Rumble Roses

"A pretty good wrestling game with some pretty hot women"

What's the first thing I think of when I see Rumble Roses? Like most gamers will say, it's WWE SmackDown meets Dead or Alive, and they're 100% correct. Brought to you by the good people at Konami and Yuke's (Yep, it's the same people who developed SmackDown for the PS and PS2), Rumble Roses is a gem designed to entertain all of you perverts out there (and yes, that includes me!)

Graphics: 10/10

The visuals are stunning. The rendering on all of the ladies is beautiful. They are possibly some of the hottest female characters you'll ever see. They rank right up there with the DOA girls. The arenas are nicely done, and the mud wrestling pit has a very gorgeous tropical theme (Hell, they mud wrestle in bathing suits, so how can you go wrong?)

Control: 9/10

Though the button mapping is slightly different, it's still more or less the same SmackDown engine that wrestling gamers are used to. Direction + button moves, 1 button finishers, etc... It's simple enough for first time gamers to pick up and play if you've never played SmackDown before. For the SmackDown veterans, you'll get used to the altered buttons quickly. It's not that different. Once again, Yuke's has delivered us another winner.

Sound: 7/10

Like most fighting/wrestling games, this game is plagued with repetitive music and dialogue, and it can get annoying from time to time. More of the same remixed rock you've come to expect during gameplay is here. The positive, in my opinion, is the game's theme song/Dixie's entrance music, which is a cover of the David Lee Roth hit "Yankee Rose". I love that song. But other than that, I'd turn down the volume after awhile.

Gameplay: 4/10

Yeah, this is where the game suffers. If you're a SmackDown fan, you're gonna be very, very disappointed. All you have is singles matches, mud wrestling matches (which are fun, but are 1 on 1 only), and title matches. No tag matches, no specialty matches or anything else. There's a story mode, but it doesn't take long to complete it with each character. There is a bright spot however, and that is the Face/Heel system. By completing certain objectives (and you can choose which objectives you wish to accomplish via the Vow system), you can make a face or heel into a bigger face or heel, or you can turn a face into a heel or a heel into a face. Every character has a face and a heel persona, and each persona has a different move list. By making a character in to a 100% face or 100% heel, they then become eligible for title matches. That can take some time to do. There is a reward for winning and defending the title, but I will not say anything for spoilers sake. Other than that, this game can get boring quickly from a single player perspective.

Overall: 7.5/10 (Since I can't use half points on GameFAQs, I'll give it a 7 there)

Beautiful visuals and easy controls cannot make up for all of the shortcomings of this game. While it's incredibly fun and easy to play, most gamers might get bored with it really quickly due to the lack of single player depth.

Rent or Buy?

I say rental. Buy only if you're a wrestling game fan, or if you have lots of friends that come over to play. 2 player matches can be a lot of fun. If not, you can unlock everything in a rental.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/04