Rumble Roses

PlayStation exclusive

Get ready for sexy yet challenging in-the-ring combat. WWX: Rumble Rose delivers intense girl-on-girl wrestling action with an all-female roster of vixens--each with specialty moves. The combat system lets you humiliate your opponents through insults, taunting, and aggressive moves and holds. Your player's costume, attitude, and wrestling style change depending on whether you fight dirty or fair. Naughty or nice, becoming a popular wrestler will earn benefits, including expanded gameplay, additional skills and moves, and more-revealing and flamboyant costumes.

Released: 9 November 2004
Platforms: PlayStation 2
Genres: Fighting Professional wrestling Sports
Developers: Yuke's
Publishers: Konami
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Themes: Action
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB M PEGI 12
Composers: Akira Yamaoka

About

Rumble Roses (ランブルローズ, Ranburu Rōzu) is a professional wrestling fighting game that was developed by Yuke's and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 in 2004. The game uses the same engine as Yuke's 2003 release WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain. Rumble Roses was followed by Rumble Roses XX, released for the Xbox 360 in 2006.

Rumble Roses features only female wrestling characters, each with both a good (Face) and bad (Heel) persona for players to choose from; the only limitation is that the good and bad version of the same character cannot fight each other. The game features 11 playable characters, each with two versions of the same character. It received indifferent reviews, with most commending it for the graphics, but being less impressed with the audio quality, gameplay and storyline.

›Story

Featuring only in the original game, story mode begins with the character reflecting on her reasons for entering Rumble Roses. The actual tournament follows over five days in which cut sequences telling the character's story are interspersed with matches. These are elimination-based, but there's the option to instantly replay a match that has been lost. The second day always features a mud match, and the fourth is usually a match of special significance, involving a shocking revelation or an encounter with a rival. The climax comes in a final boss fight against the mysterious Lady X and the resolution of the character's story.

Defeating Lady X unlocks a new alternate story mode, featuring the characters alter-ego. It may be supposed that this takes place some time later after the character has 'turned'. In this mode, there are cut sequences only at the start and finish of the character's story. In between she fights a number of matches against various opponents (including one mud wrestling).

The final match begins with a cut sequence, and is usually against a special rival (though in a few cases its Lady X again) and winning this match completes the story. It also unlocks a new costume.

Keywords

martial arts
wrestling
alternate costumes
polygonal 3d
all-girl fighting roster
sadism
nurse
fan service
female wrestler

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Rumble Roses features an all-female cast. There are regular matches and mud wrestling matches. There is also a story mode and a watch-only mode where both wrestlers are played by the AI. Each character model is claimed to contain 10,000 polygons, a record number for the PlayStation 2.

Rumble Roses features a heel/face system derived from real-life American professional wrestling. Each character has an alternate side, bringing the total character count up to 22. Most characters start as a face, or good side. Three of them, however (Bloody Shadow, Candy Cane, and Evil Rose), start as the heel or evil side.

Story

A mad scientist disguised as a nurse holds an international women's wrestling tournament, and brainwashes and takes DNA samples from the participants to create super soldiers.

Reception

The game received "average" reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.

Critics generally disliked the audio quality and plot, but praised the graphics. M. Vargas's review for PSX Nation said the English voices in the game are "utter and complete garbage". 5 in Gameplay, and 7 in Lasting Appeal.