Ultra Pro Wrestling: The Successor to the AKI Engine

While people wait to see if Kenny Omega can make good on his promise to bring back the fabled AKI engine from the N64 games, a new challenger has emerged, one that probably not a lot of people have heard of, but may also be closer to that engine then any other game that has claimed to:

And while you may think this is just a mod due to how close the animations look, it is not as confirmed by the developer Sam Vallely of Hyperfocus Games, a team out of Scotland, he's been working on this for 7 years

Ian of 616 Entertainment did an interview with Sam where he talked about the game, what he was looking to accomplish and his inspirations

There was a kickstarter that just ended last week, here's news from that as well

Ultra Pro Wrestling successfully funded with all stretch goals but the final set unlocked. Final stretch goal would have included Career Mode, Texture Edit System, Custom Music Editor and Online Ranking system. Now the devs say just because these features won't be in the initial build, doesn't necessarily mean we won't see them down the road if the game sells well.

What stretch goals we did get:
Stretch Goal 1:
Core Gameplay Mechanics
Core AI Mechanics
400 Basic Animations

Stretch Goal 2:
Full Gameplay Mechanics
Basic Create A Wrestle Mode
Advanced AI Mechanics
600 Advanced Animations

Stretch Goal 3:
Create a Promotion Mode
Advanced Create a Wrestler System
Weapon System
300 Taunt Animations
Wrestler Entrances

Stretch Goal 4:
Online Mode - Ranked PVP online matches including (one) online UPW title for all players to compete for. Title holder must defend title once a week or forfeit it. Title matches will be streamed live by the devs on a show called Monday Night Blast.
Create a PPV
Referee Mechanics
Special Match Types
Backstage Areas

Also included:
A default roster of 100 fictional wrestlers all with portrait art by Hal Haney expected at launch with possibilities of future additions. Female wrestlers will also be included.

5 Promotion Paths for career mode:

The Big Leagues - Shorter matches and penalties imposed on wrestlers for rule breaking.
Japan - Grow respect among wrestlers and popularity with crowds, unlock new moves.
Mexico - Lucha Libra Style matches in a 6 sided ring.
Independents - Smaller Promotions, smaller rings, reactionary crowds.
Mixed Martial Arts - MMA match types in an MMA cage. (they were originally saying Octagon, but since UFC owns that name & even shape they're changing it a bit)

More promotions and special events expected to be added throughout development.

Other notes:
Game has already been in development 7 years.

A continuation and expansion of the core AKI grappling engine which has been in development for 2 years. Expanded by the dev team believing how AKI would have continued updating the mechanics had they continued to the series.

Art Style of the game inspired by Fire Pro in the sense that created wrestlers will visually match in perfectly with default rosters.

Legacy/Career mode:
With Legacy Career you will experience the life of a professional wrestler. Experiencing all the trials and tribulations of creating a legacy. You can wrestle for one or many different promotions across the globe. Each promotion will have their own unique challenges and opportunities. The story mode will be split into decades. On completion of one decade, ie. completing the 80's, you will unlock the ability to customise the promotions/wrestlers from that decade. You will also then unlock the next 90's decade where you can continue playing as your previously selected wrestler or you can start an entirely new 90's career with a different wrestler as well as a different starting promotion. A lot of characters and story elements will be representative of real world wrestlers and historic moments. Your career path will not be linear or pre determined. Everything that happens in your career will happen dynamically based on a number of factors such as your characters popularity, morality and in-ring skill.