Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

While the DOA games are known for their counter-heavy engine and graphics, the female characters are a large part of the appeal of the game.  While other fighting games have attractive females, no other games have really tried using the female form as a major selling point.  That is until Rumble Roses for the PS2.  Now Konami is bringing a new version of the game to the Xbox 360 with Rumble Roses XX.

Rumble Roses XX is an all female wrestling game with characters that resemble some typical female stereotypes in young men’s fantasies.  There’s the cowgirl, the teacher, the schoolgirl, the nurse, and the librarian, among others to choose from.  They also like to wear revealing clothing as part of their uniform.  These “Roses” are ready for battle in one-on-one matches as well as tag team matches.  Does the game provide compelling gameplay, or is its beauty only skin deep?

All of the Roses in the game look very good.  Up close, the characters have muscle definition and you swear you can see subtle details like moles and veins.  Their hair waves and many of the costumes have fringes that sway in the wind.  They have several costumes that can be switched out with other accessories, like gloves and boots.  Some of these “costumes” are lacking so much cloth that they could be deemed illegal to wear in several states.  It is rather odd to watch a match with a Rose wearing nothing more than two cupcake holders, a small strip of cloth and some dental floss.  While the characters do look very good, compared to Dead or Alive 4 they don’t look quite as good.  The animation doesn't feel as smooth and there are some clipping issues with the characters.

The backgrounds don’t have the same level of detail as the characters, but they still aren’t bad.  The arenas are held in areas like the top of a skyscraper, a canyon, and a sports arena.  Lights flicker and sparks fly during the wrestler intros.  Giant screens behind the wrestler also highlight the intros of the wrestler, giving the game a feel of a real wrestling match.

RRXX features a guitar-heavy soundtrack.  The guitar riffs squeal during the menu screen and continue into the wrestler intros.  The thumping bass drives through the beat to make your pulse race.  After a while the music can be a bit repetitive though.  Occasionally a wrestler intro uses a hip-hop beat for their intro though to change up the mood.

During the matches the Roses occasionally scream to indicate that they are hurting.  They also can call out to the crowd, taunting their opponent.  However, they don’t say a whole lot, especially during the bone-crunching moves, even though you can literally hear the crunching bones.  The one-liners made are a bit comical though, as you might expect.  Still the sounds are rather disappointing.

Moving your Rose is done by using the d-pad, while pressing the d-pad twice in the same direction makes your character change direction.  X strikes your opponent while Y grabs your opponent.  A dashes towards your opponent and B has multiple functions such as pinning your opponent, entering or leaving the ring, picking up items, and climbing onto the corner post.  The Right Bumper guards against attacks, while the Right Bumper plus X or Y reverses strikes and throws respectively.  Killer Moves and Lethal Moves are performed with the Left Bumper, while Humiliation Moves are done with the Left Trigger.  Hitting both bumpers performs a Double X move with your tag partner.  Calling out to the crowd to taunt your opponent is done by pushing in the right analog stick.

The movement feels OK, but you have to remember that this is a wrestling game and not a fighting game.  While button mashing can help with performing certain moves, the game is mostly about timing.  Unfortunately most of the time you feel like you perform an action and then wait for the action to complete.  If you don’t mind this style of gameplay, then you won’t have any issues with the controls.

When you start RRXX, you start in the Locker Room.  Here you choose which Rose you want to control and her partner for the Tag Team matches.  You can also customize your character’s wardrobe and intro song, perform photo shoots of your character, view the pictures you took during the photo shoots, and change your options for the game.

Once you are done in the Locker Room, you move to the Map Screen.  Once here you can go to the Exhibition Ring, the match locations, the shop to purchase items, the Locker Room, the Online arena through Xbox Live, the Museum to look at the character information and pictures, and the Tutorial.

The Tutorial has videos of the gameplay to help get you familiar with the controls of the game.  Unfortunately, these tutorials aren’t interactive, so if you want to practice you have to wait until you actually get into the ring.

By winning matches you earn money to spend in the Shop.  Here you can purchase items like new costumes.  It will take a while to earn enough money to spend anything in the shop though.

When going to the Skyscraper, Red Valley, or the Arena, you fight in a Single Match, PHM (Pure Humiliation Match), Tag Match, Handicap Match, 3-Way Royal Match, or 4-way Royal Match.  The Pure Humiliation Match can only be ended in an H-move or Humiliation Move.  The Handicap Match is a two-on-one match, where one of the characters fights solo against a tag team.  The Royal matches are won by defeating any opponent through pin fall or submission.  You can’t actually choose which of the matches you want to fight though.  You are automatically assigned the kind of match when you get to the location.

When going to the Street, you are in a Street Fight.  This game feels like very rudimentary fighter with some wrestling moves thrown in.  The pace is quicker than a typical wrestling match and the match is done by performing the most damage.

The Queen’s Match is a typical single match with a twist.  The loser has to perform some kind of penalty action while the winner watches.  These range from posing like a cat to performing Yoga.

While you can’t choose which game mode to play while going to a specific game location, going to the Exhibition arena allows you to choose which kind of match you wish to play.

Over 20 characters are available, and each one has a couple of different costumes to choose from.  After each match your popularity goes up or down depending on the outcome of the match.  When your popularity reaches a certain point, your character becomes a Superstar.  The Superstar mode gives your Rose a new costume and it changes the intro sequence of that character.  You also have a few upgraded moves to perform.

As you injure your opponent, your finishing move gauge builds up at the top.  Here you can build up to five counters.  These counters are used to perform Lethal Moves, Killer Moves, and Double X moves.  When you see one of these available on the screen underneath your finishing move bar, hit the Left Bumper or both bumpers and you’ll perform the move.  The Double X Moves are only available during tag matches because they require a partner to perform them.  H-moves, or humiliation moves, are performed similarly except they are available when your opponent’s humiliation bar is full and you use the Left Trigger to perform the move.

The biggest issue with the game is that it isn’t very deep.  You’ll get into a pattern with the characters where you strike the opponent, put in a submission, strike, grapple, perform another submission, rinse, and repeat.  It may sound like the game has a large number of moves, but the game becomes very repetitive very quickly.  It also doesn’t help that the AI doesn’t offer that much of a challenge.

While you might want to try to earn all of the costumes and other accessories at the shop, earning money is a slow process and it takes a while before you can earn significant cash to purchase items.  Unless you are committed to earning everything, you’ll grow tired of the gameplay quickly.

Playing on Xbox Live lets you play in unranked single matches or ranked matches.  You can also upload and download photos taken from the Photo Shoots.  The Xbox Live play actually performs pretty well, so if you have some people to play this with, you should have a fun time with it.

There is a large number of unlockables, but if you want to play this game to get the Xbox 360 Achievement points, you better have a lot of spare time on your hands.  Most of the achievements are only 10 or 20 points, so it will take you a long time to actually build up your achievement score.  You’ll put this one back on the shelf a long time before you earn all of your achievement points.

Rumble Roses XX could have been a contender against DOA4 and still set itself apart from the fray.  Instead, the game comes off as juvenile with plenty of moves that would only seem to be appropriate in movies you’d find in a dark hallway in the back corner of the video store.  If you are looking for a real wrestling game, wait for WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007.  Rumble Roses XX is a lot like Paris Hilton.  It looks great, but is shallower than a pothole and dumber than the rocks used to fill it.

Gaming Trend Score

64

1. Graphics: 82
2. Audio: 72
3. Controls: 74
4. Gameplay: 45
5. Value/Replay: 65
6. OVERALL:64