Rumble Roses

"More than just Smackdown with sex appeal."

Konami has been tantalizing us for months now, with pictures, movies, little snippets of info, of their new project which was originally known as WWX: Rumble Roses. Sure the girls were hot, and that was an obvious focus for the game, but anyone who knew anything about wrestling/fighting games, or gaming in general knew that just having hot girls wouldn't necessarily make it a good game. The WWX has since been dropped, and Rumble Roses has finally hit the shelves... did it deliver on its promise by not only providing hot girl on girl action, but also backing it up with solid gameplay?

In a word, hell yes.

As the tagline says, Rumble Roses is more than just Smackdown with sex appeal. Sure it has sex appeal, and sure the fighting engine is based on Smackdown, but in this case, the game is way more than the sum of those parts.

Graphics- 9/10

The girls really do look nice. They have been rendered in great detail, especially for a PS2 game, with realistic proportions... well for the most part anyway. The breasts are a bit too 'jubbly' to be considered realistic, but its a nice effect for those of us into that sort of thing. There are nice little details like scarves and hair that doesn't look plastic, unlike in even the latest Smackdown game, and sure there is some clipping but I have yet to see a game with such details that didn't clip even a little. They move very nicely as well, with very fluid and lifelike animation, although many of the animations seemed to have been taken directly from the Smackdown reservoir, but still that can hardly be said to be a bad thing, as animation wise they are some of the best around for a wrestling game. Overall, it gets a 9 in this area because while there are little minor things here and there, the look of the game on a whole really is spactacular.

Sound- 9/10

I am pretty lenient when it comes to rating sound, because to me I only really even notice the sound if its bad. The in game sounds here do the job, so I have no such complaints here. The entrance themes are actually very cool, with one of them, 'Yankee Rose', also the game's theme song, being written by David Lee Roth and Steve Vai! Very cool. The voices in story mode are certainly on the campy side, but then again so is the story itself... it would have been awkward to hear the girls deliver those lines in a more serious manner.

Gameplay- 8.5/10

I soooo wanted to give this a 9 as well, but I just couldn't ignore the fact that countering in this game is ridiculously easy. All the latest Smackdown games have been the same way so I pretty much expected this, however this does tend to make it frustrating from time to time. There is quite a bit of good here to mitigate that, however. Each girl has a satisfying variety of strikes, grapples, submissions and finishing maneuvers, and though some moves repeat in a few girls, this is nothing new to the wrestling genre. The gameplay itself is fast and fluid, and it feels more solid than arcadey, you never get the feeling that you would get farther by button mashing. Sure you COULD button mash, but that can be said for any fighting or wrestling game.

Longevity- 9/10

Story mode gives you some idea why they are in the Rumble Roses tournament... sure its campy like I said before, but its actually better than some of the crap the WWE has been coming up with lately. And the real surprise here, is that the story mode isn't the meat of the game! In a rare departure from other games of this type, the exhibition mode is actually where players will likely spend more of their time. Each girl starts out as a face or a heel, and whenever you play an exhibition match, you can take vows that if adhered to will lean them more towards face or heel status. If you max out one status or the other, that wrestler is then eligible to fight for the Rose of Roses Championship belt. If you take enough vows against their current alignment, she will actually shift from face to heel or vice versa, and this is not just a arbitrary designation. The face versions of the girls look completely different than their heel counterparts, and even have some different moves. It's Konami's version of the old wrestling standby where a wrestler will turn and then undergo a completely different gimmick. The only thing I wish is that you could play both heel and face version of a given wrestler at the same time, but for some reason it is one or the other. A small complaint, but one I felt needed mentioning.

Overall- 9/10

So there you have it, a wonderful outing for the first of a franchise... but even not taking that into account, its a very fun and satisfying game to play even taken on its own merits, without the promise of whats to come. Let me just close by noting, however, that if you sit through the credits, at the end there is a little message from the devs thanking you for playing their game, outlining their commitment to quality and promising that their next project will be just as interesting as this one.

Perhaps the best compliment I can give this game, is that I have never been more encouraged by such a promise.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/04