Casual Gaming Saturday 15: The Muscle Hustle

Game: The Muscle Hustle
Publisher: Foxglove Studios AB
Style: Slingshot I guess?
Platform(s): Android/iPhone

So, we can thank TypeQQ for getting me into this game, since he texted me about it and I was crazy enough to think "yes, I will play a wrestling game and it won't become an unhealthy addiction/obsession".

Spoilers: I'm kind of obsessed, even if I'm not very good.

We all know, at this point, that I love me some Professional Wrestling, yeah? And I suck at action and fighting games? Well, somehow, Foxglove Studios figured out how to make a game that was a wrestling game without being a fighting game. It's like a bizarre combination of Pogs, Pokémon, rochambeau, paper football, shuffleboard, and rubber bands.

You have wrestlers - they're a picture on a disc in-game but have full art in the "locker room" area - and you fling them at other wrestlers in the ring with you. You'll bounce off of the ropes if you bump into them, and you'll end up doing damage to the other guys when you hit them. Do enough damage and you'll KO the opposition! Unfortunately for you, the get turns, too. And they do not play nice. If you have some of your guys too close to each other (maximum of 3 to a team in normal play), the enemy can and will take advantage of that to bounce against you as many times as possible to end your journey to the top.

It's not a hard game to learn. It's not an easy game to master. I'm terrible at type advantages and benefits, so there's that, but I'm not your average gamer, I'm a super-casual person.

Once you've got enough experience and collected gear from the matches, you can equip your wrestlers (they make it super easy, and the tutorial is fantastic!). If you get one of your one-star wrestlers to level 20 and fully equip them, then you can Promote them. This adds a star to their rating, increases their attributes, and changes their appearance. It can also give them a slight change to their names. Brian Bright, for instance, became Brian the Brain Bright. He has a power glove now.

It's so bad.

(That's a reference, guys, I promise the game's good!)

There are two ways to improve your wrestlers' levels - fight in matches with them or train them. If you go with training, you basically click on their level + button under their stats and select someone to train them. There are different types of wrestler (Hard-Head, Wildcard, Olympian, etc), and there are different kinds of coaches. I've been matching types, but I'm not 100% sure that's what you're supposed to be doing. I haven't explored the wiki enough. Regardless, it's a great, but possibly expensive way to quickly get yourself to a promotion.

Speaking of expensive: This game is free and free to play, but there are two basic forms of currency (not counting tickets, but I haven't been using many of those...). You have cash and gold. Cash can be used to purchase random wrestlers or coaches from the store, but the gold is a premium currency used for better purchases including making your locker room infinite. Luckily, gold can be earned by leveling up or found in the random boxes sent to you by "sponsors".

You have a few basic kinds of wrestlers to choose from, and I have a bunch of Jobbers in my stable so far, but I also have a couple Pros and a Superstar that I bought from a gold pack.

The only complaint I have about this game is that it advertises to you constantly about buying more gold or paying real money to get wrestler packs. It's really annoying, but the popups are easy enough to exit out of.

The storyline mode is fun, and I've played a little multiplayer (badly). There's a system for friending people (I'm friends with TypeQQ), and then their top wrestler is available for you to call on during matches! (There are two NPC options available, too). Hopefully, my backup isn't too horrible for TypeQQ...

Honestly, though, the feel of flinging your Pog-wrestlers around a ring at big beefy bosses is amazing. I love the art, what I've heard of the music is fun, and the storyline towns you travel through is great. It's pretty awesome that this game has managed to recreate the old Territory feel - you have to beat the top guy in each town - complete with big champs to beat up.

I like this game and I strongly recommend looking it up on the App Store (or whatever you have). And if you do, be sure to hit those bosses extra hard just for Tenleybean89...

Behold Frank Gant. My first wrestler.
He's a middle-weight Wildcard Jobber.

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