In this Extreme Warfare Revenge review, it’s a look back at the classic wrestling booking simulator from 2002 that paved the way for the TEW (Total Extreme Wrestling) series.
This was one of the first wrestling booking games that I played back in the day. There was the Extreme Warfare Deluxe series, Promotion Wars, and other similar games that were great for wrestling fans.
But even two decades later, Adam Ryland’s EWR game is an enjoyable booking experience focused on entertainment and simplicity.
If you find the updated TEW series too intimidating, Extreme Warfare Revenge is a great alternative for its pick-up and play value (plus, it’s also free).
Let’s jump in.
Video
Highlights Preview
- One of the things initially that I remember is the Match Reports, which had Scott Keith, CRZ, and others. Those were a lot of fun to read on each show, so I remember that was one of the interesting elements.
- I think the one thing this game (or series) has never lacked is detail and that’s why I think so many people like it. There’s just a lot of good detail in the player’s guide in what goes in the ratings and all of that stuff. EWR had FAQs in the guide, and it’s kind of interesting to see all the different questions as it pertains to the game.
- We’re using WWE as our starting company, and at the time, they had 113 workers. The Company layout has it split between developmental workers and those kinds of things, and I like that it has all the labels right there on one screen. You can also click to auto put workers at the ideal position, and it gives you the overlay there that tells you exactly what that means. There’s also starting money, and having everything on one screen shows you exactly where you’re at with everything. I like the clean nature of that. It’s pretty straightforward and simple.
- We’ll start at the top with Extreme Email. So, Linda McMahon is sending us a message that she wishes us the best of luck with our new job and that we have her full support. The email system as we know is still in the game in TEW, though it’s a bit more advanced with more options and such.
- The Company screen is where you can change your company name and all that stuff. You can talk to the owner, and Linda gives you an overview of where you are. You’ve got your roster splits and how they’re broken down. There’s the risk level, and the product was a little bit simpler than in future games. You’ve got your merchandising, and you can obviously make your changes to that. It’s the same thing with production value. Advertising is the same sort of situation. You can change your logos based on the graphics, as well as the internet banner.
- It’s very funny to look back at all the different sorts of sponsorships with actual companies and websites. A site like 411 Wrestling is still a very popular website out there, so I found it to be a very interesting dynamic. You can hire your sponsors and choose your main sponsors and minor sponsors.
- The Roster section, this is your bread and butter of the game and it had a much different-looking roster screen back in the day. But again, this was 2003, and there’s still a lot of depth to the game. That’s why it has always kind of stuck with me. You can assign wrestlers to the roster split, so let’s just take Batista for example. He’s on Raw, and you can change kind of what the finishers are for each wrestler and what kind of move it is. They’re type-in finishers. You can look at different attributes and those kind of things.
- Choosing wrestler attributes is a great option for adding more detail to a certain performer. For example, when I hover over High Spots – if it’s checked, wrestlers are willing to do high spots such as Big Falls. One of the attributes for Batista is Menacing, and he has a menacing look so that makes sense. Another option is The Fonz Factor, and all those things play into how things progress in the game from a worker standpoint.
- Worker relationships are still a big part of the game these days in TEW. It has an impact on how you manage your roster and worker interactions. Meanwhile, there are also options for your babyface/heel turns and you can change the gimmicks. There’s a pretty long list of potential gimmicks, and I assume pretty much all of these are in TEW.
- I always liked the Quick Roster section, which gave you a board-like view of your faces, your tweeners, and your heels. You could see it broke down that way and you could also remove workers that are unavailable. That can help you filter it out to make it easier to know what you have to work with. In our WWE example, we’re pretty overloaded on the main event faces, so maybe we need a heel or two that we might want to turn. We could switch Kurt Angle from face to heel here, or maybe even Shawn Michaels. I like being able to filter that out, and you can also do it by contract too so you know who is under a written contract. More filtering options included doing it by heavyweights or lightweights.
- The Staff section is also a very easily sorted section where you can look at the staff and see who needs to go where. You can quickly see what they’re doing in terms of the job description.
- There’s the Other Promotions area where we can look around at the rest of the game world. Let’s just use NWA-TNA as an example. Jerry Jarrett was the owner, and you can see his reputation – a sports entertainment focus rather than a pure wrestling focus. You can look at the top five stars of the promotion just like you can in TEW games. There’s info on sponsorships, and I like the buttons at the bottom because you can interact with the promotion. We could give the NWA money, but they don’t want our money. We can attempt to buy them out, but Jerry Jarrett wants no part of that. You can also see the competitive status, which is sort of the looking at it from “Are they at war with anyone” and those kinds of things.
- Something else you can do when looking at other promotions is view the entire roster, so you can shortlist workers just like you can now in TEW. You can also view another promotion’s event schedule, and the screen is a lot more simple. Then again, one of the reasons for that is because we’re using NWA-TNA as the example, which at the time was running only a pay-per-view every single Wednesday. They had no TV shows at that point.
- The Feuds section is where you can start a feud and decide between your major feuds and minor feuds. I remember really valuing these major feuds because you only have so many slots at the top available for them. Let’s start a feud with Brock Lesnar, who is a face, and Kurt Angle, who is a heel. It starts at 100 heat, which makes sense given where these two guys were at. Let’s start another feud with Triple H and Big Show, and that’s got 70 heat. You can ask Sophie what she thinks about certain feuds, and she thinks we need to build up the Triple H/Big Show one more. I also love the ability to look at the feud statistics to see who’s won matches between the participants, and I also like that it filters it out clean wins and cheap wins.
- The Tag Team screen is pretty straightforward. You can look at the experience of each team, and you can also ask the writers for team names and that kind of stuff. There’s the Stables section, and again, you can ask the writers for different name ideas for stables.
- The Titles section is a look at all your championships in the promotion. The only thing missing that would be a staple of future games is the actual image of the title. But again, this was 2003. You can get staff opinions on the title holders, and I liked that interactive part of it. If we ask Sophie about champions, she thinks Triple H is a good World Champion. If we ask about Evolution as the World Tag Team Champions, she thinks they’re too good for the World Tag Team titles because its perception is a 65. So, she thinks that we should give it to Chris Nowinski and Rodney Mack instead. She thinks Bubba Ray Dudley should be the Intercontinental Champion instead of Randy Orton.
There’s a lot more insight on booking a show, match reports (and why they’re one of the most entertaining parts of the game), the dirt sheet websites (simply awesome), and much in the in-depth video review on the WrestleBlake YouTube channel.
Watch the full Extreme Warfare Revenge review video on YouTube!
