Wrestling With Emotions: New Kid on the Block is a well-oiled body… I mean, game

The true meaning of wrestling

If there’s two things I love, it’s wrestling and cuddling. Both of these things are already very adjacent, but Wrestling With Emotions: New Kid on the Block is looking to flying elbow-drop them into one sexy package.

The sequel to Team Lazerbeam’s 2016 indie title, Wrestling With Emotions: New Kid on the Block looks to continue the team’s weird take on love and suplexes, and it’s everything I want it to be. It’s got meat, it has all types of hunks, and it’s about rugged embraces and tender smooches. It’s what wrestling is all about!

And now, there’s a demo, and after playing it, I can confirm that this is the next big thing in big things.

Yeah! Beef!

Wrestling With Emotions: New Kid on the Block has you following your dreams to become a greased-up grapple-person. You’re then thrust directly between the meatiest muscle cuties this side of the ropes. It’s then up to you to train yourself to train your MEAT (Muscle, Elegance, Attitude, and Theatrics) to become a real contender in the squared circle. Also, maybe there’s love in there, as well. It’s kind of ambiguous about that.

The demo guides you through applying to Wrestling With Emotions (the WWE), gives you a bit of training, then sends you to Cuddle Mania to stand on the sidelines of people better than you. I really don’t think I can talk about Wrestling With Emotions: New Kid on the Block without putting some gravel in my voice and flexing continually.

Yeah! Brother! Ungh!

You get to design your wrestle-person and their gimmick. Furthermore, you outline your own strengths and what makes you awesome. Wrestling With Emotions: New Kid on the Block knows that we’re all just tightly concealed bags of beef and feelings, so you pick your pronouns and what your meat looks like.

Argh! Yeah! C’mon!

Cuppa coffee in the big time, YEAH!

Effective and punchy writing puts the ripples in Wrestling With Emotions: New Kids on the Block’s abdominals. Its bizarre world and setting really oils its muscles. But the demo also gives a hot slice of its gameplay pizza.

Rather than being a simple visual novel, you’ve got to train your suplex machine. To do this, the demo has you judging music samples and painting your nails. You’re given a surprising amount of freedom, and these little asides show that there’s more than narrative to this bout.

Additionally, everybody and everything is absolutely beautiful, with wrestlers being an explosion of the nacho-cheese ‘90s. The characters look ripped from the pages of an extremely awesome teenager’s notebook margins. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if you should be disgusted or enamored. This means there’s one word for it: Captivated! Ung!

The demo is about 30-45 minutes long, but I couldn’t stop taking screenshots. Woo! I have so many!

Ung! C’mon! Woo!

I’ve had my eye on Wrestling With Emotions: New Kids on the Block for a while now, and I’m glad to see that it’s already pumping up to pile-drive us with good times. C’mon! Yeah, brother!

I couldn’t find any indication of a release date for Wrestling With Emotions: New Kids on the Block, nor does there look to be any platforms planned beyond PC. Thankfully I haven’t played the original yet, which is available on itch.io. So rather than running my mouth here, I’ll drop that one on the mat, then frog splash myself all over it in the meantime.

Yeah! Oh, yeah! Brother!