'Fire Pro Wrestling Returns' RETROSPECTIVE - Triangle X Squared O.

[@616Entertainment]

Only 2 new Patreon signups away from unlocking THE HISTORY OF MORTAL KOMBAT PART VII! Just 2! Sign up now at www.patreon.com/616Entertainment to knock this out!

[@TG5455]

Please give Daddy Dan-Dan the two sign-ups because he deserves the support for all of his hard work. 😊❤

[@lucalai9433]

Just signed up for 350👍 keep up the great work Ian and looking forward to using patreon too!

[@1fulsniperlegend]

I am working on a fantasy booking project I need some help on would love your input. I am trying to do what if sting fought undertaker at wrestlemania for my KZbin channel TalkInsidetheRing

[@KyREvolution]

Trust me, Fire Pro's editing system is completely different from 2K's CAW system in a good way and it's not even close. The newest Fire Pro is my favorite wrestling game ever

[@qkomodo9098]

I truly hope they make a sequel to it. The only downside to it is the number of match types. That's literally the only thing wrong with it

[@Gammera2000]

​@@qkomodo9098I appreciated that ot had barbed wire matches. I think the only other games on the market with those match types are Wrestling Empire (& revolution) & Fight Forever..

[@el_dank_sinatra]

Just bought it a couple days ago. I’ve been having an absolute blast. Been doing a WCW/nWo vs WWF/DX simulation. I was so happy of the massive customization and collections of custom made wrestlers.

[@JuanMunoz-ie2lr]

Fire Pro Returns walked, so that Fire Pro World could run.

[@pooboobob]

Fire Pro 6 man scramble walked so Fire Pro Returns could run

[@CoffeeNToys]

I discovered the FirePro Wrestling series (specifically FPW X Premium) during my senior year of high school playing it in my Yearbook publishing class. FP will ALWAYS be near and dear to my heart and yes, I too simulated hundreds of matches (they are just fun to watch!) Great video. Glad to see FirePro getting the love it deserves!

[@CoomanX5]

The most shocking thing that day was this beautiful game was recommended to me by not only the KZbinr truthslayer, but also FREAKING GAMESTOP.😅

[@10thwonder]

Real gamers work at Gamestop. 😂

[@joeyfarris2543]

I still have my copy of Fire Pro Wrestling Returns and I still play it on my PlayStation 2 and it's still a great game 👍👍😎😎

[@truindividual]

Me too. I also have World, Super Fire Pro X and the GBA games

[@donovanguidry7308]

Thank you for reviewing this game. This one is near and dear to my heart. My mother had just been dignosed with terminal cancer and my brothers and i were completely lost. During a random trip to a local Gamestop, we discovered this weird 2D wrestling game. It acted as our escape. No matter the hell that we were going through at the time, we always found time to put it on and be there for each other. It was how we dealt with the pain of our reality. Even today, when we look back on that time period, we can have fond memories of those times and some of the inside jokes that wete born out of Fire Pro.

[@CaptainMcKayRandom]

Back in the day I always heard about Fire Pro as if it was some kind of secret that Americans weren’t supposed to know. The first one I ever played was World, and now seeing how this was the origin of GM Showdown is an incredible story. STILL possessing the notebooks and the stat sheets you wrote years ago is amazing haha. Loved this one, man!

[@TBsports27]

I love the episodes where you have fun stories from your childhood related to the game, Takes me back to a simple time when we all kept stats and notes in our notebooks before a universe mode existed, Amazing stuff

[@katmore9]

Awesome vid, Ian! I love how you kept the wrestler's stats with your own scoring system. I did the same, though not to your level of detail, for Franchise mode in NBA Live.

[@stevenkilboy1319]

Dude your retrospectives are the truth Ian. You most definitely don’t get the recognition you deserve. I really hope you continue to do this as long as it makes you happy man. Thanks again.

[@alec2000]

This was another awesome Triangle X Squared O video, Ian🙂. While I LOVE Fire Pro Wrestling World on PS4, after seeing this video, I’m definitely gonna be purchasing Fire Pro Returns the soonest I can. Seeing that all of this gameplay on PS2 blows my mind😱, and my collection won’t be complete without it. Loved hearing all the memories you had with this one, and it reminds me why I love this series and channel very much😌. Great job on another banger, Ian, and I’m so excited for your SVR 2009 video in the future, as well as your other future projects😁. I hope you and all the DanSans have a wonderful weekend, Ian, stay safe, and I love you all. Peace✌️😊❤️

[@TheClodec]

Brings me back to the days before I knew you could download the wrestlers on a USB drive, and spent countless hours printing out and creating wrestlers from LordWorm

[@zaynightwing]

15:58 I did this but with my action figures lol crazy we’re all just living the same childhood

[@TheNaturalPatHarris]

This game right here made me a better pro wrestling fan. Thanks to the NUMEROUS different saves and Packs I found whole New world in Japan/ROH/Early TNA, and just the fact that this was a Fucking masterpiece of a pro wrestling game

[@dylanstakely]

It's so cool that you still have that notebook all these years later.

[@DoubleH8234]

I fell in love with the Fire Pro franchise back in 2002 when my friend gave me a copied Fire Pro D for the Dreamcast, and it changed my life! I bought almost every game made since. I just need 5 more to own them all. Great video to introduce FPR to the masses bro.

[@rdpruett88]

I remember seeing this on the shelf in a game store and thought when I get a chance, I'll buy it. But ended up getting it on my PS3

[@codysandusky2130]

I can't even remember at this point where I bought my US copy of Fire Pro Returns, but it was soon after seeing stuff on GameFAQs about it. I loved HCTP (and still do, of course), but reading on the history of the series and learning about what it could do was all I needed to hear. I never put nearly as much time in it as you did - though I aspired to do so - it's a game I still enjoy going back and watching. I'm like you in the sense that I didn't actually play the game much, but that's maybe something I can change in the future. Thanks for the great video and retrospective.

[@daveschlet]

Thank you for this review. I love that game so much! And am happy that you were such a big fan of it too.

[@616Entertainment]

Hell yea man, thanks for watching.

[@mbk907]

The notebook of match results and rankings brought back so many memories. I had so many books of results with wrestling figures and with wwf no mercy.

[@mugillaguerilla]

everything about watching this video was like you pulled everything out of my brain. from the game, to the notebook(mine is in a composition book) and the modded ps2(which is sitting right in front of me. Using Open ps2 loader with a network cable nowadays). Firepr world I also have through Steam. Great video

[@SPac316]

Fire Pro is such a good series. The very few we had that released in the US were cool. It has a high learning curve but it's satisfying when you get good with the gameplay. But the most charming thing with the series I liked was the legally distinctive versions of real life promotions and wrestlers at the time! But I also love the massive amount of customization they had.

[@truindividual]

It's certainly not the most user friendly but the most rewarding.

[@paxhumana2015]

@@truindividual , I hate its lack of user friendly interfaces, and there are literally about 200 things that I would improve on the game.

[@JustinTyme116]

I had this game as a kid! My Granddad got me the game as a gift. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I didn’t think it was as great as the SvR games. Now as an adult, I have a whole new level of appreciation for this game! The A.I. is so great & it really feels like I’m watching an actual wrestling match on TV. I wish I had appreciated this game more as a kid, but I’m just happy I even had a chance to play it. This game is definitely a must have for any wrestling fan!

[@StoatKrowKomedy]

Bruv... your childhood notebook has better record keeping than my Kombustion GM Showdown notebook lol

[@shiningwizard327]

Fire Pro is my jam!!! I bought the Japanese version of Fire Pro Returns in 2005, and bought it again when it was released in America in 2007. Before that, Fire Pro Z was the reason I bought a Japanese PS2 in the first place because I was obsessed with Fire Pro D on the Dreamcast before that. And it was thanks to my friend who introduced me to Fire Pro G on the original Playstation which got me into the series in the first place. I'm thankful for Fire Pro Returns because that game lasted me from 2005 all the way to 2018 when Fire Pro Wrestling World came out on the PS4. And in my opinion, we were lucky to get Fire Pro World in the first place. I was daydreaming for 13 years about a sequel to Fire Pro Returns until Fire Pro World came out. Ugh, love the Fire Pro series.

[@jamesdunn5842]

I remember seeing a KZbin video of Undertaker vs Sting in this game and just needing it immediately. Played it from 2008 to 2012 more days than not. My wrestling friend group would go online on SVR and I'd be on FPR simulating years of ppv's and show's. Still my all time favorite wrestling game.

[@thisisnotachannel]

Nice! Now I have something to look forward to watching after work!

[@KyleS3m3noff]

I started with a SNES emulator back in the late 90s so I could play Super Fire Pro X Premium, after finding a rom that had been hacked and converted to full English. Never looked back from there. When Returns came out, I got my PS2 modded so I could play a Japanese game (in AUS) and ordered it right away. In no time, there was an ISO file up online from project teams that had hacked the game and converted the entire game to English (except for the main menu, for some reason). Since I had a modded PS2, downloading and burning that was dead easy. I love that it doesn't matter which version of the game you have on which platform, the gameplay is near-identical. SNES, Dreamcast, PS2 or PC, if you've ever played any of them, you can pick up a controller and play them all. Other wrestling games have come and gone over the decades, but I always, ALWAYS return to Fire Pro... any version.

[@TG5455]

Gameplay is always the king of kings. If the gameplay is good then it's going to be a fun time. 😊

[@phunnyphantom]

I honestly thought I was the only one that had a notebook filled with matches and cards

[@Spider-Man9615]

Fire Pro is king and long live 616 Shockwave and Kombustion! 👊🍻

[@TWJP99]

Excellent episode! I hope this drives some traffic over to your previous seasons of GM Showdown because that series was excellent. Also, Holy shit! Season 3 is coming!

[@Juria316]

I'm jealous. All I ever did with my notebooks was simulate matches and keep track of champions and PPVs. Ah, memories. I enjoy blowing the dust off of my PS2 and FPW every once in a while. So much fun.

[@GOJOWrestling]

I had the same booking style in my no mercy game back then, with the book and all, now I own a real wrestling promotion in real life, experience

[@ShiningWizard]

I still remember ordering FPR from a site I can't remember, play Asia I think, waited for it to be delivered only for the UPS guy to not deliver it, so I had to drive to dispatch and wait for him to end his shift and pick it up. It's now like 10pm, I get the game home and stayed up until like 3am eating shelled peanuts and translating the roster. A fire pro tradition for me; peanuts and translating.

[@not_jon_vendi]

What a frickin bombshell announcement. I am so excited for that thank you Ian!

[@Conspiracy515]

Omg Returns got more play on my PS2 more than anything.. hell my rosters on there are definitely bigger than on World, I went fuckin balls on this game. Another banger Ian, much love brotha👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@Swype87]

The part about you having a notebook with a bunch of match types and such was so nostalgic to me, cause I was basically doing the same thing. Had a whole fantasy company, full roster, managers, stables, PPV names, etc, and I think mine was from 2002-2005, cause I remember having CM Punk being at the top of the Cruiserweight division 🤣

[@britneyspearsvillarosa]

I love Fire Pro Wrestling Returns

[@heelzod6544]

Love,love, love!!!! Fire pro returns. Any of them really.

[@2yLiteThaTitan]

Fire Pro is still the greatest wrestling game series of all time. It has proven that the latest graphics don't make the wrestling game.

[@binxboi7156]

3:06 I bought a GBA in 2001 and I only had like 21 bucks left and the only game I could get for that was Fire Pro so I bought it and was blown away. A truly perfect intro this style of game play

[@codyssmith73]

You’re not wrong, Punk v Helms would’ve slapped and been a truly underrated feud. But man, seeing all the love and passion from fans when it comes to creating stuff for a game is always awesome.

[@MightyKombat]

Fire Pro definitely feels like a case of "if it ain't broke." Looking at FPWR and Fire Pro World its obvious to see how. Its a good formula, just make the tweaks needed to keep it modern and fresh and going. Also Suda51 of Killer7 and No More Heroes fame did the story for one of the SNES Fire Pro games and its pretty fuckin' dark.

[@truindividual]

You look at Fire Pro D for the Dreamcast or even Fire Pro Z. It looks the exact same as R. If it ain't broke, don't fix it

[@virtualpro685]

Great vid! I love Fire Pro! I still sim Returns and World! Great job bro!

[@TG5455]

In real life that Funk vs Sabu barbed wire match was crazy and amazing to see and I can't believe how they survived that match after being tangled in the barbed wire like it's a ball of yarn.

[@Tiriban]

I don't remember how many years I put into Fire Pro Returns, but my PS5 tells me I have over 2,000 hours lovingly woven into Fire Pro World.

[@yekimrelssek2929]

I forgot I owed this on PS3 thank you so much just downloaded a 90s package!

[@TWKIC]

I absolutely adore the old notebook! I would do stuff like that as a child as well!

[@truindividual]

to think this franchise is 35 years old this year. Great call, DanDan.

[@RaDicAL808]

Love the Turtles in Time music during this entire episode lol

[@ramiroFTW]

I used to have a e-fed on FPR where not only I created a 30-35 wrestlers roster, but I gave them all backgrounds, alignments, stables, relations, feuds and more than a year worth of booking. Sadly I lost my notebook where I kept track of everything. Good times.

[@crowfan82790]

Yessss absolutely love this series this was definitely my introduction to fpw. I was going to local wrestling shows and a friend told me about this game copied his mem card for me with caws of all the local wrestlers and I never looked back

[@britneyspearsvillarosa]

This game was released in 2007 and still is awesome.

[@truindividual]

in the States, yes. but a few years before in Japan

[@britneyspearsvillarosa]

@@truindividual I"m an American so I brought Fire Pro Returns in 2007.

[@ginodejesus9302]

Nice love it Ian thanks Dan Dan Love these videos.

[@WhatwouldRoddyPiperdo]

Nice I adore this series I remember being so excited for it on Gameboy and as for your showdown thing any OGs remember promotion wars for pc from 1997? The file fit on a floppy disc and that was how I booked Invasion years before it happened even before extreme warfare

[@mhstylesmugen]

What I love about Fire Pro Games is that you can take the stats from previous games and use it on the new one, that and they have preset heads for famous wrestlers so you can make them yourself. I'm making every WWE, WCW and ECW wrestler to ever appear in a Fire Pro Game, even the ones that already in the game, my version will have different stats and moves based on previous games. This game is the dream of people who love customization in wrestling games and I can't recommend it enough.

[@paxhumana2015]

I hate its facial customization and Fire Pro Wrestling World did it better.

[@TG5455]

The Blade ring does look like the Pride ring with all of those sponsorships. The UFC's Octagon recently has been using a lot and I mean A LOT of sponsorships on their mat.

[@Misterkennedy04]

I sank so many hours into this game so much fun to play.

[@EvarlastingTalk]

I have the physical copy of this game! I love it! I renamed all the wrestlers and the promotions.

[@derrickhaggard]

I love the Fire Pro Wrestling series with FPW: Returns, and FPW: World being my two most favorite entries in the series.

[@damen8964]

Was Great.and now Fire Pro Wrestling World is my favorite wrestling games.

[@eyeguydojima7131]

I bought this on my PS3 on a whim one day and is hands down one of the best purchases I've made on that console. Up there with MVC2 right before it was delisted 10 years ago.

[@Bostonian-American]

FRIDAY PART 3!!! lol great stuff

[@vertigobeatz7118]

Just down loaded on my Phone and it IS FKN SICK OMG..SO SO UNDERATED..AND THE GRAPHICS ARE SPECTACULAR.. 20 YRS LATER GLAD I MISSED IT.. BECAUSE NOW ITS BRAND FKN NEW ON MY PHONE WITH A 🎮. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥. About to figure out Controls..✌

[@lanceparker4796]

I love being able to SIM watch the matches.

[@GodzillasaurusJr]

I did have one of those you mentioned, but Fire Pro was the best for me, from about 1998 when I first discovered it. The SNES version I had blew all the PS1 and PS2 era titles out of the water.

[@paxhumana2015]

You are a m o r o n if you truly think that statement is true.

[@DJPsykoHM]

I was working at EB Games (Gamestop) when this came out in America. I had no idea this was about to arrive and my jaw fn hit the ground when I opened the box. The low price tag was also great. So much memories.

[@rstone3345]

Been a Fire Pro fan since Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium on the Super Famicom via emulator. Cool personal story about Fire Pro Returns is that I found this game not long after its NA release in a discounted sale bin at a random electronics store and bought it for 10$, I couldn't believe my luck. Fire Pro Wrestling D on the Dreamcast was also a great addition to the series.

[@616Entertainment]

OG fan!

[@Sultanofsleez]

Fire pro is incredible! Love doing round robin tournaments. The cpus puts on awesome matches!

[@iancope6829]

What great video .. I love fpw game's. 😊

[@ErikLarson-l9k]

I honestly thought I was a weirdo for mainly using my FPW games for spectating simulated matches, so I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one :) I still have my FPW 1 & 2 cartridges for my Game Boy Advance (along with FPR on PS2), and the creation options blew me away. The GBA games even let you rename finishers! Wanna give your created Randy Orton the RKO instead of the Ace Crusher, there you go. Also, part of the fun was identifying who the default wrestlers in the game are modeled after, with their wacky and sometimes clever alternate names (Bret Hart is renamed Brad Love :D)

[@paxhumana2015]

The RKO is a variant of the Diamond Cutter, actually. The Stone Cold Stunner is the Ace Crusher.

[@ChaseMC215]

FPW! FPW! FPW! Edit: Also, by technicality, Dragon Ball: Sparking!Zero is not a spirital successor to the Budokai Tenkaichi series, but rather the fifth entry, as in Japan that series was known as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking.

[@86tjfender]

I wonder if you were on the message boards when I did my simulated tournaments. I booked them, as well as full PPVs, had users comment on who they thought would win, then posted all the videos of the matches, one at a time, to the boards. I had quite a following until I moved and lost my capturing device lol

[@Mushu2801]

My brother was one of the persons who uploaded the how to create a wrestler with moves and all. And he went crazy with the steam beta years later.

[@ScottLaFontaine]

Great vid as always

[@ShiningWizard]

Oh man the memories. I had that exact swap magic disc and flip top. With as much love as you clearly have and had at the time for the game, I must suggest you play on PC with mods my man. Game changer. 2005 Dan Dan would be blown away with what's possible. I mean, have you even wrestled outside on those barbed wire boards like you could in FPD before they added bombs and kept you inside the ring?

[@616Entertainment]

I'm a PlayStation and Mac guy, I wouldn't know how to get mods working with a textbook, hahaha

[@noahknight7298]

i remember my older brother seeing FPWR on the shelves at the store and thinking, “that looks like triple H and rey mysterio, let’s get it” little did we know, there wasn’t any rey or HHH, but plenty other recognizable legends 😂😂

[@Kairistorm]

Fire Pro Returns was my first experience with fire pro, I remember all the good times, Fire Pro Club, Critical Club, typing out edits for other people... trying to get gameshark to download rosters lol

[@Livingdead170]

used to stream it back on twitch back when it was still justin tv, met one of my best friends through it

[@truindividual]

One of the greatest $20 games to ever release. I wasn't sold on it first but after one hour, I was in love. Then, when I found out you can tune the AI to whatever you want it to? MAAN, I stopped playing SMackdown vs. RAW for about a few years

[@paxhumana2015]

I bought my first ever copy of this video game for $USD 8 the very year that it released at a flea market in the State of Tennessee, USA...ah, good times.

[@CollectionCompletion]

Omg that notebook what a fucking nerdddd 🤣 I love it, I was exactly the same. Something about fire pro man, that shit just goes hard. My channel has become almost exclusively fire pro content, and I'm not mad at that.

[@zodsherocomplex6460]

I love the fire pro series I've been s fan since fire pro G on the PlayStation one. These games are the best.

[@jbizz80]

😂 16:00 Man, I thought I was the only wrestling gamer who wrote or typed out his bookings. I have Word and Excel files going back to '99 and WCW Mayhem.

[@616Entertainment]

Great memories, man.

[@grawakendream8980]

when fpr came out, i thought that was the pinnacle. the one issue with the game, a cage that you can work with, had been addressed. it was the perfect game

[@Macho_Fantastico]

Regarding the graphics, the one thing I particularly loved about FPR is that you could create custom wrestlers that looked just as good as the included wrestlers. It's only been very recently where the WWE games have done that, usually CAW's looked a lot worse.

[@joeyfarris2543]

Oh yeah I also own and play the GBA Fire Pro Wrestling games👍👍

[@jordannufcfan]

Fire Pro Returns is just the best wrestling game you can get.

[@iRox4Life]

Awwww yeahhh! Fire Pro baby!

[@jeffeen6262]

GM SHOOOOWWWWDOOOOWWWWN Fuck yeah 😎

[@y2johnweihrauch438]

I have played both FPW Returns & FPW World and I love them. But I'm with you when it comes to getting a new FPW Game. I already tried to let Spike Chunsoft know about it on Twitter/X, but I doubt that they noticed that.

[@NonbasicYT]

I had never heard of Fire Pro until GM Showdown, but I had always wondered how you made thought designs. I always thought those designs were mods, but it's CRAZY how some people made thought on the PS2! Compared to Fight Forever, FPW is Mt. Everest & AEW FF is the Great Plains. 😅 (The only wrestling game I've actually used customization was FF so it's very revolutionary to me.)

[@616Entertainment]

Really talented people out there man.

[@mjdf122]

Fire Pro Wrestling series has always been good to me

[@Y2Jerms]

I was never able to get into this game. The gameplay reminded me of the gameboy version of wwe games. But I still appreciate it's existence and the creativity it allows.

[@keeplatts108]

16:59 forgot to mention it's also the greatest show on KZbin.

[@jonwolfenden]

I got hooked on the gba fire pro’s. I had already moved on to the next generation consoles by the time this finally released on PS2.

[@KPthebeardman]

This game was epic but it was so hard to get also shoutout to the Godzilla t-shirt.....you should do some retrospective of godzilla games

[@dylanblurton1881]

I had this game on PS2. I always liked watching the matches than playing them.

[@Psmgamer]

Got it on PS3 via PS2 Classics and was surprised at what I was missing. Haven't tried the PS4 version though it goes on sale every time.