Wrestling game or goggle-eyed ogle-fest? You decide.
Gameplay-There is the skeleton of a wrestling game here. You have your basic grapple and strike moves, submissions and special moves. Unfortunately, most of the basic rules of wrestling are not here. There are no ring outs or rope breaks and only a few different weapons. No one ever runs in to mess with your match. While that does eliminate cheap ring out wins, it also takes away a lot of the strategy that makes wrestling (such as trying to break a submission hold by getting to the ropes).
The special moves are relatively nondescript...until you get to the "humiliation moves". Those are usually some sort of ridiculous tie-up that results in an extra long submission hold, usually putting the victim in some sort of provocative (thus humiliating) pose.
The game structure itself is a bit odd as well. Every wrestler is available in her default attitude (face or heel) at the beginning of the game. You can unlock their alter ego in one of two ways; either finish story mode with the original character (which also unlocks all their costumes) or change their attitude in exhibition mode. There is a thread of storyline for each character, but it's vague and not exactly clear how each character relates to another. The storyline weaves through a series of matches (invariably with one mud match...complete with swimsuits!) culminating with a title match with Lady X (a cyborg enhanced with the DNA of a legendary wrestler...don't ask).
When you get done plowing through each character's story mode, you can move on to the exhibition mode. This mode has the "vow system", where you make certain promises which affect your character's attitude. Once they reach 100% either way, they are eligible for a title match, which unlocks the gallery mode (which is exactly what it sounds like).
Visuals-If you're a fan of impossibly proportioned women running around in next to nothing, you're in luck. The character models are, for the most part, well done (although a couple of them wound up a bit bug-eyed in the quest for that doe-eyed innocent look). The rings themselves are decent, but the mud pit looks more like a pool of cappuccino than mud, and the crowd is a group of about three guys cloned to make an audience.
Sound-Overall, the sound is pretty good. The entrance music for each wrestler is well done, and each one has a different theme (including the alter egos). The voice acting is hit and miss, with some either really wooden (I can't decide whether or not Evil/Noble Rose is supposed to be brainwashed or if her voice actor was stoned during taping) or over-the-top performances.
Value-Rumble Roses falls squarely in the middle of the road when it comes to value. If you can stand to do the same basic thing over and over again, you'll get a good 15-20 hours out of it. There is some multiplayer to it, but it's just one-on-one matches.
I understand the market that Konami and Yuke's were going for when they made this game. Unfortunately, that market already has a champion in Dead or Alive. Rumble Roses tried to knock the queens off of their pedestal, but fell miserably short.