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Rumble Roses is a game series that has been, and will
forever be, mocked by the UK Press and gaming public. While many of
you shall realise that titles like this are ten-a-penny in the  east,
here in the west we only get drip-fed such titles as the Dead
Or Alive series and not a lot else to match the relative
quirkiness and titivation of the Japanese gaming culture. Offbeat
releases such as Harvest Fishing, Okami, Sprung,
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and LocoRoco make much of
an effort to bridge the culture gaps in videogaming, but rarely does
a title offering a similar sensation to the likes of KimiKiss arrive.
This “quirkiness” is often translated in the west as perversion
– lots of lovely ladies bouncing around wearing next-to-nothing
or, worse still, school uniforms and maid’s costumes – and with
a whole host of features for you to get the best view possible
etched into your brain, it’s little wonder why. But it’s not our
job to comment on the significant lack of taste, decency or
subtlety, it’s our job to inform you, the gaming public, as to
whether or not it’s fun.
Upon first play, it strikes immediately home that Rumble
Roses XX plays as quite a contrast to it’s PlayStation2
predecessor, Rumble Roses. No longer is the title orientated
more like a Beat-‘Em-Up as opposed to a Wrestling title, and no
longer are you ushered through the game by the hand. Opening up the
title seems to be an attempt at innovation, gone drastically wrong.
There’s no longer a Story Mode, and the Exhibition and XboxLIVE!
Matches are now accessed through the same Menu Screen as the default
Single-Player Matches. A variety of locals is available; Sky
Scrapper, Arena and Red Valley are your three basic Single-Player venues, with Island Resort
offering Queens Matches and selecting Street executes the Street
Fight Mode. The Multi-Player options are presented here as
Exhibition (which enters a Match Set-Up Screen for Multi-Player on
the single system) and XboxLIVE! which, obviously, allows for
play online. The Locker Room allows you to view details of your
play, such as gameplay time and total wins, and the Shop offers you
hundreds of costumes available for purchase.
Gameplay takes on a more traditional approach to Wrestling
than the first release in the series. Having been developed by Yukes!
Entertainment, the team responsible for the WWE SmackDown!
series and last year’s fantastic DragonBall Z: Budokai
Tenkaichi, the roots of the title are now stuck firmly in the
Wrestling arena, even if they maybe heavily influenced by a more
Arcade-style of play. Attacks and moves are performed in a similar
fashion to the first title; punches and kicks with a press of the X
Button, grapples on the Y Button and reversals by pressing the
corresponding  attack button to your opponents attack in conjunction
with the R Button. The flow is much more fluid than the likes of the
WWE SmackDown! series, with the gameplay reacting at a much
quicker pace than most Wrestling titles. There’s still more of a
time-delay than with hardcore brawling titles such as Urban Reign,
but an interchange from grapples to holds to drop-kicks can easily
be established through just a few Matches. Each of your characters
has four Special Moves also, the most basic of which, the Killer
Move, can be executed simply by filling a Killer Charge Meter at the
top of the screen and press the L Button. All three other Special
Moves also require you to fill this Killer Charge Meter, but also
have additional gameplay requirements; Lethal Moves require you and
your opponent to be in requisite positions (i.e. at your
opponent’s feet while they lie on the floor, or behind a dazed
opponent) and are performed with the L Button also, Humiliation
Moves are performed by executing moves that fill your opponents
Humiliation Meter – situated under the Killer Charge Meter – and
Double X Moves require you to have a partner available and in-range
with both of you having full Killer Charge Meters.
The lack of obvious progression is uncomforting, however is
passable. Fighting through a pre-set arrangement opens up Single
Title Challenge Matches and Tag-Team Title Challenge Matches. Most
Championship Matches you win will allow you a chance to unlock your
chosen character’s alter-ego. Following the first Rumble Roses,
each character features two envisioning, labelled Face or Heel, or,
in other words, good or  evil, fan-favourite or rule-breaker. Adding
depth through the use of almost identical Character Models with
expanding the Moves List no-end remains as clever as it did on the
PlayStation2, however, those having not played the first title may
feel cheated by an apparent lack of variety.
The Queens Matches and Photo Mode will have most reeling in
horror with the offbeat nature of drooling over polygonal models,
but are actually an interesting insight into Japanese antiquities,
and are actually quite comical. The Street Fight is an interesting
addition, if severely under-developed. A basic, One-On-One
Beat-‘Em-Up addition that takes the title closer to the genuine
brawlers than the first release, yet, is poorly calibrated on almost
every level. Online play is acceptable, with very little Lag
evident, but with little incentive to play past the Japanese hulks
that dictate the play in the way that most casual gamers complain
the Americans do with the likes of Halo2 or Perfect Dark
Zero. The removal of the Mad Mud Mode, however, is incredibly
disappointing, especially when considering the power at the hands of
Yukes! Entertainment through the Xbox360, and pushes through all the
hallmarks of a development schedule less than wisely spent.
The title’s graphics are quite hard to examine. To begin
with, the Skin Textures, Character Models and Light Reflections are
fantastic, while the Blur Effects are far too often over-used, the
hair animation pales in comparison to Dead Or Alive 4 and Resident
Evil 4 and the Real-Time Lighting is almost non-existent. The
animation flickers from perfect to stuttering, and Polygon
Cross-Pollination is infrequent, but distances player from avatar
far too much for a Next-Generation, Fifth-Generation title. The
Arenas are heavily limited and sparsely decorated, the two most
interesting of which being limited only to Street Fights and as
ill-focused as is seemingly possible; the players invariably appear
to be floating, as  if they were fighting in front of a Blue Screen
with the background super-imposed later. The sound quality is off a
high standard, but a lack in speech variation and average videogame
fodder for the Score will often see you adding your own Soundtracks
in any event.
Rumble Roses XX is quite a conundrum. On the one hand,
as most gamers probably will do, it should be shunned. Even though
it’s a far-cry from titles such as Fighting Beauty Wulong, Tokimeki
Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Kiss or Wrestle Angel Survivor,
it’s extremely rare that a title such as this reaches European
shores, and so, is more liable to criticism than the openly more
evocative titles such as Playboy: The Mansion, BMX XXX,
and even Fahrenheit at times. However, much like the first
release, the title does contain some rewarding gameplay also. It may
not break any boundaries and it may not be to everyone’s tastes,
but it is a genuine stop-gap for WWE fans until WWE
SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2007 arrives. Rumble Roses XX will
disappoint fans of the first release, but also gratify in equal
measure. A hard test of the hardest of gamer tastes it may be, but
if Rumble Roses XX is a brief glimpse of things to come from
Konami on the Xbox360, it’d probably be wise to get a second
opinion first.
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