IN-DEPTH FIRE PRO WRESTLING (US) FAQ ------------------------------------- By Chained Angel (chained_angel@yahoo.com) Version 0.1 Updated June 24, 2001. The latest version of this guide can be found at http://www.fireprocentral.cjb.net in the "FAQs and Translations" section. NOTE: This document may be freely distributed as long as it is not used for profit. All other rights reserved. GAMEPLAY --------- Frequently asked questions about gameplay: Q: How do I win a grapple? A: To get into the grapple, walk into your opponent, then right when your wrestlers touch each other press one of the button combinations (listed in "Front Grapple" section). Q: How do I get out of a pin or submission? A: To get out of a pin, hold down B. To get out of a submission, rapidly press Left and Right. Q: What is Critical! A: Critical! means one of 3 things: you may have knocked out your opponent, you may have broken one of your opponent's limbs, or you may get a surprise pin. Details on Critical!s can be found in the "Critical!s" section. Q: How do I win a test of strength? A: Rapidly press Left and Right. More detail in the "Front Grapple" section. Now, to actually playing the game: BASIC FUNCTIONS OF BUTTONS --------------------------- B Weak Move A Medium Strength Move B+A Strong Move R Run or Whip your opponent into the ropes L Multi-purpose button Front Grapple: Drag opponent Standing: Breathe Countering running attack: Evade (duck or leapfrog) Opponent down: Drag opponent to centre of ring Select Perform (taunt) BOTH WRESTLERS STANDING (not in grapple) ----------------------------------------- When both wrestlers are standing, you can do 3 moves by pressing: B, A, and A+B (pressing at the same time). Each wrestler has his own specific moves. B and A are usually weaker moves and are less easily blocked. Some A+B moves (e.g. Dropkicks) require your opponent to be in perfect position. It is not advised that you use these moves unless your opponent is dazed because you will most likely miss. While you are standing, you can also run (press R) and do one of your running moves (see "Running section"). Usually, you will want to grapple, so to do this, "walk into" the opponent, and the two wrestlers should touch. FRONT GRAPPLE -------------- In the grapple you have your "main" moves (total of 12). You do moves from the grapple by pressing either B, A, or A+B, or by pressing a direction with it, e.g. Up+B (press at same time). To win the grapple, you must press the button(s) right when the two wrestlers touch. You will want to start with weaker moves B, then go on to medium strength moves A, then to strong moves and finishing manuevers A+B. Typical moves for all wrestlers are Body Slam (Up+B) and Brainbuster (Up+A). Other move options are the Irish Whip R to send your opponent off the ropes (see "Running" secion for more detail) and the headlock L. From the headlock, you can drag your opponent using the directional keys. When you have dragged him to where you want him, press B to give him an elbow or a knee to put him down. If you and your opponent time your move (push the button) at the exact same time, a test of strength will occur. To attempt to win the test of strength, rapidly press Left and Right. Against the computer, it is very difficult to win tests of strength when the AI Level is set to 5 or higher. RUNNING -------- Note: This section DOES NOT deal with running moves while your opponent is down, in the corner, or outside the ring. To get information on those situations, go to the appropriate section. If you or your opponent is running, there are two possibilities: 1) You pressed R in a front or back grapple and whipped your opponent into the ropes, or 2) You pressed R and ran without opponent running into the ropes. Try to avoid situation 2 as you will find it very difficult to time your running moves. Now assume situation 1: you have just whipped your opponent into the ropes. From here, you can press R to bounce off the opposite rope, and then press B or A (at the right timing) to execute two wrestler-specific moves (usually referred to as "Running" moves). Or you can stand and wait for your opponent to run back at you, then press B or A (once again, at the right timing) to execute two other wrestler-specific moves (usually referred to as "Counter" moves). Some wrestlers also have an "evade" maneuver, such as a leapfrog for luchadores. To use your evade maneuver, press L at the right time. These maneuvers do nothing except have your opponent bounce off the opposite rope, and they are very hard to time -- I never use these maneuvers! Running and counter moves are extremely hard to time. For moves like dropkicks, a distance that is about half the distance across the ring is needed between the two wrestlers. If your opponent has whipped you into the ropes, you can press B to try to hold on to the ropes, or you can press A to gain leverage and bounce back at your opponent to perform one of your running moves on him. WRESTLER(S) DOWN ON MAT ------------------------ If your wrestler is down on the mat and NOT in a pin or submission hold, rapidly press Left and Right to try to get up. Sometimes, you can also press Up twice or Down twice to roll up or down, respectively. However, this usually does not work. If your wrestler is in a pin, press and hold down B; to kick out if your wrestler is in a submission rapidly press Left and Right to attempt to break the hold. Mashing the buttons does not help and actually decreases your chance of kicking out or breaking the submission. If your opponent is down on the mat, there can be two situations: 1) He is facing up, or 2) He is facing down. Assume situation 1; therefore, your opponent is facing up. Each wrestler has four wrestler-specific moves from this situation. These four moves can be done by pressing A or A+B at either the head or the feet. A moves are usually stomps/elbow drops type moves, and A+B moves are usually pins or submissions. Also, you can press B at his head to pick him up (usually leaving him dazed) or press B at his feet to roll him over so he is facing down (situation 2). Now assume situation 2; therefore, your opponent is facing down. Each wrestler also has four wrestler-specific moves from this situation (executed same way as in situation 1). The only difference is that if you press B at your opponent's head, you roll him, and if you press B at his feet, you pick him up (opposite of situation 1). Beware that if you pick up your opponent (no matter whether he is facing up or down), sometimes he will counter with a quick punch or elbow and daze you. This is a new feature not in earlier Fire Pro games. Most wrestlers also have a running move which can be executed by pressing R to bounce off the ropes and pressing A+B as you near your opponent. This move can be done regardless of whether your opponent is facing up or down, but not all wrestlers have this move. You can also climb the turnbuckle to do a turnbuckle move (see "Turnbuckle and Ring Apron Moves" section). If you are going to pin or put on a submission hold and your opponent is down but too close to the ropes, press L to drag him away from the ropes. This way, you won't get a rope break. OPPONENT STANDING DAZED ------------------------ To daze an opponent, pick him up when he's down (this doesn't work if the opponent has suffered little or no damage). When an opponent is standing dazed, this gives you a great oppurtunity to use your A+B or other standing moves, or you can perform a running move. However, the most common thing to do when an opponent is standing dazed is to back-grapple him, which means walking into his back (see next section on back grapples). BACK GRAPPLE ------------- From a back grapple, you have 5 moves. To do these moves, you press either B, A, or A+B (at the same time). You can also do moves by pressing a direction along with the button (works only for A+B moves in back grapple). You can whip your opponent into the ropes by pressing R. In tag team matches, pressing Up+L holds your opponent for your partner to attack. Pressing L lifts him up on your shoulders (see "Double-Teaming" section for more information). If opponent has you in a back grapple, press B or A right when he touches you to do a counter. Counters are wrestler-specific, but pressing B usually does an elbow butt which leaves your opponent dazed. OPPONENT IN CORNER ------------------- Think of an imaginary straight line between the two horizontal turnbuckles. To whip your opponent into the turnbuckle, get into a front or back grapple while you're extremely close to this line, and press Left or Right along with R. When your opponent is in the turnbuckle, you can run at him by pressing Left/Right (whichever turnbuckle he's in) and R, then press B to do an attack (not all wrestlers have this). You can also grapple with your opponent when he's in the corner by walking into him. When you're in the corner grapple, you can do most of your normal front grapple moves, and you also have three wrestler-specific moves (Up+A+B, Left/Right+A+B, and Down+A+B). The Up+A+B move is usually something like a superplex, and the Left/Right+A+B is usually a punch or kick combo. When doing a superplex, pressing the button (e.g. Up+A+B) sets up your opponent on the turnbuckle. You will then grapple again. Push B right when the two wrestlers touch to execute your superplex. Moves like the Top Rope Choke Slam are also executed like this. However, if your opponent times the grapple better than you, he will knock you off the turnbuckle and you will get up dazed. From the corner grapple, you can also hang your opponent from the top turnbuckle (usually called the "Tree of Woe"). To do this, press L. Then you can do your standing attacks (punch, kick, etc.) on him. OUTSIDE THE RING ----------------- When your opponent is outside the ring, you can wait for him and take a breather (hold L), go out after him (Press the direction towards the ropes and B), or do suicide dives or springboards to the outside (most wrestlers don't have these). Suicide dives and springboards work best when your opponent is worn down, in that case, he will get up dazed. To do a running suicide dive, press R to run then hold down A+B while you are running in the direction you wish to dive. To do a springboard dive, go to the ropes closest to your opponent and press the direction towards the ropes and A+B at the same time. In Fire Pro/Fire Pro A, it is more difficult to hit dives than in previous Fire Pro games. You must be lined up dead on with your opponent; otherwise, you will miss. If you end up fighting your opponent on the outside, whipping him into the guardrails makes him bleed easily. Moves on the outside also do more damage. A countout in this game is 20, not 10 like in American games. TURNBUCKLE AND APRON MOVES --------------------------- Note: Not all wrestlers have turnbuckle and apron moves. To climb the turnbuckle, press the direction of the turnbuckle and B. To get off, press Down twice. There are two types of turnbuckle moves, ones that are done when your opponent is down (e.g. Diving Elbow Drop), and ones that are done when your opponent is standing dazed (e.g. Diving Clothesline). B and A button moves from the front grapple (e.g. Body Slam, usually Up+B) set up best for downed moves. To do standing turnbuckle moves, use a A+B button move which does not include a pin or submission hold (e.g. Punch or Kick combo), then climb the turnbuckle immediately. Your opponent will get up dazed (if you have worn him down enough), which allows you to time your move properly. Another method is to use a B or A move then immediately pick up your opponent and climb the turnbuckle to perform your move. To do an apron springboard move, use a A+B button from the front grapple just like you do with a standing turnbuckle move. Then go to the ropes and press the direction towards the ropes and A. This will put you on the ring apron. When your opponent gets up dazed, press the direction into the ring and A+B at the same time to do your springboard maneuver. Like the suicide dives, you must be correctly lined for the move to connect. If your opponent is on the turnbuckle you can body slam him off by going to the turnbuckle and pressing the direction of the turnbuckle and B. CRITICAL!S ----------- A Critical! is usually the equivalent of a knockout. Most wrestlers can Critical! only with their finisher, but some can also Critical! with submission, strikes, etc. (This can be set up in Wrestler Edit mode in the "Skill Edit" section) If your wrestler's Critical! ability is set to submission, he can Critical! with almost any submission move. The same goes for Power, Suplex, Technical, and Striking (the other 4 Critical! options). With submission Critical!s, some times the match will not end. This signifies that you have not knocked out your opponent, but you have just broken a limb. Remember which limb you broke and repeatedly attack that one as it will be extremely weak. Technical Critical!s can sometimes lead to an early surprise pin, but this is very rare. The two most effective Critical!s are Submission and Striking. DOUBLE-TEAMING --------------- There aren't very many double-team and triple-team moves in Fire Pro Wrestling. To double or triple team an opponent have all two (or three) wrestlers grapple (or back grapple) your opponent at the same time. Press B right when all two (or three) wrestlers touch your opponent. There are double and triple team moves for Front, Back, and Corner grapples. In tag matches, you can hold your opponent for your partner to attack by getting your opponent into a back grapple and pressing Up+L. Pressing L alone lifts your opponent onto your shoulders. If you are caught in a double- or triple-grapple, press B when everyone touches (just like a regular front or back grapple). If your timing is right and you have not taken too much damage, you will kick or elbow your opponents and bust out of the grapple. MATCHES WITH MORE THAN 2 WRESTLERS ----------------------------------- Note: This section applies for all matches with more than 2 wrestlers. This includes tag team matches, handicap matches, and battle royales. 1. Tag team matches There are two types of tag matches - regular (where you have to tag in your partner to make him the legal man) and tornado (all four men in ring at once). In a regular tag match, there is an option called "Cut Play". If it is turned on, then during pins, submissions, and illegal maneuvers, tag partners can come in and help out. To enter the ring, press the direction towards the ring, and press B. Then, to disrupt the hold, walk to where the hold is taking place, then press B or A. If done properly, you should kick the guy applying the hold and it should be broken up. If it isn't, keep moving around and pressing B or A until the hold is broken up. Cut play is a very powerful feature, and the AI is very good with it. If you are playing a tag match vs. the AI, you will notice tag partners come in very quickly. So for tag matches, I suggest turning off rope break (allowing more pinning room). 2. Handicap matches Same options as tag matches (see above). 3. Battle royales In a battle royale, all men are in the ring at once. You can also disrupt a pin, submission, or illegal maneuver when in a battle royale but this doesn't work well, and it's not smart anyway. Why waste the effort getting one of your opponents out of a hold? There is also an over-the-top rope elimination option in Battle Royale. Once you leave the ring, you are eliminated. If you manually exit the ring, you are also eliminated, so beware! In matches with more than 2 wrestlers, double- and sometimes triple-team moves can be done (see "Double-Teaming" section for more details). Double-team moves are quite common, but triple-team moves are rarely seen. WRESTLER EDIT -------------- AUDIENCE MATCH --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ REVISION HISTORY ----------------- 0.1 - Initial release with gameplay section The latest release of this guide can be found at http://www.fireprocentral.cjb.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Comments and suggestions for future versions can be e-mailed to chained_angel@yahoo.com