Ready 2 Rumble Boxing

"The epitome of fighting game mediocrity"

In an effort to make more money off of their recent game Ready 2 Rumble Midway released a largely modified port of the game to GBC. What am I talking about? Well where Read 2 Rumble for any other system included various combos, a training mode and a few other features this game features 2. That's right, 2 modes, Arcade and Championship. It also is one of the few games to take advantage of the new GBC rumble capability, which is one of the few high points of the game.

Story: You want to make it to the top as a boxer and to do so you have to make your way through 7 competitors. It would have been nice if the plot was more in depth or if you were given more than a paragraph or so of information for each character. Then again chances are if you're playing a sporting game you're not looking for a lot of plot, which means you'll be very happy to see there is none to stop you from going and bashing someone's brains in.
Score-5

Game Play: This plays pretty much like your standard boxing or fighting game. You fight until either you or your opponent knocks someone out, gets a TKO or you run out of time. One interesting added feature is the RUMBLE combo. Whenever you get a solid hit in you get a letter. Once all the letters in the word RUMBLE are spelled out you press A+B and you will unleash a fury of punches on your enemy. However your opponent can use this feature as well. Also if you're knocked down you lose all your letters.
Also you have numerous characters to choose from including 2 unlockable characters, each with various advantages. Some are more powerful, some are quicker and others have a longer reach, which keeps the replay up slightly. Still in time the game just gets repetitive and boring.
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Controls: You move around using the D-Pad and you use A and B for punching. A for a higher punch and B for a lower one. Up and A or B is an upper cut. Down and A or B will cause a shot to the gut for your opponent. You can also press back to block incoming punches. As previously stated to do the RUMBLE combo you press A+B. The main problem with this is the game will often not respond to this or you just may not hit them at *exactly* the same time, which this game requires. By the time you get it off your opponent will simply counter and knock you out. This gets very annoying in time; however with some practice you'll get better at it and have little or no trouble with it.
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Graphics: One of the better points for the game. The graphics are quite good and some are up to par with SNES or Genesis games. Each character has a 3-D entrance; however the announcer doesn't move at all during his sequence for some reason. The game itself is decent. It looks just like Crawfish's other port for GBC, WWF Attitude. Each character is fit to scale for the most part and is fairly detailed. I'd expect a little more from the graphics after seeing the awesome intros and don't be surprised if you're disappointed with them as well.
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Music: The music is a joke. There's a great theme at the opening screen and character select screen then you play the match and there's nothing but sound effects. Overall a huge disappointment.
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Sound Effects: The sound effects are great. Probably the best are the voice overs of David Buffer saying each character's name and shouting ''Lets get ready to rumble!''. Every punch can be heard and when you start off the match and when each round ends the bell sounds extremely realistic. Also the roar of the audience when each character is introduced is great; it helps give the game a very realistic feel. The sound effects and game play are what really save this from being a horrible game.

Overall if you're a die hard fighter or boxing fan I recommend buying this. Or if you can find it used for $5 like I did pick it up. It isn't worth much more though.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/01, Updated 08/15/01