Ready 2 Rumble Revolution - Atari Interview

The producer of Ready to Rumble Revolution on bringing the fight to Atari.

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Kikizo: Has this IP only just come over to Atari?

Geudelekian: We've actually had it for a year and a half now, and we've been developing this game for about a year now. Because at first we had it at 10tacle Studios, and they did a lot of the art and animations, which are very high quality - the character art I find really fun and the animations give each character a really unique personality.

So that was being developed, and by the time I came on board, we were looking at the fighting engine, which didn't have enough things going on - especially when Facebreaker got smothered in the press, we really knew we had to take it back and do something special with it. It's Ready 2 Rumble, you don't want to ruin an IP like this. This is a very important IP for gamers - there is such a love for Dreamcast anything.

So we took it to AKI, and they promised us they'd never made a bad game and they're weren't going to start now. They knew how important the IP is and they came back with this little gem. It's a really fun fighting game, it plays like a fighting game. I go small motions all the time, instead of the exaggerated motions, so when I play it'll you'll see me setting up these combinations, almost like I'm playing Street Fighter in some weird way.

Kikizo: So 10tacle is responsible for most of the character design, whereas AKI has concentrated on the gameplay?

Geudelekian: Yes, gameplay is huge for AKI. They had some input of course with later designs - we've had to redesign a couple of characters because of Revolution, so they definitely stepped it up. They're just so confident thanks to this fantastic repertoire.

Kikizo: Tell us a bit more about those characters.

Geudelekian: Each of these pre-made characters has their power, speed and defence ratings - when I went into the AKI office there was this huge wall of balancing grids for all the characters, making sure all the characters are balanced and well-proportioned against each other.

Kikizo: So AKI actually has a big map on a wall to determine how each character stacks up against the others?

Geudelekian: Yeah. It was like, from the top, power, speed and defence ratings... so there's always a good challenge from another character and not some blow-out. If you've played any unbalanced fighters, you'll know that's terrible. So they've really approached it as a proper fighting games.

Kikizo: Which characters have players been favouring so far?

Geudelekian: Dewie Streudel and Syphon Cruel are two really popular ones, and you'll immediately recognise who they're based on...

Kikizo: All the characters are based on real people, right?

Geudelekian: These are all celebrity characters. So you've got Render Meadows based on - well, technically I can't tell you who they're based on because of legal blah-blah, but I'll give you all the hints you need: this is a US Olympian with just one gold in all the boarding competitions, he has a new game coming out...

Kikizo: Not a Ubisoft game, by any chance?

Geudelekian: Maybe, maybe. I'm not sure. [laughs] And there's Kaiser Kong, who's based upon a very famous European footballer, who also looks like Dolph Lundgren - brutal dude. And we've got this guy - if you're a fan of UK or US Idol, he's the devil in a black shirt. And we've got a guy who is known for riding around in really futuristic cars, hanging around beaches and bays...

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