All Elite Wrestling broke the news back in November that its first console video game would be developed by Japanese game developer Yuke’s along with the director of the Nintendo 64 classic WWF No Mercy, Hideyuki “Geta” Iwashita. In the premiere episode of AEW Games’ YouTube series 2.Show, AEW World Champion Kenny Omega answered some of the biggest questions regarding the game.
Right off the bat, Omega was asked about the show’s possible release date. He couldn’t give one, speculating that it would either be in late 2021 (this episode was delayed from coming out in late December due to Brodie Lee’s death) or 2022.
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“We’ve kind of made a lot of promises,” Omega said. “We really want this game to not only be fun, but we want it to last for a long time. We want to make this game legendary, kind of like this game right here (holds up the cartridge for No Mercy). And to do that it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of effort and it takes a lot of thinking outside the box. And as you know sometimes when games are rushed they encounter a lot of bugs. They become almost unplayable and then they become a meme of themselves. We don’t want that, we want people to have fun with this thing.”
“The Cleaner” said he’s gotten his hands on an unfinished version of the game, immediately comparing it to No Mercy.
“We’re hoping maybe next year, maybe the year after that. But trust me when I say, we’ll be updating you guys the entire way. When we get a date, you guys will be the first to know,” he said.
Omega then confirmed the game will have a Create-A-Wrestler mode and online multiplayer, saying it’s possible that the latter will have cross-play function across different consoles.
He was then asked if the game would be arcade-based (a la the classic WWF cabinet games) or simulation-based (similar to what WWE has now with the WWE 2K series).
“I would say it’s neither,” Omega said. “Taking a look at complete simulation-based wrestling, the first thing that pops into my mind is Fire Pro. That has a huge fan base in its own right. However, I think there’s a lot people that find that when you really take the simulation aspect and ramp it up too high it eliminates some of the fun from people that just want to get in the game and mix it up with your buddies and really feel the speed and the fun that some of the older games were able to provide. Is it going to be a full simulation? No, but do I want the players to feel like when you’re doing the moves that you’re controlling the actual wrestling character? Yes, that’s really important. I would expect speed in the terms of arcade play, but moves, countering systems, submissions, al; that to feel like how you would feel if you were actually in the ring with your opponent.”
