Rumble Roses

The Rumble Roses are blossoming on PS2 and these busty beauties aren't shy about getting down n' dirty in the mud! Join us as we take a final look at Konami's all-female fighter. Final direct feed videos included!

	Version PS2	Developer Konami/Yukes	Publisher Konami	Genre Wrestling

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All of the girls have their own unique entrance sequences, and some are quite a sight to behold. The entrance of sexy cowgirl Dixie has me convinced that Konami motion captured professional strippers to animate these girls - the animations are that good. This T&A spectacle shows no shame as the girls parade around in incredible outfits that really highlight some of the more obvious ' assets' of their opponents.

While the character models are no doubt impressive, the rest of the visuals aren't as blessed, and have taken a comfortable backseat to allow the spotlight to focus mainly on the girls. The limited number of arenas, while similar in appearance, are well designed with some pretty decent crowd animations.

The overly campy voice acting is cringe worthy at times but pretty amusing on the whole - who can forget a reference made to Dixie's breasts as "magnificent teats" by one of her opponents? Rumble Roses certainly has its fair share of comic hilarity. The sound effects are OK and do an admirable job with the fighting action, although at times they sound a little muted, sometimes lacking a feeling of real impact.

But the music is the highlight of the game's audio presentation. There are numerous musical contributions from various composers including Sota Fujimori, Konami's techno guru who's done a number of kick-ass Castlevania and Gradius tunes in the past; Akira Yamaoka, the man behind the great audio presentation of the Silent Hill games; and Michiru Yamane, who during her time at Konami worked on games like Castlevania and Crime Fighters 2. The award winning Steve Vai and David Lee Roth are among a bevy of other non-Konami composers who have lent their musical talents

So, Rumble Roses looks great and sounds pretty good, but it also plays pretty darn well despite the limited set of play modes available. The game features two main play modes, Story mode and Exhibition. Story mode as previously mentioned allows you to take each diva on a journey to becoming the top wrestler in the tournament. Story mode, while somewhat addicting, is really short.

There are only a handful of matches and we were able to blow through the game our first time through in less than half an hour, and managed to complete the story mode with all of the regular characters and their respective alter egos in one sitting without so much as a bathroom break [painfully obvious editor comment goes here - Ed]. Regardless, playing through each girl's story is fun while it lasts and at the end players are rewarded with even more skimpy-licious costumes.

The Exhibition mode is where the action is, as players can go head to head against human or CPU opponents in the Normal match mode. What makes the Normal match mode so cool is that players can alter their girl's persona by utilizing the game's unique Vow system to turn their good girls into bad girls and vice versa. How that works is that prior to each match players have the option of setting Vows for their characters. The Vow system consists of various types of agreements made prior to a match, and honoring the conditions of your Vow will earn you percentage points that will affect your character's overall rating.

Who needs a chick when you can look at hi-res Reiko all day?

Some vows include stuff like not using weapons during a match, not attacking a downed opponent, countering a number of submissions and not taunting your opponent, among other things, in order to increase your Face percentage rating, OR whacking your opponent with weapons, performing aerial assaults from the top turnbuckle, or taunting your opponent a number of times in order to influence your Heel percentage rating.

Players can set a total of three vows for their characters to honor during a match. There are two benefits to utilizing the Vow system. The immediate benefit is that by earning enough percentage points to shift a character's persona into full-fledged heel or face status you'll be able to unlock their alter egos. While Rumble Roses initially starts you off with ten beauties to choose from, unlocking their alter egos kinda doubles the roster. A bit.

The other benefit, if you can even call it that, is that you'll be able to compete for the title in the game's Title Match mode. Title Match mode basically requires your character to achieve a face or heel rating of 100% before being allowed to compete in it and the inclusion of this mode was pretty pointless as it features only one stinking match - you versus the current champion, whoever you decide that's going to be. Pretty pointless, as there are no real rewards for being the champion other than to watch your girl parade around the ring with that ugly belt covering up her beautiful waist.

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