IGN.com
Wrestling sells merchandise and sex can sell just about anything, which is why Konami's alluring new grappling title Rumble Roses could be a veritable goldmine when it hits American shores later next month. Running on what seems to be a modified version of the engine that powered last year's WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain, this brand new wrestling title from the renowned development studio Yuke's definitely has some talent behind it; but it also leaves us with some questions. Previously only available for play at the various trade shows held throughout the year (E3, TGS, Konami's Gamer Day, etc), Rumble Roses has quickly become one of the PlayStation 2's most talked about games that people know almost nothing about.
Luckily that's about to change. As our pals at Konami have hooked us up with playable build of Rumble Roses so that we can finally sit down and play it without an army of single guys waiting in line behind us.
Formerly known as WWX: Rumble Rose, the game has a pretty straightforward concept: take control of a beautiful woman and beat the living snot out of another grappling hottie until there's just one winner. More traditional fans may want to take note, however, that Rumble Roses isn't about fighting your way through a multitude of battle royals, cage matches, or Texas Tornado bouts -- it's about finding an excuse to wrestle around with a bunch of half-naked mat vixens who would just as soon do stretching exercises and ride horses than fight. Not afraid to exude a heavy dose of sexuality, there's an incredible amount of skin to be seen here -- with a default selection of wrestlers that could easily supplant the WWE divas as the hottest women in sports entertainment.
Each character is completely different too, with a nice assortment of fetish stereotypes that are both incredibly humorous and disturbingly realistic. Naughty nurse Anesthesia, for example, comes waltzing to the ring in a barely-there medical outfit complete with a short skirt, lacy stockings, and a thermometer planted firmly between her unmentionables. World Champion Evil Rose, on the other hand, swings down on her vine in an S&M dominatrix getup before breaking into a revealing stripper routine. There are plenty of other young women to select from as well -- whether it's the star of the game and all-around nice girl Reiko Hinomoto or the Van Halen teacher of your dreams Miss Spencer, there's plenty of choices. Either way, Rumble Roses has a little something for everyone regardless of their personal preferences.
The biggest mistake that someone could make regarding Rumble Roses, however, is that it has nothing else besides eye candy. Because unlike similar fan-service games like Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball or just about anything with the word "Princess" in it, Rumble Roses offers a somewhat substantial helping of gameplay mechanics. Borrowing very heavily from the SmackDown franchise in a multitude of ways, it plays a lot like that series does; only dumbed down a bit to keep things light.
At first, the controller setup is a little difficult to get used to for a longtime SmackDown player like myself; as literally everything on the pad has been reversed. The Square button, for instance, is now used as the strike, while the Triangle key unleashes a grapple. Alternatively, the X key is mapped as the running button and the circle is used for pinning and exiting the ring. Players can also block and counter with the L1 button, but it's a whole lot harder to do so than in SmackDown.
In fact, Rumble Roses as a whole it a lot more difficult than SmackDown is, despite the fact that it doesn't offer as many moves to select from. Granted, players will still have the same double-directional functionality that's found in THQ's title when it comes to moves, but there aren't as many to maneuvers to select from. Even so, each character's repertoire is pretty extensive and completely unique to that girl; which is a feat that none of the SmackDown titles has ever been able to claim.
Additionally, the enemy AI in Rumble Roses is pretty brutal -- and will kick your sweet little ass on a regular basis. When it's turned all the way up to the hard difficulty setting, beating the CPU is literally a workout; with more struggling and button mashing than any other title I've played in recent memory.
What makes the game cool, though, is the care and precision that the developers have taken in showing the onscreen action. Each of the nearly two-dozen playable characters (half of which are hidden) are made up of 10,000 polygons apiece, with carefully planted camera angles in suggestive (and hilarious) positions every time a move is performed. Luckily, these aren't the moves you'll find in your typical female wrestling match either. You'll have Michinoku Drivers, jumping moonsaults, and all sorts of other impressive and powerful maneuvers. When playing, flashbacks of the Jumping Bomb Angels frequently rush to my mind.
As an added bonus, Rumble Roses also features a few appealing extra gameplay options. The dirtiest of which (and the one most likely to be used by IGN Xbox Editor-in-Chief Douglass C. Perry between his waxings) is the mud-wrestling match -- complete with bathing suits, splashes, and ladders for some the old high-flying superhurt.
There's also an interesting option available during the exhibition mode that allows players to complete specific types of challenges (ala the EA sports model) to unlock additional points for each girl's Face and Heel rating. These ratings, when raised to 100%, allow the girls to earn a shot at the championship belt later on down the line. Some of these challenges include making it through a bout without using any weapons (yes there are weapons) or to use a specific finisher in order to win. There's even a storyline mode with full voice-overs and genuine character development -- though our version of the game didn't have this entirely working yet.
There are a few small points of concern that I have, though, all of which I hope will be fixed by release time. The first of such problems is the fact that you aren't aloud to remap the buttons on your controller; the options menu only allowed me to adjust the difficulty settings, the music level, and a few other minor tidbits. It's a minor issue for sure, but the more customization I have the better. While another one of my apprehensions are the vocals found in the story mode. Entirely bad, rushed, and prematurely cutoff, the voices definitely need some work. And finally, there's the execution of grappling itself -- occasionally there are some slight pauses between transitions from grapple to maneuver, some of which last as long as a second a half. It's kind of awkward to the flow of the match. But the good news is that the build I have isn't one of the most recent, so I'm hopeful that these setbacks are just placeholder.
On the whole, though, I'm interested to see how Rumble Roses turns out. While I was playing, the entire office gathered around my desk (yes, even the married guys) to see what all the hubbub was about and most left pretty entertained. Though it's pretty much a given that this probably won't supplant THQ's SmackDown franchise as THE wrestling game to own this holiday season (and it's not really meant to), what we've played so far is a whole lot of fun -- which is definitely a good sign.
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