Why wrestling fans like wrestling games should be obvious. The question should be, why do the rest of us avoid them? Skipping the merits of so called sports entertainment itself, and sticking to gaming, the answers are slow gameplay, clunky and complex control, and poor collision detection. While not entirely perfect, Rumble Roses goes a long way toward fixing all of those. Rumble Roses isn't lightning fast, but it's far from ploddingly slow. It moves relatively fast for the genre. Fast enough to keep you on your toes. The collision detection is rock solid. Only every great once in a while will a move miss do to poor collision detection. It will happen, but rarely enough as to be easily forgivable. One area where Rumble Roses shines is in its ease of control. The left analog stick controls the character's movements. Tapping the stick in any direction makes the character step in said direction to avoid. The square button is to strike. The triangle button is to grab. The X button is to dash. The circle button is for contextual action. Pressing circle near the ropes to climb in or out of the ring, over a fallen opponent to pin them, over a weapon to pick it up, and so on. R1 blocks. R1+ square to counter strikes. R1 + triangle to counter grabs. L1 for a lethal or killer move. R2 for a humiliation move. Right stick to taunt. It's extremely well thought out and simplified. You'll start out a match, you'll move your character within range. You'll hit square for a few strike attacks, punching and kicking your opponent. You'll press triangle to grab them. Now you have four options. Triangle + the left stick in any direction will cause a special move. Therein lies the simple greatness of the controls. It's one button plus stick direction. It works this way for strikes and throws. And the depth is in the conditions. You'll have four grab attacks while facing an opponent, four more while behind them, four more while standing over an opponent on the canvas. It's really simple to remember one button plus direction as your base control for the entire system. It's fun to just experiment what direction does what in any given situation. It makes it so you don't have to remember a massive move set. You can just go with it and watch what unfolds. The control scheme is a thing of beauty. It's a little deeper than just beat them up and pin them. There are a couple meters on screen. The main one grows with each attack. Once it fills up once, you can use a lethal or killer move. These are extra flashy and sometimes spectacular moves, and are often needed to push it over the line so as to be able to pin your opponent. The meter keeps going, so you can build up and store lethal or killer moves. You'll need that meter filled to be able to pull off a humiliation move. While you're wrestling with your opponent, you'll be doing certain moves that cause hearts to fly out of your opponent and fly up to fill in the heart meter. Once the meter is filled, and you have the lethal or killer move meter filled to level 1, you can hit L2 to perform a humiliation move. This is an especially damaging attack that also breaks the spirit of your opponent, almost always resulting in a pin fall or submission. While there is a lot to do in any given match, there is also a lot to do in the overall game. There is exhibition mode, story mode, gallery mode, and the vow system. Story mode is the heart of the game where you obviously play through each character's story. Completing a character's story unlocks her alter ego hidden character. In wrestling, there are faces and heels, good guys and bad guys. You'll unlock the opposite of whatever the originally open character is. So if you play as Reiko, a face, you'll unlock her heel alter ego upon completion of story mode. You'll also unlock her player two outfit, and her swimsuit versions one and two for use in exhibition and gallery modes. Completing story mode using all the face characters unlocks the first form of the boss for use in exhibition and gallery modes. Completing all of the heel characters in story mode unlocks the final form of the boss for use in exhibition and gallery modes. There are ten characters to start, with the story mode being six or so matches long. That's 120 matches through story mode without losing for completion. Exhibition mode isn't just the standard one off fight. It is that, and more. You can do the standard stuff, setting whoever against whoever, in whatever ring, with whatever outfits, with whatever match conditions. This is where the vow system comes in. You can set up to three vows per exhibition match. They are promises to meeting conditions. In exhibition mode, the characters start out at 50%. In the middle between face and heel. Successfully completing a vow will add points to whichever side the vow is valued for. So you essentially go through the list of vows and set zero to three of them for the following match. They're like, complete the match without going out of the ring for ten face points. Complete the match having used a killer move for ten face points. Complete the match having used a humiliation move for ten heel points. Complete the match having taunted five times for twenty face points. While you play, there will be gem symbols on screen letting you know how many vows you've taken. Once you complete the requirements for a vow, the gem symbol will light up and you'll get a message letting you know you've completed a vow. Once you get a character to 100% face or heel, they earn the right to challenge for the championship belt. If they become the champion, you will unlock gallery mode one for that character. Once they are champion, they can defend the belt. If they successfully defend the belt, you will unlock gallery mode two for that character. So to complete exhibition mode, you'll need to work through the vow system to earn the right to wrestle for the championship, you'll have to then defend the championship, along the way unlocking both gallery modes for twenty-two characters in all. The ten main, their alter egos, and both forms of the boss. Gallery mode is where you can set them in their outfits of your choice, and watch them as they either warm-up for an upcoming match, or lounging at the beach. Warming up includes stretching and bending, jumping around, and adjusting themselves and their outfits. You can check on their profiles. Get all the data on their measurements, place of birth, date of birth, blood type and all that sort of thing. If you don't do anything, you can watch an interview with them where they answer about their goals in life, favorite foods and colors and all that sort of thing. You'll also have control of the camera in this mode. So you can turn it all around and up and down and zoom it in and out to get the best angle while they stretch and adjust and lounge around. Rumble Roses has a great combat system that is streamlined and intuitive. It's fast and fun combat. It has a depth of play, and a depth of game. It's a really well done game all around.
Next time will cover the other successful aspect of Rumble Roses, titillation...
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