Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few minutes of Lucha Fury are easy to like because it commits to its goofy wrestling flavor immediately. A stolen supply of Pollojo sends masked heroes into a side-scrolling hunt, which is exactly the sort of thin, cheerful excuse a brawler can get away with. Pick one of four fighters—Fatal Blaze, Daddy Brutal, Princess Acky, or Hostile—and start clearing enemies with punches, kicks, jumps, dashes, and blocks. With up to four people involved, the simple controls make it easy for everyone to join the mess.

There is more on the move list than basic button-mashing suggests. Combos, provocations, submissions, and planchas give you wrestling-themed ways to finish off opponents, and the characters are meant to handle differently. The cooperative aerial combos are the most promising wrinkle: two people can use quick-time inputs to pull off a joint airborne attack. When a group is communicating and willing to laugh at a missed prompt, these moments add a welcome bit of showmanship.

The problem is that the game’s structure quickly exposes how limited the fighting feels. You work through four universes made up of several combat sections, each culminating in a boss fight, and repetition sets in before the journey has earned its length. The available moves sound broader than the moment-to-moment play feels, so the action can become a routine of pushing through another crowd rather than discovering new reasons to engage with it. Bring friends if you can; alone, the rougher edges have nowhere to hide.

Graphics

Lucha Fury uses a side view suited to old-school brawling, keeping your wrestler and the surrounding enemies on the same horizontal path as you move through each section. The masked Lucha Libre cast supplies the clearest visual hook: Fatal Blaze, Daddy Brutal, Princess Acky, and Hostile give a four-player screen a more distinctive look than a lineup of generic street fighters would.

Story

This is a knowingly lightweight story about recovering stolen bottles of Pollojo, the heroes’ favorite drink. It is a silly setup, but it fits the heightened world of masked Mexican wrestling better than an attempt at grim revenge would. You know why the crew is moving from one fight to the next, and the game does not pretend that the excuse needs much more weight.

That simplicity is both the joke and the limit. The search for the thief gives the game momentum at the start, but the four-universe progression does not turn the premise into a richer adventure. Boss fights punctuate the trip, yet the narrative mainly serves as a string tying brawls together.

If you enjoy absurd arcade-era excuses for action, the Pollojo hunt is harmless fun. Anyone wanting memorable characters, escalating stakes, or a story that meaningfully rewards finishing the campaign will find very little to hold onto.

Overall Experience

Lucha Fury has the outline of a decent low-stakes couch co-op night: four wrestlers, four-player brawling, silly taunts and submissions, and a premise too ridiculous to take seriously. For a short session with friends, its best moments come from shared confusion, piling onto enemies, and attempting the cooperative aerial attacks.

Unfortunately, the game does not build enough satisfying combat around that good-natured premise. Repeated sections and a shallow sense of progression make the campaign feel longer than its ideas. The boss-fight endpoints help break up each universe, but they do not fully solve the fatigue that comes from doing similar work again and again.

Give it a chance only if the Lucha Libre theme and local multiplayer are the main draw, and treat it as a casual group diversion rather than a brawler to obsess over. There is a little charm in its masks, moves, and Pollojo-fueled nonsense, but the payoff is modest once the opening joke wears off.

Retro Replay Score

4.8/10