2023 has reached a breaking point for me. I have too many games I need to catch up on and there are even more still to come. I hate to admit it, but I'm rooting for games to not pull me in so I don't get overwhelmed. I thought WrestleQuest might well be one of those games; something I thought I might like but ultimately fall off just in time for Starfield.

'Fraid not! WrestleQuest has its hooks in me. Not only will it seriously hinder my Starfield progress, but it has pulled me away from Tears of the Kingdom too (yes, I've still not finished that either). You know a game is doing something right if it prevents me saving Hyrule. WrestleQuest has managed this because it’s the perfect dad game. Something I can pick up and play in short bursts but put down again when someone else demands control of the TV.

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That's a key detail here, and it's something very few games offer. When you're splitting TV and console time between multiple people in your home, especially when one or more of those people are children, then your game time is limited. Not to mention being called away from a game at a crucial time because your toddler needs a snack or they're demanding you take them to the park. I need the ability to stop a game 30, 20, maybe even ten minutes after I sit down to play it, usually at a moment’s notice.

WrestleQuest gives me that option, largely because nothing you do in-game has to take all that long if you don't want it to. Whether completing a quest or wrestling a match, there are breaks in play pretty often. Yes, there’s treasure to find, but finding it isn’t integral to progression. You can also save whenever and wherever you like. I know WrestleQuest isn't the only game that does this, but in 2023 I can't believe it isn't an industry standard.

That means if I am summoned to the bathroom to deal with a mess I'd rather not describe here, I can drop out of the game without having to worry about when the game last autosaved. I can then jump right back in after the crime scene has been dealt with. I can also jump in and complete a quest even if I know I only have 15 minutes to spare. Prior to WrestleQuest, any 15-minute windows I happened upon would be spent mindlessly scrolling through Twitter, or X, or whatever Elon Musk wants us to call it this week. Now, I’m living out my dreams as a plastic professional wrestler instead.

via Skybound

What also makes WrestleQuest a great dad game is if one of those lightning gaming sessions drops into my lap while my son is in the room, I have no problem taking advantage of it. The art style of the game combined with its non-offensive cartoonish wrestling inspirations means that I’m not afraid of what my son might look up and see, but he's actually pretty into it. There's very little voice acting too as dialogue is almost entirely text-based, but even if your kids can read, nothing I've encountered so far has even come close to being inappropriate for children.

There have even been a few occasions where I've handed him the controller. Since the matches are turn-based, I can simply tell him which buttons to press, cue the excitement of him being the one making the moves happen. The only issues with that arise when you need to hit a particular button quickly to string together a combo, reverse a move, or to achieve success in the pinning minigame. He doesn't quite have that down yet, but he’ll learn.

Perhaps even more than anything I have mentioned already, the entire premise of WrestleQuest is that it's a throwback game. Not only through its graphics and gameplay, but even the subject matter. While I've thankfully not fallen foul of this too much myself, becoming a parent can often lead to people cutting out parts of their lives they used to enjoy to make time for raising their kids. WrestleQuest’s old school vibe may serve as a reminder that parents still have time for video games and wrestling and may even give them the opportunity to share parts of their lives they'd left behind with their kids.

I've called WrestleQuest a dad game because, well, I’m a dad and it’s perfect for me. But what I really mean is it's the perfect game for any busy parents with limited windows to cram in leisure time and fun activities. Not even just parents, but anyone out there who feels like they don't have enough time to game. WrestleQuest probably won't be among the contenders for 2023's Game of the Year, but it's an important game for me and I hope other parents or busy gamers reading this are inspired to give it a try too.

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