Fire Pro Wrestling

Fire Pro Wrestling (ファイヤープロレスリング) is a long-running professional wrestling video game series originating from Japan, started in 1989 by Human Entertainment and continued by Spike in 2000.

History
Beginning with the first title in the series from Human Entertainment, Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag for PC Engine in 1989, the Fire Pro Wrestling series eventually produced editions of games for many systems, notably the Super Famicom, Sega Saturn, Game Boy Advance, Dreamcast and the PlayStation 2. Human also released a wrestling game outside the Fire Pro Wrestling series in 1989 for Game Boy. Titled Pro Wrestling in its native Japan, it was released internationally as HAL Wrestling.

The series became popular in Japan, but did not see an international release until after Spike took over the franchise in 2000. Early games in the Fire Pro Wrestling series were popular outside of Japan with import gamers, and at least one game, Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium for Super Famicom, received an unofficial fan translation through video game console emulators. Fire Pro Wrestling A for the Game Boy Advance was released internationally as Fire Pro Wrestling in 2001, and was one of the titles initially available when the Game Boy Advance was launched in Japan and North America. Three editions of the game received official English translations: Fire Pro Wrestling (2001) and Fire Pro Wrestling 2 (2002) for the GBA, and Fire Pro Wrestling Returns for PS2 (2007).

While other wrestling games made the transition to using 3D polygonal models when 32-bit consoles arrived, Fire Pro Wrestling relies on 2D sprites to represent the characters in the ring. Spike also has another wrestling game series in full 3D, King of Colosseum.

Features
The Fire Pro Wrestling series of games distinguish themselves from other wrestling games by combining several unique features. One feature is the focus on a timing-based grappling control system, which encourages the use of complex strategy, built on working up to using increasingly powerful moves on your opponent. The timing-based system stands in contrast to the button-mashing tactics with which most 2D wrestling gamers are familiar. Another feature of Fire Pro Wrestling games is the inclusion of a large roster of wrestlers from different promotions around the world, representing many different styles of professional wrestling: from North American WWE style sports-entertainment, Mexican lucha-libre to various styles of Japanese puroresu: athletic junior-heavyweight style, realistic strong-style, women's' joshi wrestling, and violent hardcore wrestling, as well as different styles of shoot fighting and mixed martial arts.

A third distinguishing feature of the Fire Pro Wrestling series of games, particularly the later games in the series, is the inclusion of a detailed wrestler creation and edit mode. The edit mode of Fire Pro Wrestling games allows players to build game characters with a high level of attention to detail. Appearance characteristics such as clothing and ring attire, physical build, head and facial features, can be customized for a created wrestler. A detailed set of wrestling and fighting moves, drawn from a large pool of moves built into the game, can also be assigned to a created wrestler. Later titles in the series allowed for customization of other aspects of professional wrestling, including changing the design of the ring mat, creating customized championship belts, and creation and editing of referees. The extensive edit mode in the Fire Pro series of games also allowed players to make detailed changes to the CPU logic of an edited wrestler, making it possible for a skilled creator to create a wrestler that behaves very much like his real-life counterpart even when controlled by the computer. The highly detailed character creation and edit mode of the Fire Pro Wrestling games became an influential feature that was eventually added to other wrestling and sports games.

This combination of features included in Fire Pro Wrestling games allows players to create "dream matchups" of wrestlers from different promotions, different eras in the history of professional wrestling, as well as matches between real-life wrestlers and fighters, fictional characters and non-wrestling celebrities.