All Time Wrestling: Rumble in Abu Dhabi
The esteemed wrestling dueler is back… with multiplayer chaos.
This standalone All Time Wrestling expansion has new wrestlers, and 2 new multiplayer modes. If played 1v1, ATW is still the same 2 player game of 20-40 minutes. Multiplayer modes are 1-2 hours.
Video published: N/A
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Same 1v1 gameplay of picking an attack, then rolling!
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Pick from 1 of 6 new wrestlers!
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2 new multiplayer modes, one of which has deckbuilding!
This is a sponsored review. Prototype featured.
Story
FYI Shelfside is pretty buddy buddy with Cation Arts, having helped them run a tournament for ATW, and them sending this game to us for review. As always though, we never compromise scoring here at Shelfside.
We’ve played ATW previously about 10 hours, and this box about 15+ hours. So in total we have 25+ hours of experience with this.
There are 3 modes in this game, and each game mode will have its own pros/cons section, with the review wrapping up with a discussion how it all ties together.
What makes this review different from our other reviews is that we made the video on the prototype (but didn’t publish it yet), then Cation Arts took a lot of our feedback in changing the game, and I helped them playtest a Rumble session (3P) on TTS.
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Gameplay Pros — New Asymmetry for 6 wrestlers (4 described below)
Wrestlers interact with more parts of game (e.g. taking from discard pile)
More complicated to play than before without feeling convoluted
Nice strategy guide in rulebook
Wrestler Examples:
1. Junkyard dog
All about head butting (7 headbutts)
Landing headbutts gets you a token for an ability, then remove 2-5 tokens to PIN after. Aheadbutt
“Dance” to gain headbutt from discard to deck
2. Nick Aldis
Deck of cards instead of dice rolling for combat and kickout from pins
Way to perfectly anticipate your probabilities
3. Sgt. Slaughter
Can rampage with any attack
New mechanic of adding an ally, Colonel Mustafa, with 2 new once per games
In total has 5 once per games, some negate another ability
4. Kamala
Complicated heavy fighter who focuses on discarding copies of cards
Ways to bring back discard into deck and spam taunting
Stressing copies makes you re-think blocking/attacking
2 Wrestlers can replace previous abilities with new ability card, for more replayability
Component Cons
Not enough cubes to play multiplayer modes, just used cubes from other games
Player numbers not being colorized on momentum track makes modifying a little slower
Constructing Pre-built decks slowed by tiny font deck lists
“Reversal” text is confusing
Worded as though you (the activator) would get everything on ability, but actually does damage to opponent instead
POTENTIAL FIX: Separate damage from other beneficial icons
Small text on attack cards’ left side is hard to see in multiplayer
Rulebook has visual hiccups
Cut off paragraphs (page 9)
Missing multiple periods for end of sentences
Kamala’s description describes that reversals let your opponent get compensated like normal, but normal rulebook doesn’t say that
This is new rule change!?
—Free for All (3-4P)—
Gameplay Pros — Some mind games on sussing out who to attack
How to play over your opponents, because attack modifier matters, not initiative
Sometimes don’t want to be part of group to attack 1 person, because they get +1 defense for that round
Can memorize pre-built decks to out-time them consistently
Component Cons - Flipping attack cards over
Too easy to game because you’re supposed to do it before everyone flips
Can just pull out based off of other person pulling out
FIX: Include target card that says “pull out”, a withdraw card has been announced in a KS update
Gameplay Cons — 1v1 mechanics in ATW don’t translate well to multiplayer free for all
Many conflicting systems, since original was based off of push/pull as wrestlers attack each other
Momentum is janky
Cannot go below 0 momentum, you can get attacked from someone having high momentum they acquired from someone else
Reversals are king-makey in free for all
2 people about to pin you, whoever you reverse doesn’t win
If don’t have reversal, and everyone at low health, you are insta-target
Don’t care about resistance because landing pins do so much damage anyways
Attacking order is based off of unlikeliness of hitting, and ties broken with health
Usually card advantage and stamina are more important than health at a certain point
Choosing a character that has less starting health has a first strike advantage
Gameplay Cons — Easily Drags
Cannot successfully pin unless everyone has been damaged at least once to prevent them from breaking out others with max HP
4 player free for all is easily 2-2.5+ hours, much longer than 1.5 on box
POSSIBLE FIX: Cation Arts said there is now Level 2 Resilience cards that prevent other players from breaking pitfalls, potentially shortening game
Gameplay Cons — Some capacity for downtime
May attack first, then wait for others to do a complicated attack interaction
There was previously a lot of downtime through withdrawing or being stunned for a round, which mechanics have both been changed
—Rumble (3-4P)—
Gameplay Pros — Amazing team specc potential
Pick 3 out of 16 included wrestlers, pick order in which they fight
New fighters
Daemon with terrible health, but can gain health after big attacks
Abraham Lincoln to throw others (hahaha)
Deck construction is a new concept to ATW
So many cards in this box (94 attack + 60 rumble attack)
Gameplay Pros — Interesting deck consumption idea
15 cards for 3 fighters
Need to approach combo-ing and discarding to re-roll differently
Rumble cards help re-rolls, and so kind of take the place of cards (hold up to 4 in hand)
Component Cons
< and > symbols look janky
“Crowd Pleaser” is confusing
Assume it means the attack has to be less than giving 3 momentum. Clarify in rulebook?
Rumble player aid is too crammed with info and has mistakes
Can take out “Win”, shorten “2 Plan”, shorten “1 Entry”
“Opponent” for recover and taunt symbols actually means both players get it
Symbol for offensive ability window is tiny, and should say offensive ability window
Order of operations at the beginning of a round is backwards
Gameplay Cons — Same conflicting systems problem as free for all (see above)
Post-Prototype potential improvements:
still in a round if wrestler eliminated
Reversal from wrestler card is removed (speeds up game)
Possible momentum changes in final version, like using momentum as a resource to pay for some things
Gameplay Cons — Wrestler imbalance, even for a kek mode
Having more starting health is almost always better
E.g. Sgt. Slaughter Is better than Jax Felix
Health is already so low, so each little bit of difference matters for 2D6 roll
Rumble cards that reference a certain health threshold
Junkyard dog can spend energy to +1 attack is really good
Energy not too valuable in this mode because refresh if die
Compare to OMZ who only does 1 more damage off of specific attacks
Gameplay Cons — Rumble Cards
Toss out someone with < 4 health is too strong when some characters only have 5 health
2 damage from being spawned already eliminates them!?
This vs. a re-roll is drastically different in power
Situational reversals into tossups are incredible if land them
Maybe should require some energy cost
When drawing 2 and picking 1, just going to be pick the tossout cards
POTENTIAL FIX: Take out draw 2 pick 1 and keep it utterly random (because it is random), or balance the cards more
Tentative Score: N/A
Initially we wrote in a tentative score of 6/10 (new wrestlers are 8/10 and multiplayer modes are 3-4/10 that averages to 6), but with so many changes to the game coming, with some already announced by Cation Arts (e.g. removing stunning, removing reversal in Rumble, multiplayer momentum changing?), it currently doesn’t feel accurate and/or helpful to anyone boiling our experience in a number. We have lots of reasons to be optimistic, and Ashton’s personal score is still below. Ashton dislikes the multiplayer modes but still enjoy the 1v1 over many dozens of plays at this point
If you’re a huge die-hard ATW fan, this is definitely worth getting because the new fighters are that cool within the core gameplay maintaining its excellence over us playing it at least a dozen times. There’s a lot more asymmetrical nuance and personality to toss into the ATW world of pushing and pulling during a fight.
But… time will tell if the box is worth getting for the multiplayer modes. Previously, they felt like a mechanical wash with our critical hats on, with tendencies to drag, with plenty of systems conflicting with ATW’s core 1v1 system.
If the rumble mode is improved, the act of constantly tossing out others and combining your favorite sequence of wrestlers together will be much more captivating. You get to roll a lot of 2 dice to see if people get out of being eliminated from the RUMMBLEEEEE!
What we have tried is the original box’s tag team 2v2. While that wasn’t fully fleshed out, it works a lot better in being designed around the 1v1 of carefully setting up your hand, choosing what to block, and timing abilities correctly.
Also, when we compare to base ATW, the new wrestlers certainly don’t have the same component accessibility, since the names are no longer on the backs of decks to allow for Rumble deckbuilding. You need to manually set up health and stamina as well, whereas before it was so much more straightforward!
So if you’re completely new to ATW, you should probably go with the 9/10 tentative score we gave to base ATW, with the 2v2 and a solo mode, and more streamlined components. If you just want wrestlers, you can get a trailblazers box with 4 wrestlers too, but we haven’t tried them. Lastly, if rumble happens to really appeal to you, you can get a rumble conversion box that lets you add WAYY more fighters.
