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The Xbox 360 receives its second set of scantily clad babes. Rumble Roses was a fairly solid wrestling game featuring good gameplay, stellar graphics, and some of the PS2’s most attractive female characters. It was a lot a bit shallow in terms of gameplay modes and the curiously-positioned camera angles may have freaked out a few gamers. The sexual fantasies are still present but the gameplay is better now with more modes, including online play.
Rumble Roses XX features a number of gameplay modes. There’s a single-player mode but it doesn’t include stories. Rumble Roses was criticized for its bizarre storylines but I’m not sure that scrapping them was the right decision. Instead of naturally progressing through a story, you’ll be able to travel around a map choosing different arenas. As you win fights, you get more popular and will eventually get granted a title match. Once you win the title, it’s time to play with a character. The match types include the basic one-on-one, and tag team to handicap matches, triple threat and four-way matches. The game also includes a street fight without pinning but straight up knockouts. There is also a queen’s match where the loser will have to perform some sort of silly act at the end like posing, being thrown into a pool, or dancing. Aside from the single-player mode, you can play in exhibition and online.
The core wrestling engine in the game is rather strong. Developed by Yuke’s (of WWE Smackdown!) fame, this is a lighter version of that wrestling engine. This means that you’ll find Yuke’s body-sensitive damage system, with submissions being focused on the area that is most beaten. The different regions include arms, legs, head and body. You’ll find the typical grapples, strikes, and reversals though to pull off a successful reversal you’ll have to know whether your opponent is coming at you with a strike or grapple. The Rumble Roses twist to this is the humiliation meter. Basically, certain moves fill up your opponent’s humiliation meter. Once full, you can perform a finishing move called a humiliation move.
The game’s 11 characters are all much exaggerated. You’ll find the S&M slave, the sassy cowgirl and even everyone’s favorite: the disobedient schoolgirl. Each character has both a good and evil version, both versions showing the characters in equally ridiculous outfits. The characters also boast an unlockable superstar mode which is stronger and have an even more outlandish outfit. These were actually featured in the PS2 version of the game, so if you’ve played that game you won’t be surprised here. The game lets you buy costumes for the characters including a number of sexual fantasies to scandalous bathing suits. To make this more enticing, the developers added a photo mode where you can take a character, change her outfit (and breast size!), make her pose and take photos which can be uploaded to Xbox Live.
As I mentioned above, the game supports Xbox Live. The online play is technically sound with no lag in any of the matches we played. There isn’t a whole lot going on though the game does include a ranking system. The game also boasts offline multiplayer for up to four players.
The game’s visuals are great. The character models are more detailed and nuanced now. The lighting is noticeably better, and the same could be said of the arenas and crowds. You’ll notice this even playing in standard definition, but once you hook the game up to an HDTV you’ll notice that everyone is sharper, the clothes seem to behave a lot more realistically, and so forth. The animation in the game is very fluid. The game is very sexually charged and you’ll have ample opportunities to look at the character’s underpants or observe their breasts bouncing. Even the actual wrestling moves are sexually charged, with some preposterous and oddly embarrassing moves being performed.
The game’s audio is good. The sound effects do a good job of representing the onscreen action. The background music fits the game’s over-the-top nature, as well.
Rumble Roses XX is a solid wrestling game, built on top of a good game engine. The graphics are great, as well. Some people may have a hard time dealing with the clear objectification of women in the game, and that’s understandable. If you can put up with that though, Rumble Roses XX may just be what floats your boat. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Apr 12, 2006
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