Chiki-Chiki Boxy Pro Wrestling [Switch]
The Pocket Company’s Chiki-Chiki Boxy Pro Wrestling is more brawler than wrestling game, with super quick rounds. There’s no story to be had, aside from the implication of you playing a fighter wanting to work their way up the ranks. There are different game modes, including multiplayer options; Tag Team and Battle Royale. Single Player has Grand Slam, which is made up of a variety of tournaments for you to compete through, unlocking new characters and customisation parts along the way. There’s a bunch of fairly generic wrestlers to begin with, but you can also create your own custom fighter using items purchased or unlocked throughout the course of the game.
You’ll go up against CPU opponents (or friends and family if you’re playing multiplayer) and try to take them down in a variety of moves. It’s very button-mashy, and doesn’t take much to defeat opponents. No need to pin enemies down, you just need to keep on hitting until their health runs out. You can pick up special items during the match, including fire (damage) and health items that will help you in battle, and sometimes things will negatively affect you such as ice forming on the ring, a tornado passing through or strong winds. These are all tied to the level setting, which is across varied locations such as a volcano or in the jungle, but there’s not a great amount of variety here with less than five rings available. Having a few more stages available would have been good, as would including traditional wrestling staples, including items such as steel chairs, or even fight types, like a ‘Hell in the Cell’ type match would have all contributed more to the wrestling theme than what it currently has.
With a very boxy appearance - it is in the name, after all - covering everything from the characters, to the ring and the goings-on in the background of different levels, it’s not the most attractive of games. It’s nice enough, but sometimes just looks a bit plain and generic in all honesty. The character customisation screens however, are where the visuals really get their time to shine. You’ll unlock different costume parts, from upper and lower body items to accessories, and you can play around with these to create a surprisingly large number of unique looking characters - you can even create a Freddy Mercury style character! The soundtrack of Chiki-Chiki Boxy Pro Wrestling is very arcade-like, with a lot of rock vibes and cool sound effects when you pull off moves. Sadly there’s not a lot of variety here either, as the music loops and is the same across all of the available stages.
You have a variety of moves available to use, and it doesn’t take too long to get to grips with the control scheme. Different characters have their own moves, but are all pulled off in much of the same ways. You have your basic attack, a special, plus your grapple - all of which can be utilised to wipe out opponents. Somehow, grappling gives you some kind of immunity to attacks during the move, which can definitely be a bit of a pain when one player figures this out and spams it constantly.
Unlocking the huge number of customisation options through the Create menu using coins earned in-game, and taking the time to tailor your moveset giving you your own unique custom fighter, all helps to lengthen how much replayability you’ll get out of the game, as it can take a while to earn the coins needed to unlock everything. Available for £13.49 on the Nintendo eShop, it’s definitely too expensive for what it includes, so if you’re looking for a party game with friends - pick something else or wait for a sale.
In the end, we decided to give Chiki-Chiki Boxy Pro Wrestling the Collecting Asylum rating of 4/10.
Have you played Chiki-Chiki Boxy Pro Wrestling yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to The Pocket Company for the Chiki-Chiki Boxy Pro Wrestling Nintendo Switch review code!
