So here it is! The very first official video game from All Elite Wrestling! And it’s definitely not what people would have expected to be their first game and it’s also not what anyone was asking for or wants.
If you’ve not downloaded it yet, AEW Casino for mobile phones is a Casino based game. You play card games and hit the roulette table, which aren’t exactly what you’d expect from a wrestling company. If anything you may wonder how this game came to be or what it has to do with AEW. Here’s the brief history lesson.
Before All Elite Wrestling became a company there was a show called All In which was promoted by future AEW Executive Vice Presidents Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson. They promoted this event in response to a tweet by Dave Meltzer who said that no company outside of WWE could sell 10,000 tickets to a show these days and Cosy tweeted back saying that he’d take that bet. So in response to the idea that the show was based on a bet they called it ‘All In’ which itself is a betting term for putting all your money onto a bet…so see the gambling theme emerging here?
Then a few months later Tony Khan got involved and set up AEW with Cody, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega and their first PPV event was called Double or Nothing, which is another gambling term which was a phrase Cody said at the end of the All In event to tease to the audience that there would be another show.
So because of this line of referneces to gambling AEW saw fit to put out their first video game as a mobile phone app where it’s just Vegas style casino games.
Now you may have already got a sense from the tone here that I’m not all in on this idea, and some may defend it by saying that if you like casino games and want an AEW themed casino game then this may be fun, but here in lies the issue. I’ve played this first a few times to review it and maybe given it an hour or two (and that’s all it’s getting form me) and other then the home screen icon showing Sting and Orange Cassidy and the loading screen shwing Sting and Brandi Rhodes I’ve yet to see any other wrestlers featured in it. I noticed that the roulette table had the AEW logo, but literally that’s it.
The avatars of people you play as or against are just generic people but could have been AEW wrestlers. There could have been some kind of story mode where you owe money to MJF or the Inner Circle are after you or something. Or they could have had Jake Roberts as the dealer like how he appeared as a card dealer in an AEW promo before their first show. And maybe this stuff is in here, but if two hours isn’t enough to reveal it, then I have given up caring.
What I have seen plenty of is that the game says I don’t have enough chips to play games and can buy some for real world money. No thanks.
Now to give it whatever plus I can do, the game is ok in that the games of blackjack and poker seem present and correct and whilst I don’t really know these games as I don’t gamble they do seem to work and play as I would expect them to. But if I wanted ot play these games I’m sure I could find a completely free solution where I don’t have to pay out microtransactions as this game seems riddled with.
If you’re into casino games and want to gamble on your phone and spend real money then this app may also be a good way to send money to AEW if you’d rather support them then another brand, but it’s hard to recommend this to any wrestling fan.
People are looking forward to the first console game from AEW, and even the GM Simulator game that is in development may be fun for hardcore wrestling fans, but it’s unfortunate that in terms of history and legacy the first game released by AEW would be something so lazy and unconnected to wrestling as this is.
I’m open to change on this thought though, so if anyone can shed light on why this is a good game or smart thing for a wrestling company to put out as their first video game entry put your thoughts in the commments. I’m expected big things from the console game as they have developers who were responsible for WWF No Mercy back in the day, and Kenny Omega is a dedicated gamer as well as the AEW World Champion, so will want this to be the best game it can be. This however isn’t what AEW fans were after and I’m sure we’d have rather waited longer for the good stuff then have a poor first effort.
I give this effort half a star for the combination of having nothing to do with the brand and for the micro transactions.
For more on AEW check out the Wrestling section. For more video game news and reviews check out the Games section here on XStreamed.tv
