Fire Pro Wrestling

Fire Pro Wrestling is a series of pro wrestling games. The games were made by Human Entertainment from 1989-2000, and then by Spike from then on. The series is very well-known for having rather large rosters of characters based on real-life superstars as well as having the most customizable AI for created wrestlers than any other game.


 * A Ring Designer Is You: The earlier games allowed you to use your wrestling promotion's logo for the ring's mats. Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, in turn, gives you a possibility to change colors on every detail of the ring as well.
 * Artificial Stupidity: Mostly averted, but the game still has some issues, such as the fact that if count-outs are disabled and the wrestlers both end up out of the ring, they will stay out until there's a lucky irish whip that sends one of them in and the other follows back in before the former's CPU logic makes him come back out. If you sim a hardcore match, we hope you like neverending outside brawls.
 * Bad Export for You: Not to be expected for the series that barely ever gets an overseas release, but Fire Pro Wrestling 2 on GBA is the worst offender so far. Despite it does include several U.S. wrestlers that weren't here originally, it throws a handful of Japanese performers away, as well as Management of the Ring mode (later readapted by Yuke's for the needs of Smackdown vs. Raw series), which was highly praised by the import gamers.
 * The content of Returns, on the other hand, remains unchanged compared to the Japanese version.
 * Bland-Name Product:
 * The Mexico ring in Fire Pro Wrestling Returns gives us a Conono Extra advertisement.
 * G has the names for the Japanese wrestling promos mostly changed up completely, but the US-based federations and stables are nothing much than a one-letter swap or replacement. WWC, WFW, FWO, EXW: Exciting Wrestling, anyone?
 * K-1 (a kickboxing league) is called S-1 and the Tokyo Dome is called the Human (Spike, after G) Dome.
 * Button Mashing: Almost entirly subverted. Except in a couple situations, all button inputs are based on timing. However, it's completely played straight in Human's arcade game (and Sega Saturn port) Blazing Tornado.
 * Canon Immigrant: Blazing Tornado was initially a standalone wrestling arcade game from Human, though the move animations were the same as the Fire Pro games. When it was ported to the Sega Saturn, however, it was retitled Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado, officially adding the game to the series.
 * Captain Ersatz: All the wrestlers in the games look like their Real Life counterparts, the only thing different is the name. This was taken a step further in the Game Boy Advance games, where all wrestlers under a contract with a US company (WWE, WCW, etc.) had their skin, hair, and outfit colors changed, too.
 * Bruce Lee Clone: The second GBA game, Final Fire Pro Wrestling/Fire Pro Wrestling 2 had Bruce Lee thrown in under the name Kung-Fu Liu, along with other famous martial artists like Chuck Norris, Mas Oyama and judo expert Kyoko Tamura.
 * Character Customization: The Trope Maker for the wrestling game genre, or Super Fire Pro Wrestling III: Final Bout for Super Nintendo, to be exact.
 * Colon Cancer: Wrestling Universe: Fire Pro Women: Dome Super Female Big Battle: All Japan Women VS J.W.P. Yes, that is a single game title.
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: More like the computer has no reaction time. In the early games the moment when the player inputs the desired move is somewhat random (anywhere from almost immediately after the wrestlers lock up to about a second afterwards). On the hardest settings, the computer will pull off its moves as soon as that indicator appears. This lead to the easier AI for Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3.
 * This problem is completely fixed in later games by making the moment of input the same for every lockup, though that moment is different for each lockup situation (the timing for a front grapple is different than a rear grapple, for example).
 * Franchise Killer: No matter how good it was as a standalone game, G was a huge step backward from 6-Man Scramble in the eyes of the Japanese fans, which would supposedly end the series at this point... Not until Spike would kick in.
 * Z was this both literally (it was meant to be the last game in the series) and figuratively, as fans felt the game was a step backward from the very popular D. Thankfully, Returns pretty much fixed everything.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Although it's a argueable one, considering both Fire Pro Wrestling Returns as well as all WWF-licensed games that feature Stone Cold Steve Austin have a T rating and still have the trademark taunt of the latter being shown. Most of the games have a single/double middle finger taunt being available for the created wrestlers, although it's not shown straight into the camera, so it's pretty hard to say whether it's really that finger or not. Nevertheless, the name of this taunt was bowdlerized for the overseas GBA releases, where the word "thumb" replaced the "middle finger".
 * Also done in the Japan-only Fire Pro Wrestling G: one of the voice samples reveals the words E-C-fucking-W!. Bonus points for getting the copyrighted material directly through the radar as well. Ditto for the Sting Shout in Returns which is clearly called Spike Shout in the handheld localizations.
 * G also has "shit" said in all four Japanese wrestler voice packs.
 * Insistent Terminology: Most fans insist on calling created wrestlers "Edits" (which is what's used in the game menus) rather than the more common "CAW" (Create-a-Wrestler).
 * With several exceptions, the term "MMA" is replaced with "Gruesome Fighting".
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: The later games are known for their rather large rosters, considering that the amount of pre-made wrestlers and slots for the created ones were already over the top in the series' SNES days. The latest game in the series, Fire Pro Wrestling Returns currently holds the record, sporting a roster of 327 wrestlers plus 500 edit slots.
 * Nintendo Hard: Most of the early games, but Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Final Bout was so insanely hard that an updated version with an easier AI was made (Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Easy Type).
 * No Export for You: Only three games in the series have had official releases in the US: Fire Pro Wrestling A, Final Fire Pro Wrestling (both being called just Fire Pro Wrestling and numbered as such in the States) and Fire Pro Wrestling Returns (released overseas after a two-year tenture).
 * No Fair Cheating: Really, really odd one. You're playing Super Fire Pro Wrestling III Easy Type, huh? No edit mode for you!
 * No Problem With Licensed Games: The series is mainly known for a handful of renamed wrestlers from different federations worldwide thrown into one game, yeah, but some of its' installments are actually licensed and are spinning around one or two Japanese promotions. For the record, the first one was Fire Pro Women: All Star Dream Slam on Super Nintendo, which featured actual female performers from All Japan's Women Pro Wrestling.
 * Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: After Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3, none of the games number their sequels.
 * In fact, the first game in the series wasn't just called Fire Pro Wrestling, no, it's name is Fire Pro Wrestling: Combination Tag. Wouldn't it be fair to say this trope is in the series's blood?
 * For some reason, the only game in the series on the Mega Drive is titled Thunder Pro Wrestling Retsuden.
 * One-Hit Kill: Extremely rare, but if a character has a move that can be done at the start of a match and potentially cause a critical, it's possible to knock out, pin, or force a submission in one move.
 * Shout-Out: As a part of shoutout moveset performed by Kenny Omega of DDT, it's possible to assign Burning Inner Strength to the created wrestlers.
 * Spiritual Successor: To the NES classic Pro Wrestling, featuring a very similar fighting system, as well as an assortment of wrestlers very blatantly intended to be existing ones.
 * Suspiciously Similar Song: Once the games started including entrance themes for the wrestlers, they simply used slightly altered versions of popular wrestlers' themes.
 * Updated Rerelease: Arguably every game is basically an expansion of the previous release. Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3: Easy Type, however, is a straight case, being just an easier edition of Final Bout with Edit feature removed. G might also count as one of 6MEN Scramble, although G was more of an adaptation for the less powerful console (which is, in this case Sega Saturn to PlayStation).
 * Video Game Long Runners: 26 games have carried the Fire Pro name from 1989 to the present. That doesn't even include similar wrestling games by Human/Spike such as the King of Coliseum games.