Rumble Roses XX

"Weak single player and Live is dead"

I never played the original Rumble Roses X game for the original Xbox and to be honest I would have never played its sequel. However, I had a free rental and figured I'd toss another game notch on my gamer card and hopefully get some achievements. Well, achievements were a no go for me and I wasted a number of hours of my life and I'd please like them back. Fans of the original might be surprised that story mode has been removed and replaced with... nothing? That seems like such a smart move...

Graphic wise I wasn't thrilled with Rumble Roses XX. Character models are pretty good, almost CGI quality on the PS2 but not there yet. The arenas are kind of bland but I must admit the 3d crowd was impressive for a change. For a T&A game I guess all that matters is that the character models look good. Fans of Dead or Alive Extreme Volleyball or whatever it's called should enjoy this game for the same reasons; it also seems to offer the same badly done setup as that title.

Sound wise I'm not thrilled either. The music is very pop-ish and I just didn't think it fit with the game. Sure it has the girl's just want to have fun vibe going for it but I need a little more fitting music. Sound effects are okay but nothing new. Voice acting also annoyed me. Bad ear splitting pitches.

I like and don't like the control, all at the same time. It's easy to pull off moves and the game feels sluggish at first until you realize you have one attack button. Your attacks vary on how you have the left analog stick pointing when you hit the button. Y lets you grapple and varies with the stick as well. B is supposed to pin your opponent but I can't seem to get it to do that most of the time unless I was coming off of a grapple.

For the game play I must say there is no substance. There are arenas to fight in. Street fights and I guess some competitions. There is also a mode where the winner forces the loser to do something like pose in a sexy bathing suit or something. The game really doesn't offer much. There is 20 characters or so but I couldn't help but feel they played too much a like, since all moves are they same, they just had different looking moves.

As I sit here typing this I can't remember much of the game. You win titles by doing stuff that I couldn't figure out. I heard it was win 15 match's and fight all of the normal characters but that didn't do it for me. The game does have a unique feature where you build your character up. Keep using a move over and over and it becomes stronger, a plus for those that love to spam moves. Besides that you also build your body up. Not sure how this works as I saw no changes and had no manual.

The game is long I guess. 40 costumes to unlock in some of the most mundane ways. Oh and everyone has 4 costumes but they are the same costumes. How fun is that to unlock? I guess there is normal multiplayer but I can't play that since I don't know any gamers. I tried to play online but there wasn't a living soul there. That should be a sign when a game isn't even a year old and the entire online network is empty.

Would I recommend Rumble Roses XX? No, it's boring as dirt. The wrestling felt sluggish at times and the AI seemed uneven for no reason. The problems I had with pinning and trying to get a title was just a pain in the butt. A game shouldn't need a manual to be played. The menus also felt kind of sloppy. The item shop does seem to have a fair amount of items and the photo session feature is great for the perverts who love to take panty shots. I'm not a gamer that plays a game for T&A and this game honestly has nothing to offer past that, not even online since the servers were dead.

Story - N/A
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 5/10
Control - 7/10
Game Play - 3/10
Replay Value - 3/10

Final Score - 3/10

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/06