Probably one of the best wrestling games to hit North America in years.
First thing I'll start with is the controls, the controls are easy to get used to and work very well, that's all there really is to say about that.
In Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, they give you 1,649 moves to work with. They have got some moves that have rarely been seen in American video games, let alone on their TV shows, and along with these moves that not too many people have seen, such as the Tigerdriver '91, Burning Hammer, Gonzo Bomb, etc., they also have moves that American fans are familiar with, like the Pedigree, F-U, Angle Slam, Canadian Destroyer, etc.
Another thing is the character models, well I'm guessing because of copyright issue, they are not allowed to say the real names of the wrestlers. But Japanese legends such as Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, KENTA, the Great Muta, Tiger Mask, and Jushin "Thunder" Liger make an appearance. Also, they do have a few American wrestlers such as Sting, Bret Hart, Andre the Giant, AJ Styles, Petey Williams, and more. The roster consists of 327 wrestlers from all over the world, yeah...I know... O.O
Now for the create options. When I first heard about this game the first thing that they said was the amount of things to do in this game are endless, and they were damn right. In most new WWE games, you have the options of creating a wrestler, a belt, an entrance, a PPV card, and a stable. In FPR, not only can you do all of that, you can also create your own federation, that federation's logo, and the create a character is nothing short of astonishing. I can not describe how good the CAW option in this game is through words, so I recommend you to look up videos of it on YouTube or pictures on Google. If you are like me, and when you play an SvR game you always use up your CAW save slots, with FPR you wont have to worry about that again, this game consists of 500 CAW slots...DAY-UM!!!
Well, with every game come cons, and sadly this one does too ='[. The cons: the most annoying music ever to be put in a wrestling game, limited match types, no commentary [or maybe thats a good thing...], and the menus.
Lets start with the music, not only does this not fit with a wrestling game, it's just annoying as sin...listen to it yourself, that's all I gotta say about that.
Limited match types, if you're used to WWE's list of match types, this will be a downgrade. Sadly, unlike Vince Money-Bags McMahon we don't have a ton of match types. All thought that we do have some unique ones, like Exploding Barbed Wire Death Matches, and Landmine Death Matches, but it just doesn't match up to the WWE's choices.
Commentary, uhh..it's really up to you if you want commentary, the only commentary I ever enjoyed, scratch that, the only commentary I didn't want to punch kittens over was the TNA game's commentary team. Yeah it wasn't great but it wasn't that annoying, niether was Smackdown!: Shut Your Mouth's. So it's really up to you if it's a pro or a con.
The menus, it's a little bit hard to figure everything out at first, mainly because they really don't explain anything to you. There really is no way to solve it, just try to remember what to do, or look up instructions.
The bottom line is that this game is very unappreciated. Mainly, of course, because it's 2D. Well, this is what I have got to say, first play it, then judge. I have yet to meet someone that says this game sucks because it's 2D, that has actually played it. It's not like a side scroller, or like Pro Wrestling for the NES. This is like...2.5D. Look, go watch some videos of it and see how it looks. Another pro is that it's only $20 new, and about $15 or less used, so if you're a cheap bastard, like me, pick it up at your GameStop or EB Games and enjoy yourself.
Final verdict: 9.0
A MUST HAVE for any wrestling fan with an open mind. :D