The Nintendo Switch will go down in history as a game-changing handheld system, bringing console-quality play anywhere you go. Even if the system is underpowered, fans can still enjoy high-quality games, from RPGs like Persona 5 Royal to open-world titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
While the Switch offers fans a variety of genres, it is missing one niche category: wrestling games. Switch 2 needs to step up in this category because it is barren compared to its predecessor.
Do you know what the best wrestling game on Switch is? AEW Fight Forever. Yikes.
That’s a bit harsh because Fight Forever is a fine wrestling game on Switch. The controls are easy to understand, matches are fast-paced and fun, plus the Story Mode has a decent amount of replayability. It’s just that AEW promised to keep updating the game after launch, and DLC has since stopped, leaving fans with a dated roster and limited modes to play with.
Fight Forever is not great, but at least it runs decently. We can’t say the same for WWE 2K18.
This is a pretty good wrestling game if you have WWE 2K18 on PS4, Xbox One, or PC. On Nintendo Switch, this is an absolute disgrace. While singles matches are playable, entrances are slow and pause frequentl,y and multi-man bouts are unplayable. Here’s hoping that the Switch 2 is strong enough for a WWE 2K game because 2K18 set a poor precedent for this series on Nintendo.
Because 2K18 was an abject failure on the Switch, 2K Games never bothered to port the other games for this system, which is a shame. Wrestling games are a great way to kill time and are fun to play with friends, so the lack of effort from 2K and WWE here is sad.
However, one more WWE game made it to the Switch, and some fans wish it never did.
WWE 2K Battlegrounds was an attempt to bring back the stylized, over-the-top wrestling of WWE All-Stars to modern systems. On paper, that’s great, but Battlegrounds didn’t deliver in the same way All-Stars did. The gameplay is fine, but there are no submissions, and every match devolves into Extreme Rules nonsense. Battlegrounds was also notoriously greedy, with plenty of wrestlers locked behind in-game pay that impatient gamers can get with real money.
There are several indie wrestling games on Switch, but they didn’t leave much of an impact. RetroMania Wrestling had some notable talent from independent promotions and legends, but fans don’t bring the game up. Action Arcade Wrestling faced a similar fate, though fans enjoyed the over-the-top special moves and were able to download created wrestlers.
Maybe it’s because this writer loved playing wrestling games on a PSP, but it’s criminal how the Switch wasn’t a home for on-the-go grappling. Let’s hope there’s a more concentrated effort when the Switch 2 eventually releases. WWE 2K25 on PC doesn’t have The Island, so a similar port for Switch 2 would work well.