Ready 2 Rumble Revolution (Wii) Review
Posted by John Curry on 07.04.2009
A honor to its legacy or a disgrace?
Title: Ready 2 Rumble Revolution
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Tamsoft
Type: Action
Players: 2
Rated: M for Mature
Since the inception of the hit game “Punch-Out!!”, casual fans of boxing games have always had an alternative to the complicated strategy of the sweet science. Rather than developing your fighter to utilize his inside game to wear down his opponent gradually until you unleash a proper combination of hooks and uppercuts, you have the choice of enjoying simple, minimally strategic, often comedic swing for the fences action.
Ready 2 Rumble has been the standard since the days of “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out”. However, the originator of the genre has returned to the Wii, with an updated version of Punch-Out. With the challenge haven been thrown down, Ready 2 Rumble has responded with its own motion based game, Ready 2 Rumble Revolution. The real question is did they answer the challenge with a winner or accepting their position as the second best cartoonish boxing game.
For those of you who are not familiar with the Ready 2 Rumble series, it is quite simple. You have a vast selection of boxers, both male and female, to choose from all who have their own quirks. Quirks such as the love of disco or the heritage of a Native American; all of which are accentuated by their own special moves, music, and locations. Combine this with your normal run of the mill career building mode and you have your one on one fighting game.
Graphics
The obvious fact is that while the Wii is the fastest selling console and most popular console in the world, the graphics are not the best of any of the three predominant systems. This game shows that while there have been improvements made since the Wii’s inception; there is still a long way to go.
I do have to say that for most of us who own the Wii, the games are not so much about the graphics as they are about the enjoyment of playing. The characters in this game are well done, maintaining the enjoyable cartoonish stylization while showing the amount of damage you are inflicting or receiving shows up very well throughout the fight. The game also produces some thoroughly well done environments that incorporate the fighter’s defining characteristics
Again do not expect 360 or PS3 quality graphics. This is a Wii game and as such you should expect the same quality of Wii graphics that you are already accustomed to.
Game Play
Unfortunately, the game play itself kills off any excitement that you may have built in this game. The motion based controls in which your thrusts and swings dictate which punches you will throw is terribly slow and by the time it recognizes what you are intending to do, you have eaten a load of punches. This is the problem with the Wii. It is not as if my punches are so fast that the game system cannot recognize what I am doing, but the system is not capable of translating the speed into the game. I suffered the same issues with the Tiger Woods game for the Wii.
These kinds of problems should be tested and fixed prior to the release of games, especially if the game depends solely on the motion based controls. I have a hard time trusting that this was tested thoroughly before its release. The just overwhelmingly difficult and clumsy control system seems to say that the developers of this game planned on simply riding out their namesake for a profit rather than honoring their namesake by making a great game.
Sound
The sounds are one the more positive parts of this game. The comments that are made throughout your matches are golden humor that will entertain you for at least a few minutes. The punches are crisp sounding and sound like boxing without taking itself too seriously. The fighters grunt and respond to the punches they receive. I really enjoy the sounds of the crowds.
The biggest problem with the sound is that, much like all sports games, the announcers tend to be repetitive with their commentary as do the fighters. It seems as if the world of gaming does not want to put enough effort into the development of their games to ensure that the amount of repetition is kept to a minimum in their games.
Other than the commentary and fight sounds, there isn’t very much in the way of sound that anyone would pay attention to or notice. Truth be told, while I would normally take points away for the lack of creativity here, but this is a Wii game and I can count the games that have done this right on one hand.
Fun Factor
Wow. Not fun at all. If you were to take away the controls and just watch this game play then the fun factor of this game would be twice as high but the horrendous control s scheme destroys any fun that you are having. Simply put, if you were in a fight in real life but you were on 3 second delay while your opponent isn’t how much fun would you really be having? That is exactly what this game has going on.
Lasting Appeal
I don’t think this game will last any more than 10 minutes for even the most discerning gamers. For reasons stated earlier this game knocks itself out before it ever finishes the first round.
The 411
This is an avoid at all costs game that, while looking good, is actually a poorly put together game that would have benefited from being a push button controlled game rather than a motion controlled game on the Wii. It is a shame that a game with such great pedigree has sullied it’s ancestry for the sake of a few bucks. This was one of the few genres of gaming where the motion controlled system should work without any issues, in the end it was an utter disgrace.
Graphics
7.0
Pretty good for the Wii
Gameplay
1.0
Horrendous lagging leaves your more frustrated than anything.
Sound
5.0
Like Purgatory Not that good but not that bad, just so-so
Lasting Appeal
0.0
You won't last 10 minutes before this goes in the trash or you come up with a lie to take it back
