80s Mania Wrestling Returns (8MWR for short) takes the manager genre and pairs it up with creating your own wrestling show. Similar to the WWE Vs. Smackdown GM Mode (Which you can watch in action with two actual WWE Wrestlers Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze on YouTube channel - UpUpDownDown), 8MWR has a very similar concept in which you pair wrestlers to create a show and the ratings will give you money to purchase things later on. 8MWR created by Checkmate Creative, has a very extensive list of wrestlers, venues and other cards to promote the wrestling promotion of your choice.
The game walks you through the first couple events to assist you on how to manage the game and play. From then on, you are on your own to learn yourself which can take a little bit of time to get used to and to learn things to help push your cards to higher stats and create a better overall show.
8MWR takes each month and divides it into three regular shows, a “Now You Know” tip, and then a big event to finalize the month. Breaking it down further, within each week there are matches, skits and mic spots to improve the show and improve each individual. As the stats get higher, the higher the popularity of the wrestlers and the show, which then increases your revenue each day.
After each year, you are awarded with a couple more cards, and a token to buy things. There is a shop that refreshes constantly and in the shop you can purchase new cards. The cards may or may not fit the years active for the character, but players can get through the years moderately fast.
For being a mobile game, 8MWR has a lot of repetition of placing almost the same matches repeatedly and certain cards just phase out as you gain stronger cards overall. While there are many combination cards like ‘Tag Team’ and ‘Feud’ cards so weaker cards could be useful, overall the higher cards still outweigh and are used much more often.
While this game was purchased Ad Free, there are a lot of different microtransactions. The tokens that are bought can be redeemed for money or to power up cards.
Overall 8MWR can feel like a daily thing to just log in, check the shop, play a little and then relax till the next day. There is not much upkeep to the game and you can pick up and put down easily. The major commitment is just getting the daily log in bonus which occur 5, 15 and 30 days. While it feels great to manage, the repetition of the game can be one major draw back that players may encounter.
Although if you are a wrestling fan, this is one game that you will love playing. Although I wish you could create a mini story as you book the shows, I guess that’s one thing that your imagination can conjecture.
