One of those games we are ashamed to admit we own...or rented...or played, but generally a very solid wrestling game,
Mud Wresting, School Girls, Panty Shots clearly a game that relies on one aspect to sell it, I will admit that when I was standing in an EB and a friend of mine looked at the game, and said look "Special Mud Mode" I laughed, and thought oh man, and it was the 9.98 pricepoint that got me in.
It sat on my to be played pile for months, 360 games getting stacked above, PS2 RPG's getting stacked above, till finally one weekend a friend says lets give this a try.
I will admit, it found its way into my PS2 SOLEY on the basis of mud mode, but has stayed there because the game itself is pretty solid. For those who are generally fans of wrestling games you will know that for the most part since No Mercy on N64 a good portion of the wrestling games have had at best an awkward engine and at worst have been ECW Hardcore Revolution. The engine in Rumble Roses is very similar to the AKI engine in No Mercy for N64. Which in my opinion is the best wrestling engine out there.
From a gameplay stance, the game itself plays very smoothly. It will not take long for most gamers to pick up with is required for you to lay out a friend with a Humiliation move, and there is a good selection of Characters (Once you unlocked them all) with a good varying range of moves. The Characters are also varied enough that playing with Wrestler X is very different then playing with Wrestler Y. I would say that its more of a two player game, but I logged many a hours unlocking various characters alternate ego's and other such bonuses.
Many of the reviews of this game have gone after the weak story of voice acting, and I can't help but draw a smile at that comment simply because most of the story angle in Pro-Wrestling are so out there that this game almost seems to be a digital version of Pro-Wrestling Mockery, which is partly what made it so interesting,
The "Main" persona storylines generally end up with you somehow having to do battle with the evil Lady X, and to an extent make some sense? But the Alternate persona's storylines are just so out there that they feel like they were simply tacked on to add a few hours of single player gameplay, they are generally much easier and feel much shorter. And outside of Dixie's storyline (which was not all that well written) most of the main stories seems somewhat thrown together, but generally I am sure if I was watching WWE Raw for the first time I would think the same thing.
Graphically, for a wrestling game its good, the characters are all well done and they generally are what they are, the one aspect that I must pay respect to is the crowd, it did repeat but not NEARLY as much as it did in other wrestling games, the moves all come off as seemless, and generally everything looks pretty good. Believe it or not graphically its a very polished game.
The Sound aspect is interesting, because the voice acting is HORID, but I question if it was done that way on purpose? because I broke out laughing nearly every time two characters exchanged words. The soundtrack is not bad in the least, its VERY Japanese but generally has 20+ original songs as wrestlers enterance themes and they are fitting. I will say the cheesey "Bass Line" that seems to chime in anytime words are exchanged could have been mixed up or in the least alternated with another track so it was just that ALL THE TIME, but generally sound was not bad.
From a Value Stance,
What can I say, if you have played wrestling games with friends in the past and you have enjoyed it there is NO reason why you will not enjoy this one, and even from a single player stance, I have caught myself playing for hours on end trying to unlock various characters and extra's the reality is there are few games that you can rescue from the 9.98 bin that are actually going to keep you occupied beyond ten minutes, this one should keep you playing it longer then most of the full price wrestling games on the market.
Overall,
I know I should not like this game, but I do.
Its a great engine and perhaps if this was not the game that PS2 countered the Halo 2 launch with a few more people would have played it.
Give it a look, if you are a wrestling fan you'll be suprised.
-Z