrestlers to do battle with other professional wrestlers and entities in turn-based combat.

Building the Hype Meter is key to success in WrestleQuest (Image via Mega Cat Studios)

The game makes use of a Hype Meter, which builds depending on what you and the opponents do. Each character can have a different wrestling archetype, which changes how they build hype. You can be a powerhouse, a show-stopper, a support character, the underdog, and more.

Each will change how you approach matches, allowing plenty of tactical possibilities and different ways to battle enemies. In battles, you can strike, use a gimmick, use an item, or taunt.

Striking has a button press mini-game element, where you hit the right button in time to attempt to knock an enemy back into the ropes. If they do, you get a second attack - but don’t miss, or they’ll strike you instead! I just wish that it registered I was using a PlayStation 5 controller, but that’s not a big deal.

Your gimmicks are your various special attacks, pinning your opponent when they run out of HP, and more. You can even use tag-team attacks, trios moves, or even call in a manager if you have one to distract your opponent/buff your team!

You have to use an action for tag team moves, but it's worth it (Image via Mega Cat Studios)

Unlike Chrono Trigger, however, you have to make a teammate prepare for a tag team move, which takes their turn. That means you have to make these powerful attacks count and consider what you’re doing.

Being successful in battle raises the Hype Meter, which adds more money to your victory, damage, and AP regeneration. Be careful, though, because the same can go to your enemies if they gain control of the Hype Meter.

The mini-game to pin opponents can add drama to any battle (Image via Mega Cat Studios)

I love that other wrestling characters can be pinned, which prevents them from continuing to attack in battle - however, you have to defeat them first. You’ll also occasionally have actions you need to do in battle if you want to come out on top.

While this might frustrate some players, it fits the nature of professional wrestlers. Sometimes the opponent needs to kick out at the last second. That just makes things far more exciting. I can clearly tell the developers understand what wrestling is all about.

WrestleQuest has plenty of memorable characters and choices that matter

Perhaps my favorite thing about the game is the storylines and the characters that take part in it. One of your main characters is the Muchacho Man, who idolizes the Macho Man - and who wouldn’t? Then you have Brink Logan, who hails from the frozen north. He comes from a family of legendary wrestlers and represents one of my all-time favorites - Bret Hart.

What do you fight for? (Image via Mega Cat Studios)

You also learn early that some of your choices matter a great deal. Depending on what you do and who you align yourself with, it can change what gimmicks you can learn and perhaps even more.

I appreciate having that kind of choice to make in my RPGs. That gives WrestleQuest replayability, though I was already interested in playing it again. The writing feels believable and sometimes just a bit over the top - just how I like my wrestling.

WrestleQuest’s visuals are excellent, but the display options are limiting

I adore the pixel graphics of WrestleQuest. The visuals are simple but beautiful. On top of that, the voice lines are excellent, including the Mucacho Man’s Randy Savage-esque voice.

Each map looks unique, but it's frustrating not to get more display options (Image via Mega Cat Studios)

However, I have one problem with the PC version of the game. The display options are incredibly limited - I could not set the game to match my primary monitor’s display resolution (3840x2160).

I could get 1440, which is not bad. I do wish I could have it displayed in full borderless windowed, though. It’s one of the few blots on an otherwise exceptional game.

In Conclusion

WrestleQuest is an incredible RPG, even if you aren’t necessarily into professional wrestling. However, if you are, you’ll get far more out of it. You can set up entrances to the ring, talk trash to your opponents ahead of a battle, and participate in incredible turn-based action.

The gameplay is sharp, the storytelling is exceptional, and the pixel graphics fit the theme nicely. If you’ve wanted something different from your professional wrestling games, it’s time to pick up WrestleQuest.