For whatever reason, the big trend in Xbox gaming is games using the player avatar. I don’t spend a lot of time on my avatar; I basically made sure it had hair and clothes. So, maybe that’s why Fire Pro Wrestling failed to engage me.

Essentially, this is a professional wrestling game with no commercial license. So, no superstars of the WWE or TNA will be found here. Just endless avatars – some are yours, some are your friends’, some are made up.

The graphics are a 3-D upgrade to the 16-bit days of the original Fire Pro series. But, the gameplay from that series is gone, replaced with a slower, clumsier version of the control scheme from WWE No Mercy, which was already slow and clumsy.

The one engaging thing about Fire Pro Wrestling was the customization. Winning matches rewards you with experience points and money, which can be used to upgrade your stats, add moves and buy new outfits and theme music for your wrestler. I’ll admit that I can be a sucker for Pretty Princess Dress-up, and I spent a lot of time playing around with the customization.

Fans of the original Fire Pro series will be disappointed by the radical shift in gameplay. Players unfamiliar with the original series would probably be happier playing WWE ’12 or waiting for the release of WWE ’13 (which I’m looking forward to reviewing.)