Exciting news broke earlier this week as Action Arcade Wrestling officially announced that their previously Steam-exclusive title will be headed to consoles in Spring of 2021. The over-the-top wrestling game will bring the pain to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in the coming months.
While Action Arcade Wrestling did not reveal an exact release date, we won’t have to wait long for Spring 2021 to arrive. While developer VICO Game Studio is relatively new, AAW did have the benefit of working with publisher Reverb Triple XP.
While not the largest publisher around, Reverb Triple XP does have a solid portfolio under their belt including being the initial publisher for Osiris: New Dawn on Steam. Their games on Steam go as far back as Guncraft in August of 2013, and they most recently published Action Arcade Wrestling which hit Steam on 15 October 2019.
Action Arcade Wrestling moves forward as an independent game
During development of AAW, they were actually partnered with independent wrestling company CHIKARA Pro Wrestling. However, AAW announced on Facebook that the partnership was ended after CHIKARA Pro Wrestling disbanded in June of 2020.
This came following reports from multiple outlets, including Pro Wrestling Sheet, that CHIKARA Pro Wrestling would close after a series of abuse allegations came out against the company’s founder Mike Quackenbush. Now, with distance from CHIKARA, Action Arcade Wrestling looks to continue moving forward with a new chapter for the game.
In the time since separating from CHIKARA, Action Arcade Wrestling has clearly been putting in the work to prepare for a launch on consoles. The announcement was made on 4 February 2021 through the official AAW YouTube, and PlayStation followed suit by publishing the announcement trailer on their own YouTube the following day.
What about the companion app AAW Wrestle Lab?
One question that remains unanswered is whether or not the companion app AAW Wrestle Lab will come with it to consoles or even be included in the console version of Action Arcade Wrestling. While the core game provides plenty of unique and fun characters and arenas to use, gamers love to flex their creativity with their own creations.
The announcement trailer didn’t make mention of AAW Wrestle Lab, but it would be a definite asset to bring the two pieces together for a complete product on consoles. There’s also a chance they may find a way to pair the Steam version of AAW Wrestle Lab with console products, which could be a middle ground instead of bringing it all to consoles together.
AAW takes plenty of cues from the best wrestling games over the years by mixing the chaos of classic moves with the absurdity of fire and energy attacks. Creation suites are a staple of all the best wrestling games in recent years, so it would only be appropriate for Action Arcade Wrestling to carry that onto Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.
Whether AAW Wrestle Lab joins it or not, Action Arcade Wrestling is poised to become a new indie favorite on consoles with wrestling fans who haven’t gotten the opportunity to experience the title on Steam. If the reaction from fans on Twitter is any indication, there is already excitement from new players and those who have been enjoying the game since 2019.
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