WrestleQuest Switch impressions — You are a toy

We all love Toy Story. The beloved tale of a boy and his plastic companions is one we all share. WrestleQuest may not be the next Toy Story, but it is in fact a story about toys… and wrestling, and heart. The fantastic Cassie Peterson has already given you the breakdown of how awesome this game is (read that review here), but we wanted to double dip and tell you about how it works on the Nintendo Switch.

*Editor’s Note: I did not read Cassie’s introduction before writing this, only to laugh at the fact we both used Toy Story as a theme. Good on ya, Cassie.*

To prepare you appropriately, let’s get into the game itself. Wrestlequest begins in the toy box, with you playing as up and comer Randy “Muchacho Man” Santos and Brink Logan, an underappreciated, by the rules competitor. You’ll look to reach the highest level, PAW, who is the biggest wrestling organization out there. Of course, our heroes won’t be able to make it there easily, because there has to be a challenge to work you into the wrestler you’re meant to be.

Without rehashing much of what Cassie had to say, WrestleQuest is a super quirky, turn based RPG that oozes with personality. Randy is more or less a worshiper of Macho Man Randy Savage (whodathunk given his name), and he’s almost similar to Ichiban Kasuga from Yakuza: Like A Dragon. He’s so darn genuine and honest, you wouldn’t think he’d last two minutes in the real world. On the other side, Brink has grown up in all of this, and he’s seen the rough side. Both are necessary to move the story forward, and eventually both will do just that.

The best part about experiencing this game on the Switch rests on how well the overall game fits. It’s a pixely, turn-based RPG, which blends in with the aesthetic of other Switch offerings, like Octopath Traveler or Golf Story. It not only works here, it pops, with all of the color and animations glowing off of my OLED screen. I’m always up for a good pixel art style, and this one is so clean in design, playing off of the art style to mimic the toy theme. There’s also a lot of variation in the places you visit, so you don’t feel like you’re walking down the same path constantly.

Getting into combat also works well here, without precision controls or quick twitch movement in play. Turn-based is a boon here, allowing you to put down your Switch if you’re in the middle of something (or if you’re like me and were getting your drink order while on a plane). The menus are bright and easy to navigate, and beyond some odd choices in design (some button presses don’t flow well when making choices), it’s good to go. I will say this, it’d be nice to get a longer timer on the QTE button prompts. It’s so fast my brain is thinking Xbox and pressing the wrong buttons, and if anyone is watching I look really bad at WrestleQuest.

While there is a lot to like about WrestleQuest, there are some issues on the Switch version. First, loading times. These are abysmal, especially when the console and PC versions load near instantaneously. They also occur quite frequently, so it’s not just moving from one area to the next; it’s sometimes from one in-game cutscene to another. WrestleQuest also stutters a bit coming out of loading, so you’re waiting an extra ten seconds just to get rolling again.

Second, the movement that does exist via the analog stick doesn’t feel great. This might be more on the Nintendo Switch analog sticks – they aren’t a shining example of precision – but I also felt like the zones were a little off in terms of diagonal movement. We all have a sweet spot from muscle memory on when we know something should change in direction with our analog sticks, and WrestleQuest is missing it by that much.

Thirdly, in handheld mode the font is really small. I’m not the only one who wants better accessibility in games, and WrestleQuest has a few great features, including invincibility. But, a lack of being able to increase the size of the font is sucky. It’s something that should be an easy catch or easy add, so hopefully it will in the future. Until then, prepare to strain your eyes outside of docked mode on the Switch.

Overall, WrestleQuest is a fantastic and different kind of turn-based RPG that any wrestling or TBRPG fan will enjoy. Heck, I don’t play a lot of TBRPGs and I don’t give a crap about wrestling, and I like what I’m playing. That said, the Switch version doesn’t run on the same level as its gaming counterparts, and even if it isn’t anything dire, it’s worth remembering when you’re spending your digital currency.

A big thank you to Mega Cat Studios and Skybound Games for providing a Switch code of WrestleQuest for evaluation.

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