Ready 2 Rumble Boxing

Written by Vato  on June 22, 2000

Review: Smack this biatch up

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Midway keeps bringing some of the best arcade games to the console. San Francisco Rush, NFL Blitz, NBA Hangtime...and now R2R. Developer Point of View did a great work bringing this DC game to the N64. It looks great on the N64, of course not as good as the DC which has a larger amount of details that make the game special, but the N64 version is good enough, so good that is one of the best fighting games on the console! The game features fantastic characters, much like Punch Out and Super Punch Out for the NES and SNES respectively. It is fun and gives a good 2 player and arcade action, but is it worth the money?

The visuals in R2R are of high quality; they are pure 3rd generation N64 graphics. There's absolutely no slowdown that makes the action faster and more enjoyable. The characters are well designed and each one of them has their own personalities and fighting styles. Some of the colored effects that powerful punches produce make the action more dramatic and sweet. The bright white light that gets on your gloves after you collected enough letters to form the word RUMBLE looks great too, again, adds to the action of the game.

The characters look fantastic for a N64 game, not compared to the DC version. The DC version is much more detailed and colorful (Obviously). For example, the real-time damage effects after being punched are much more noticeable on the DC, than the simple black spots on your face that you will find in the N64 version. The crowd on the backgrounds is sprite based and the arenas are all the same, except the one where you have to fight the championship in Las Vegas. The lights sometimes produce some kind of flare on the camera, something many people might not see. The graphics are good, but they are no comparison to its DC version.

The controls in this game are simple and you can pick up the game and start to play it easily, without major training. You punch with the C buttons. C up are powerful high punches, C left are weak but fast high punches, C down are fast low punches and C right are powerful low punches. A and B buttons help you block enemies attacks, B for high punches and A for low punches. You can use both the analog stick and the pad to play this game. Both work great, but the analog stick gives you the advantage of a more responsive and quick reaction to enemy's punches. After you collect all the letters of the word RUMBLE, you can make a special combo using sequences by pushing the C buttons. They look great and give you a great chance to come back in a fight that you might think you've already lost. Simple controls for a simple, but overall a fun game to play.

The audio is pretty much what you expect from a boxing game. The punches sound great, so great you want to punch your friend just to hear that sound again! The crowd goes crazy when you connect a lot of hits in your enemies at that time useless body, that adds to the fun of the game too. The corner men advice is sometimes funny given your situation in the fight. The presentations by Buffer and his famous "Let's get ready to rumble!" followed by the presentation of the fighters are very realistic, contrasted with the arcade feeling of the game makes the game a fun experience.

Was I satisfied? With Midway's Ready 2 Rumble? The 2 player and arcade modes are very fun, and if you add to that one decent and sometimes fun championship mode (gets boring after a while, you have to finish the game with every fighter to finish the game completely, and it's like 100 fights per character) and you have a game that is very fun, and that will satisfy your boxing needs (or fighting, because N64 still lacks a good fighting game) at least for the N64.

Depending on which console you own, the replay can vary, high or low in R2R's case. It deserves your money, but, if you are one of those lucky guys that own a DC, I would suggest you to get the DC version instead for obvious reasons. Now, if you only have a N64, well, R2R doesn't have much competition. After all, Knock Out Kings is on Playstation and is more of a sim and is not as fun as R2R and the fighting games on the console are scarce and of bad quality. This is a must buy for every sports fan out there.