In this wrestling game by Yukes, makers of the Finding Nemo & Haunted Mansion movie-based games as well as the WWE Smackdown VS Raw series, you have the ability to control up to 50 female wrestlers (20 of which are presets and 30 can be created by the player) in a total of 7 different match types over 5 different rings. This is my first time playing a Yukes game and from what I've experienced it won't be the last either. For anyone familiar with the old NES gaming system, Rumble Roses XX might bring back a few memories of Pro Wrestling as it is closer in style to that game than it is to WWE Smackdown VS Raw.
While it supports up to 4 players and has co-op play it is primarily a single player game, or at least that’s what the achievements would have you believe. There are 3 difficulties that the game can be set to: Easy, Normal, and Hard, and as you probably assumed, the higher the difficulty the more damage is required to defeat your opponent and the more damage you take, and of course expect a higher monetary payout at the end of the match.
Dixie in action
Controlling your character is pretty easy to get used to, making this one of the simpler sports based games on the 360 from what I've seen, allowing the player to jump in quickly without having to spend a lot of time figuring out complex combinations like similar titles. Speaking of which, there are many combinations available and they’re all easy to use once you are actually in the situation or position required to implement them.
The camera angles are generally perfectly fine but there will be a few occasions where you'll find the camera, opponent and you are aligned in a straight line making it hard to judge the distance you need to move in order to attack. Other than that the camera works great, you can even move it around during the H-Moves that you can perform (more on that below after the ring types). The animations themselves are typically very well done and usually quite smooth, with reactions to the attacks appearing quite realistic and nothing appears to be drastically exaggerated which adds to the realism of the game.
There is a lot of customization that can be done with the wrestlers, such as the costumes; besides the default player created sets and the preset character costume/swimsuit there are also 19 other swimsuits and 17 other costumes that can be unlocked and purchased from the store, along with color palette changes on some of them providing you a few more options. As you use a character more you can also adjust certain sliders to increase/decrease their strength, overall muscle tone and overall body shape. Don’t like the moves of your favorite wrestler? Then just move the body sliders all the way over to the left or right to change their move sets, although some of them are set in stone.
Candy Cane about to make Sgt. Clements feel the music
Where the customization really comes in is on the player created character or Lamda as they are called. Right from the very beginning you’re allowed to modify everything including the aforementioned muscle and body sliders unlike on the preset characters which you have to work towards unlocking in order to change them. You can assign 2 sets of moves (Technique and Ability) though there is no preview so you have no idea what moves they will allow you to do until after you create the character and enter the ring – one of the biggest downsides in the entire game. You can also choose if they will be a Face or Heel character (i.e.. Good or Evil).
You can’t customize your locker room like you can in the other wrestling games by Yukes but there is a photo mode that can be entered (once you buy the camera from the store) and take photos of your wrestlers and exchange them with other players over Xbox Live. You start off with a few single character poses but can buy alternatives and even some dual character poses from the store.
There are 4 standard wrestling type rings however one of them is somewhat unique; titled Queen’s Match, is actually a penalty ring in which you pick a punishment and the loser has to do it. You start with a mere 8 punishments but fear not as more are available from the store. While I have no particular favorite penalty in the Queen's Match, they are all humorous and add something to the game. The other 3 standard wrestling rings being nothing that special; including a standard indoor wrestling ring, a ring in the desert and a ring on the top of a high rise building. The main difference aside from aesthetics between these 3 rings is that there are weapons that can be found to use in the first 2, yet not on the high rise offering.
Now for the match types. You have your standard 1 vs 1 Singles Match, then your 2 vs 2 Tag Matches, then Handicap Matches which will either be you against 2 opponents or you and your tag partner against a single opponent (either way tag rules apply). Then of course for your Royal Rumble type fans you have 3 Way Royal and 4 Way Royal. I have never played the 4 Way Royal as the 3 Way Royal can get very crazy as it is. You then have a special type of match called PHM (Pure Humiliation Mode) which no matter how many times you try to pin your opponent or do a submission move you cannot win unless the H-Move (Humiliation) is performed. You cannot do an H-Move until the Humiliation bar is filled which is done so by performing moves that humiliate the opponent; some wrestlers have quite a few moves that comply yet with others you might have difficulty even figuring out how do to one.
Kickin' it in a Street Fight
If you’re not so much a fan of standard wrestling games but more of a Street Fighter type fan then there is still something in the game for you; a match type called Street Fight, which plays more like a standard fighting game with an endurance bar that must be reduced twice in order to fully defeat your opponent.
While the achievements sound relatively simple in description, in actual fact they can actually be rather time consuming, especially the Singles Champion ones which get increasingly difficult given that you must have at least 15 wins, be on a 3+ win streak and must have beat each initial starting character once, the last of which gets harder to accomplish as you unlock more characters. Expect to spend 1000+ hours getting all the achievements.
Sound effects are pretty standard fare, wrestler entrance music is actually the best part of the audio (worthy of a soundtrack CD). There’s no commentary which is usually one of the most complained about things in sports games. You’ll probably end up turning sound down or off and listening to a CD.
Graphics are good for a 360 game, entrances can be entertaining and humorous to watch though after a while you’ll most likely turn them off just to get the match loaded faster. Animations are usually pretty smooth though collision detection does fail occasionally and you’ll have a lower layer of clothing sticking through or a limb sticking through the body of your opponent.
Decent musical soundtrack and sound effects will have you listening for a while.
Entertaining entrances and realistic animations help overcome the very few graphical glitches that occur.
With 20 different preset characters that can be played once all are unlocked plus 30 player created slots you are provided with a lot of options for move sets though for the most part you’ll still be doing the same thing repeatedly. The lack of a story mode
Menus are pretty standard and simple to use, real easy to just jump right in and start playing even if it’s with a player created character.
Very time consuming and tedious, 1000 will come only if you're in it for the long haul.
A simpler wrestling game than the Smackdown VS Raw series and a great alternative if you want a change from typically half naked men grappling with each other. It will either provide many hours of enjoyment as you check out all the different possibilities/strive for the full 1000 points or leave you wondering why you bought or rented it. Rumble Roses XX – A true love/hate game.
February 14, 2008
In this wrestling game by Yukes, makers of the Finding Nemo & Haunted Mansion movie-based games as well as the WWE Smackdown VS Raw series, you have the ability to control up to 50 female wrestlers (20 of which are presets and 30 can be created by the player) in a total of 7 different match types over 5 different rings. This is my first time playing a Yukes game and from what I've experienced it won't be the last either. For anyone familiar with the old NES gaming system, Rumble Roses XX might bring back a few memories of Pro Wrestling as it is closer in style to that game than it is to WWE Smackdown VS Raw.
While it supports up to 4 players and has co-op play it is primarily a single player game, or at least that’s what the achievements would have you believe. There are 3 difficulties that the game can be set to: Easy, Normal, and Hard, and as you probably assumed, the higher the difficulty the more damage is required to defeat your opponent and the more damage you take, and of course expect a higher monetary payout at the end of the match.
Dixie in action
Controlling your character is pretty easy to get used to, making this one of the simpler sports based games on the 360 from what I've seen, allowing the player to jump in quickly without having to spend a lot of time figuring out complex combinations like similar titles. Speaking of which, there are many combinations available and they’re all easy to use once you are actually in the situation or position required to implement them.
The camera angles are generally perfectly fine but there will be a few occasions where you'll find the camera, opponent and you are aligned in a straight line making it hard to judge the distance you need to move in order to attack. Other than that the camera works great, you can even move it around during the H-Moves that you can perform (more on that below after the ring types). The animations themselves are typically very well done and usually quite smooth, with reactions to the attacks appearing quite realistic and nothing appears to be drastically exaggerated which adds to the realism of the game.
There is a lot of customization that can be done with the wrestlers, such as the costumes; besides the default player created sets and the preset character costume/swimsuit there are also 19 other swimsuits and 17 other costumes that can be unlocked and purchased from the store, along with color palette changes on some of them providing you a few more options. As you use a character more you can also adjust certain sliders to increase/decrease their strength, overall muscle tone and overall body shape. Don’t like the moves of your favorite wrestler? Then just move the body sliders all the way over to the left or right to change their move sets, although some of them are set in stone.
Candy Cane about to make Sgt. Clements feel the music
Where the customization really comes in is on the player created character or Lamda as they are called. Right from the very beginning you’re allowed to modify everything including the aforementioned muscle and body sliders unlike on the preset characters which you have to work towards unlocking in order to change them. You can assign 2 sets of moves (Technique and Ability) though there is no preview so you have no idea what moves they will allow you to do until after you create the character and enter the ring – one of the biggest downsides in the entire game. You can also choose if they will be a Face or Heel character (i.e.. Good or Evil).
You can’t customize your locker room like you can in the other wrestling games by Yukes but there is a photo mode that can be entered (once you buy the camera from the store) and take photos of your wrestlers and exchange them with other players over Xbox Live. You start off with a few single character poses but can buy alternatives and even some dual character poses from the store.
There are 4 standard wrestling type rings however one of them is somewhat unique; titled Queen’s Match, is actually a penalty ring in which you pick a punishment and the loser has to do it. You start with a mere 8 punishments but fear not as more are available from the store. While I have no particular favorite penalty in the Queen's Match, they are all humorous and add something to the game. The other 3 standard wrestling rings being nothing that special; including a standard indoor wrestling ring, a ring in the desert and a ring on the top of a high rise building. The main difference aside from aesthetics between these 3 rings is that there are weapons that can be found to use in the first 2, yet not on the high rise offering.
Now for the match types. You have your standard 1 vs 1 Singles Match, then your 2 vs 2 Tag Matches, then Handicap Matches which will either be you against 2 opponents or you and your tag partner against a single opponent (either way tag rules apply). Then of course for your Royal Rumble type fans you have 3 Way Royal and 4 Way Royal. I have never played the 4 Way Royal as the 3 Way Royal can get very crazy as it is. You then have a special type of match called PHM (Pure Humiliation Mode) which no matter how many times you try to pin your opponent or do a submission move you cannot win unless the H-Move (Humiliation) is performed. You cannot do an H-Move until the Humiliation bar is filled which is done so by performing moves that humiliate the opponent; some wrestlers have quite a few moves that comply yet with others you might have difficulty even figuring out how do to one.
Kickin' it in a Street Fight
If you’re not so much a fan of standard wrestling games but more of a Street Fighter type fan then there is still something in the game for you; a match type called Street Fight, which plays more like a standard fighting game with an endurance bar that must be reduced twice in order to fully defeat your opponent.
While the achievements sound relatively simple in description, in actual fact they can actually be rather time consuming, especially the Singles Champion ones which get increasingly difficult given that you must have at least 15 wins, be on a 3+ win streak and must have beat each initial starting character once, the last of which gets harder to accomplish as you unlock more characters. Expect to spend 1000+ hours getting all the achievements.
Sound effects are pretty standard fare, wrestler entrance music is actually the best part of the audio (worthy of a soundtrack CD). There’s no commentary which is usually one of the most complained about things in sports games. You’ll probably end up turning sound down or off and listening to a CD.
Graphics are good for a 360 game, entrances can be entertaining and humorous to watch though after a while you’ll most likely turn them off just to get the match loaded faster. Animations are usually pretty smooth though collision detection does fail occasionally and you’ll have a lower layer of clothing sticking through or a limb sticking through the body of your opponent.
Decent musical soundtrack and sound effects will have you listening for a while.
Entertaining entrances and realistic animations help overcome the very few graphical glitches that occur.
With 20 different preset characters that can be played once all are unlocked plus 30 player created slots you are provided with a lot of options for move sets though for the most part you’ll still be doing the same thing repeatedly. The lack of a story mode
Menus are pretty standard and simple to use, real easy to just jump right in and start playing even if it’s with a player created character.
Very time consuming and tedious, 1000 will come only if you're in it for the long haul.
A simpler wrestling game than the Smackdown VS Raw series and a great alternative if you want a change from typically half naked men grappling with each other. It will either provide many hours of enjoyment as you check out all the different possibilities/strive for the full 1000 points or leave you wondering why you bought or rented it. Rumble Roses XX – A true love/hate game.