Review Insights · App Store
Eras of Wrestling
Checkmate Creative LLC · 35 ratings · ★ 3.9
3.9
★★★★★
35 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 25 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"game"
19 negative reviews mention this · 76% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Abysmally Slow Progress. Seems like the game was built to make money and make money only. Playing this game without spending a dime is grueling, boring, and repetitive. It’s simply not fun to book the same 6 matches over and over making $300 per show trying to save…" - Jmoney3stax
2
"money"
11 negative reviews mention this · 44% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Abysmally Slow Progress. Seems like the game was built to make money and make money only. Playing this game without spending a dime is grueling, boring, and repetitive. It’s simply not fun to book the same 6 matches over and over making $300 per show trying to save…" - Jmoney3stax
3
"cash"
11 negative reviews mention this · 44% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I hate this game. I spent a lot of time on the previous two games. I love both. This one is awful. Not even remotely fun. Also a huge cash grab. Acquiring wrestlers is basically impossible without spending a ton of actual money. I hate that they advertised t…" - pete dunzo
4
"games"
10 negative reviews mention this · 40% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Welp, I was right. They abandoned two enjoyable games to make this one, and I no longer believe I’ll be spending any real money on checkmate. They biffed it in a huge way. It takes way too long to acquire in-game currency, the prices aren’t balanced, the mora…" - MikaGS-87
5
"grab"
10 negative reviews mention this · 40% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I hate this game. I spent a lot of time on the previous two games. I love both. This one is awful. Not even remotely fun. Also a huge cash grab. Acquiring wrestlers is basically impossible without spending a ton of actual money. I hate that they advertised t…" - pete dunzo
6
"cash grab"
10 negative reviews mention this · 40% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I hate this game. I spent a lot of time on the previous two games. I love both. This one is awful. Not even remotely fun. Also a huge cash grab. Acquiring wrestlers is basically impossible without spending a ton of actual money. I hate that they advertised t…" - pete dunzo
7
"system"
9 negative reviews mention this · 36% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Welp, I was right. They abandoned two enjoyable games to make this one, and I no longer believe I’ll be spending any real money on checkmate. They biffed it in a huge way. It takes way too long to acquire in-game currency, the prices aren’t balanced, the mora…" - MikaGS-87
8
"playing"
8 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Abysmally Slow Progress. Seems like the game was built to make money and make money only. Playing this game without spending a dime is grueling, boring, and repetitive. It’s simply not fun to book the same 6 matches over and over making $300 per show trying to save…" - Jmoney3stax
9
"play"
8 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Abysmally Slow Progress. Seems like the game was built to make money and make money only. Playing this game without spending a dime is grueling, boring, and repetitive. It’s simply not fun to book the same 6 matches over and over making $300 per show trying to save…" - Jmoney3stax
10
"spend"
8 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Abysmally Slow Progress. Seems like the game was built to make money and make money only. Playing this game without spending a dime is grueling, boring, and repetitive. It’s simply not fun to book the same 6 matches over and over making $300 per show trying to save…" - Jmoney3stax
11
"mania"
8 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No end of year token. I played the other versions and they were great. If they were to add back a token reward system for the end of year rewards like in modern mania. It would be great. But because it’s missing there’s no real excitement to end the year besides…" - Mrnnoso
12
"spending"
7 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Abysmally Slow Progress. Seems like the game was built to make money and make money only. Playing this game without spending a dime is grueling, boring, and repetitive. It’s simply not fun to book the same 6 matches over and over making $300 per show trying to save…" - Jmoney3stax
📋 All 25 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Abysmally Slow Progress
Seems like the game was built to make money and make money only. Playing this game without spending a dime is grueling, boring, and repetitive. It’s simply not fun to book the same 6 matches over and over making $300 per show trying to save up a $300,000 for a new wrestler to hire.
What a DUD
THIS GAME STINKS
Welp, I was right
They abandoned two enjoyable games to make this one, and I no longer believe I’ll be spending any real money on checkmate. They biffed it in a huge way. It takes way too long to acquire in-game currency, the prices aren’t balanced, the morale system alongside the rng is just a waste of in-game currency. If you made a grid view instead of a slider, the old games would be directly on-par with any upsides. Limiting the number of times a player can purchase shards is also broken. Why encourage me to put the game down for hours? This game will take way too long doing it F2P. Glad the toxic discord community dogpiled people who wondered about the older games lack of updates. Sell outs and dickriders
Blocked - can’t play
My show expects a woman’s tag team match and woman’s championship requiring five (or six?) unique women and I only have four. No way to acquire another. Had loved playing until then.
gobbledy gook
This game is such a disappointment after they hyped it for a year.
I hate this game
I spent a lot of time on the previous two games. I love both. This one is awful. Not even remotely fun. Also a huge cash grab. Acquiring wrestlers is basically impossible without spending a ton of actual money. I hate that they advertised this as the “eras” of wrestling but right from the start you have to play in the most uninteresting era and spend money to unlock the others. This game sucks. A lot. Don’t bother. It’s so bad that I’m deleting it and not waiting to see if they ever fix the issues.
No end of year token
I played the other versions and they were great. If they were to add back a token reward system for the end of year rewards like in modern mania. It would be great. But because it’s missing there’s no real excitement to end the year besides potentially changing eras
It’s ok
I like it better then the others one, but the morale system is terrible and its basically pay to play. You make very little money and unlock stuff is way too expensive, hopefully they fix this. It makes it hard to play and takes away the fun of the game
They dropped the ball
The amount of hype they had for this game was crazy I was waiting for months and month hearing every single announcement but whenever I heard the concept of storylines I was really exited in the podcast episodes they made the system seem groundbreaking they hyped the new system so much that seeing how it is implemented ruins the game for me I did a storyline and was thoroughly disappointed it adds nothing to the game absolutely nothing so what you can play with new cards for what like two seconds people pay real money for gold coins to play these and in the end you can’t even re play them what’s the point do you want people to spend money every single play throughout in order to have a good experience don’t get me wrong the new shard system is way better than how you got cards before but wow the amount of flaws bc I ran out of free cards in the cpu on the first day of release now I’m stuck with the same cards unless I spend days collecting shards or spend real money the whole process is so slow you make money terribly slowly you earn shards too slow oh and don’t even get me started on the coins are you kidding me each pack is two coins and you barely earn them enough to have a good time oh and last point maybe just maybe let the people pick which era they wanna start in after tutorial I myself like many others would prefer to start in the beginning even after collecting all the free cards in the cpu and buying the territory era pack to get the ref and stuff you won’t have fun at all the amount of times I’ve had to restart trying to have fun is crazy checkmate creative needs to make big changes not just small the whole balancing is off tbh the whole game feels off yes it is kinda fun but wow for the hype it had and how they described the new system they dropped the ball hard
Cash grab
Cmon man really?
You Sold Out!!!
Been a fan of the company since 80MW but this one was complete trash! Nothing but an absolute cash grab where progress is not possible without spending $$$. Have been playing since it dropped but find myself over it after one show instead of hours of fun. Fix your game or I promise you’ll go outa business judging by all the comments on every platform I’ve seen you guys failed here
Bring back level up characters
This is the worst, Leveling up characters with matches was the best part of the series, You mess up , with every aspect of Eras. Im done giving time or money to checkmate , After being a loyal fan . Spend alot of money on 80's and modern. Im done giving. I uninstalled all 3 games im officially moving on. It was fun while it lasted.
Really disappointed
I was so excited for this game to be released - I play either 80s Mania or Modern Mania daily and have spent quite a lot of $$$, but prices were reasonable. This new game, although looks amazing, can only be played in a non repetitive way unless you spend real money, not earned coins. And it is very expensive to acquire coins - seems quite greedy. The shards?….it would take YEARS to acquire them all with only receiving so few at a time. I hate to use this expression, but the game seems like a cash grab. I hope developers take notice and understand that prices to acquire wrestlers is too expensive. I’d like to play the territory fed - it’s going to either take years of playing to get even enough wrestlers to be able to use or spend a ton of money.
UPDATE - I posted this on Facebook and the developer’s response was very rude and passive aggressive
UPDATE - I posted this on Facebook and the developer’s response was very rude and passive aggressive
I’ve lost a lot of respect for Checkmate Creative after this one
I have always supported CC’s games as being one of the few honest developers in a predatory market. They’ve always found the right balance of making game that’s both fun and fair that you could potentially enjoy without spending a dime on it. That said, I’ve always made in-game purchases to support the devs for what they do and never once felt ripped off for doing so. My support goes back years to right when 80’s and 90’s Mania were combined into a single game and in the case of both 8MRW and Modern Mania Wrestling, I’ve invested enough into purchasing every card in the game and then some; even if I enjoy the gameplay of the original more and don’t really touch the latter.
That said, this game is a complete departure from what brought them to the dance. Don’t get me wrong, the gameplay play is fun, but this game has turned into an unbalanced, pay to play cash grab. It’s such a jarring change from their original games that longtime fans are understandably upset. What’s even more upsetting though has been Checkmate Creative’s response to those fans that need to go pound salt if they don’t like it. Maybe it’s new management or someone running their social accounts that ineeds put in check, but that in itself is even more of a turn-off than dumping about $75ish dollars into a game to support a dev team that I’ve been on board with for years and get a head start in their new game, only to feel like I’ve gotten nothing in return and would likely have to do the same to be able to play in any other era of the game.
You can say Checkmate Creative sold out, got greedy, or what, but they took a game that their very passionate fan base was very excited for and used it as an opportunity to show their true colors. Play this if you want, but proceed with all the caution in the world.
That said, this game is a complete departure from what brought them to the dance. Don’t get me wrong, the gameplay play is fun, but this game has turned into an unbalanced, pay to play cash grab. It’s such a jarring change from their original games that longtime fans are understandably upset. What’s even more upsetting though has been Checkmate Creative’s response to those fans that need to go pound salt if they don’t like it. Maybe it’s new management or someone running their social accounts that ineeds put in check, but that in itself is even more of a turn-off than dumping about $75ish dollars into a game to support a dev team that I’ve been on board with for years and get a head start in their new game, only to feel like I’ve gotten nothing in return and would likely have to do the same to be able to play in any other era of the game.
You can say Checkmate Creative sold out, got greedy, or what, but they took a game that their very passionate fan base was very excited for and used it as an opportunity to show their true colors. Play this if you want, but proceed with all the caution in the world.
Can’t believe I’m writing this review
I’ve big a big Checkmate fan going on 2 years now; I’ve put a lot more hours than I’d like to admit in 8MW. I was very excited for the release of this new project. Finally being able to play the game after months of waiting, I’ve been pretty disappointed.
The micro transactions are borderline ridiculous. The new system of collecting makes being f2p extremely unfulfilling-you make very minimal progress without spending real money. The game honestly feels like a hollow cash grab and that is a really big turn off.
I’m hopeful to see some balancing in the near future. As of now, I don’t see myself opening the app again.
The micro transactions are borderline ridiculous. The new system of collecting makes being f2p extremely unfulfilling-you make very minimal progress without spending real money. The game honestly feels like a hollow cash grab and that is a really big turn off.
I’m hopeful to see some balancing in the near future. As of now, I don’t see myself opening the app again.
Very sad
Huge fan of 80s mania wrestling. Love it and spent and still spend plenty of time playing it. As well have spent a ton of money because I loved it. Eras is just a cash grab. Paying for everything I’ve already paid for. It’s got bells and whistles and looks great, but it’s soulless. Was really disappointed in this. Hoping they turn it around.
Good coat of paint, but more pay to win that previous games
Visually and organizationally the game is more appealing than 80s or modern mania, but the underlying progress structure is severely inhibited in an effort to get you to spend real money to unlock basic things (wrestlers, refs, commentators) ultimately feels like a hollow cash grab. Makes me not even want to pay the older versions.
Incredibly Disappointing
I am shocked I am writing this review. As someone who put 100’s of hours into the two previous games I was super excited for this one. And man, is it super disappointing. The Eras idea, the layout, all of it good or promising . But the new wrestler acquisition system is TERRIBLE. You buy packs with coins (no longer earned by completing a year) to earn shards at an incredibly slow rate to then way overpay for wrestlers if you only have 50% of shards. The in game cash is earned at a snails pace compared to the other games. In the old games it took a while, but you slowly built up by buying jobbers to Mid-card and up. I like the thought of Storylines, but after 2 times through one, (4 gold which I purchased,) and all the way through the track, still not enough shards earned to have a shot at buying the wrestlers from the story. This has gone a ridiculous amount of Pay 2 Win and even then, (I have spent around $20) it still is bad and extremely broken. I know they can do better and hopefully the devs will fix this unbalanced mess.
Joyless Cash Grab
This game has made it impossible to get more wrestlers unless you spend money. I was a sucker and spent the 20 dollars bc I loved CC’s earlier wrestling games, but unlike those games where I just wanted to support the game, I’m now struggling to get thru an in-game year without feeling immense frustration at the game and its aggressive pay to win scale. Hope CC take this to heart and change the game to enable players to earn wrestlers, coins, etc by actually PLAYING the game and not having to pay for everything (and still feel stuck or in jeopardy of losing wrestlers due to the horrid morale system). Please make this game playable and not a soulless cash grab!
Built for wrestling fans!
Day one Modern Mania Wrestling GM player here, and someone who has sunk way too many hours and dollars (don’t judge) into Modern Mania and 80’s Mania over the years. Eras of Wrestling feels like the game longtime fans have been hoping for.
You can tell this was built for the Mania community. The multi era progression, deeper booking strategy, expanded roster depth, and the way feuds and upgrades tie together finally make your promotion feel alive instead of just a card builder. It keeps that classic Mania charm but adds a bigger sense of long term planning and history building that veterans and newcomers will appreciate right away.
What stands out most is how familiar everything feels while still being fresh. The UI is smoother, show building feels more meaningful and can be preplanned into the future, there is a real payoff to smart management decisions. As someone who has supported these games for years, it genuinely feels like the devs listened to the player base and delivered something special.
If you have played Modern Mania or 80’s Mania, this is not just another version. It feels like the next era of the series, and so far they absolutely crushed it.
You can tell this was built for the Mania community. The multi era progression, deeper booking strategy, expanded roster depth, and the way feuds and upgrades tie together finally make your promotion feel alive instead of just a card builder. It keeps that classic Mania charm but adds a bigger sense of long term planning and history building that veterans and newcomers will appreciate right away.
What stands out most is how familiar everything feels while still being fresh. The UI is smoother, show building feels more meaningful and can be preplanned into the future, there is a real payoff to smart management decisions. As someone who has supported these games for years, it genuinely feels like the devs listened to the player base and delivered something special.
If you have played Modern Mania or 80’s Mania, this is not just another version. It feels like the next era of the series, and so far they absolutely crushed it.
I tried
I really tried to have this replace 80s mania. Very excited for it to come out, but the game lacks the fun 80s mania provided. The morale system is terrible, shard system is horrific. As someone who is willing to pay for a game they enjoy, it would take hundreds of dollars to open up the flexibility you had in the other games. Overpriced, cash grab.
Question?
Most of my wrestlers disappeared. I have like 6 or 7 wrestlers for a whole show instead of everything I’m suppose to have
Meh.
So far it’s ok. Still have much to unlock.
Edit: After playing and trying to unlock wrestlers, game is incredibly disappointing than the previous ones since you have to pay for every little thing. What happened?
Edit: After playing and trying to unlock wrestlers, game is incredibly disappointing than the previous ones since you have to pay for every little thing. What happened?
Good bones, but…
I put lots of time into Modern Mania and 8WMR. This game fills the same niche as the previous games and expands on several game systems, but currently the game is over-monetized. Progression has been all but removed unless you spend currency on shard packs. Free agents are prohibitively expensive, as are most of the items in the game if you’re racking up $200-$400 per match. At the current rate, it will take several in game years to unlock a different match type. I’m looking forward to updates, but I won’t be playing for long unless serious concessions are made.
Yes, I’ve spent $20 already. No, I won’t be spending for quite some time while the updates flesh themselves out.
Yes, I’ve spent $20 already. No, I won’t be spending for quite some time while the updates flesh themselves out.
Bye bye free to play
The game itself is fine but the problem is the reward system is made like a game made by EA. The tokens are required to unlock stuff but there’s no reliable way to gain the tokens which leads to not unlocking stuff in general. Please fix this
Sentiment summary
69%
Positive (4-5★)
11%
Neutral (3★)
20%
Negative (1-2★)