Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
Game by Midway
Reviewed by The Avardancer (Philip Wesley)
Size: 16 megabits
Save: nope
Released: 1999
Works with: Game Boy Color ONLY

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Opening Snide Remarks: I never played the arcade game and I never got much
of a chance to play the Dreamcast game. But, I got this game because it had
a graphic trick I was interested in. I know that's shallow; but the game has
full-screen color FMV ripped from the Dreamcast version, directly. So, I
thought: "Hey! I gotta see that!" So, I bought it. It was in the bargain bin
at Wal-Mart. How could I resist? Although, now that I have had some time
with the game.. I'll tell you if resistence is a better choice.

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Gameplay Description: It's a boxing game. A simple one at that. It has a
normal Arcade style game and a "Championship Mode". The game is a fighting
game, through and through. The basic idea? Move around the square circle and
then pummel your opponent in a match of button mashing. :) You just move
around and hit A or B to lob punches. There is some actual skill to landing
the right punches. You can duck and block your opponents punches. If you hit
your opponent enough you'll earn letters that spell out "RUMBLE". Then hit A
and B at the same time to to activate the RUMBLE attack, then get in close
and hit them both at the same time once again to execute the "brutal" attack.
It's silly looking really. No real boxers. Just weird make-believe people
liked "Selena Strike", a bouncy, bouncy, well-endowed girl. He he he. Or
"Afro Thunder", a guy with a large....... Afro. Or a sumo guy. Gee. Nice.
Anyways, the view in the game is side-scrolling. And it's cool. Fairly fun
for a button masher; but it DOESN'T have a link cable option. :( So, it gets
old fairly quick.

Liked: Fun for a while.
Hated: No two-player mode and it gets old rather quick. :(

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Graphics Description: The normal in-game graphics are nice and colorful. And
the FMV sequences are top-notch and fairly long. :) Because of the animation
and sprite size, there is some bairly noticeable flickering at times. No
slowdown.

Liked: Nice FMV and pretty cool graphics.
Hated: Some flickering, and clipping in areas.
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Sound/Music Description:  Voices and crowd cheers make the qame sound classy.
The music is barely memorable. I mean, seriously. The voices are clear and
cool; but the music is sub-par. Anyways, it's okay. The voices are names of
the fighters, and the trademark: "Let's get ready to RUMBLE!" Followed by a
response from the devices rumble feature.

Liked: Voices. Lots of voices.
Hated: Sub-par music and sounds.

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Play Control/Game Design: It's a decent time killer; but it gets boring
rather fast. It's like Crawfish made it as a technical demo first and a
game later. Although, if this thing had a two player mode, I would hail it
as brilliant; because I'm the guy that buys two copies of a game just for
the two player mode. But, no two player mode. :( It's a sub-par fighter
without it.

Liked: Decent fun for a while.
Hated: No two-player mode.

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Improve: Why not add a two player mode, and a battery so that you can save
the characters you unlock? Oh, a two player mode would be greatly
appreciated.

RIYL: Boxing and fighting.

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Final Words: Here's a game that coulda been a contender; but lacks two
player mode. Knockout Kings 2000 has two player mode; but's play control is
bad. This game has better control; but no two player mode... it kinda isn't
fair.

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Score
Gameplay: **
Graphics: ***
Sound/Music: ***
Play Control/Game Design: *
Personal Opinion: 0
Total: 9 out of 25

Final Score: 36%

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Currently Known Codes: A few hidden fighter codes.