Rumble Roses

It's a shame that so many wrestling games have great ambition matched with simply horrible gameplay. Joining a long list of relative disappointments is Rumble Roses, while not the most original game ever, certainly is the most...gratuitous in how it's been marketed to the wrestling audience. An all-female wrestling game, with a heavy focus on realistically depicting various aspects of the feminine anatomy, Rumble Roses gets a couple of things right and everything else wrong.

The gameplay in this title isn't good. It doesn't stink as bad as I've seen, but it is close. For the most part, Rumble Roses dodges the major bullets. It's easy to unleash attack combos, you only need one button to pull off special moves, and you'll find no jarring switches between careful button pressing and frantic button mashing. Sadly, it's still hard to really pull off your basic wrestling moves with any regularity, and more often than not, you'll be repeating the same move over and over again.

Visually, the only part of this game that's well done is the character design. Fight animation, the mud-wrestling graphics, and even the stage entry all look relatively half finished, with some very obvious flaws present to engage the eye. Audio wise, Rumble Roses features a little bit of what sounds to be some female punk bands, but it's the poor voice acting that kept me wincing throughout each scene.

Still, this game does have a little something going for it. Even if it's ultimately an over driven marketing gimmick, an all-female wrestling game might represent the interests of female wrestling fans better. And by playing through the game's storyline modes, you can open up the ability to play any character as a face or a heel, something that's been missing from every wrestling game I've ever played. But as they say, too little, too late. I'd tell you to pass on this one, but then, you probably already knew I'd say that.