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				Graphics: 7.0 Gameplay: 6.0 Sound: 7.0 Control: 5.0 Replay Value: 5.0 Live play: 6.0 Rating: 6.0 Publisher:  Konami Developer:   Yuke's Media Creations Number Of Players:  1-4 (1-2 Online) Cheats Screenshots
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  Female video game characters have come a long way. Early gaming featured such characters as Ms. Pac-Man, who was merely a clone of her male counterpart, albeit with a bow in her hair. Then came Nintendo’s Princess Peach, always the damsel in distress and waiting for a certain swarthy short guy to rescue her from angry gorillas and other perils. It took us a long time to get kick-ass babes like Lara Croft, Rayne and Samus into the mainstream of video gaming.

  Konami continues that evolution of female video game characters with its fighting game Rumble Roses XX, an empowering, inspiring title whose message is that women can do anything and be anyone they want to be without worrying about conforming to male-imposed norms of beauty and femininity.

  Just kidding.

  Rumble Roses XX (that’s pronounced “X-X,” not “twenty”) follows in the fine tradition of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, Outlaw Tennis and Tomb Raider: Naughty Sorority Pillow Fight with its emphasis on skin and jiggle over gameplay. Though the game is rated “M” for Mature, maturity is an actually an impediment; RRXX is a game for the 13-year-old boy who lurks within us all (okay, most of us).

  The central premise of RRXX is an all-female wrestling league, the 11 members of which wear skimpy costumes that show off their impressive proportions. The player’s chosen character can wrestle everyone in the league, building skills, physical abilities and popularity that make her more formidable as she goes. Each character has a “dark counterpart” that can be unlocked, such as naughty cowgirl Dixie Clements and her dark side, Sgt. Clements, a cop whose uniform doesn’t appear to be standard issue. They also have a “superstar” version that can be unlocked as well.

  The Rumble Roses series started in 2004 on the Playstation 2 and boasted the involvement of Yuke’s, a developer of wrestling games. Yuke’s is also involved in RRXX, and some of the moves look like anything you’d see on WWE Raw every Monday night.

  Clearly, though, wrestling purism was not the motivation for this title, which is likely to appeal to two distinct audiences: those who will pick it up ironically, smirking and snickering at the horny schoolboy tone; and horny schoolboys.

  Limited gameplay

  I have struggled with overly complicated button combos or stick controls in some of the more sophisticated next-gen fighting games, such as Dead or Alive 4 and Fight Night. To complain about RRXX’s simplistic control scheme and lack of attacks would be inconsistent at best, yet that’s what I’m about to do.

  RRXX gives you three basic categories of attacks: a strike, a grappling move and a pin. A strike is a punch or a kick using the “X” button. A grappling move is in two stages – the grab and the actual grapple – using the “Y” button. (It is telling that the grab often involves just getting a handful of your opponent’s hair. I’m surprised the yowling of cats wasn’t added to the sound effects.) The pin move, called with the “B” button, allows you to pin an opponent while she’s down. The “B” button also allows you to climb onto the corner turnbuckles, but I’ve yet to find an occasion in which that has been helpful.

  You can counter most moves simply by using the right shoulder button along with an action button. For example, to counter a strike, you’d use the “X” and the shoulder button together, giving your character a rudimentary blocking move.

  The left shoulder button delivers a lethal or killer move when you’ve filled the “finishing move gauge” through proficiency in the ring. To keep the player’s brain from having to operate, a prompt flashes on the screen when the gauge is full and the button can be used.

  The dearth of types of attacks means this game gets dull very quickly. Konami apparently sought to balance this sameness by given each character different signature moves and by allowing them to become better at them as they gain experience. But most players will get bored with the game long before it happens.

  Gameplay also feels sluggish, like there’s a bit of a disconnect between the controller and the game. Character movements are unpredictable at times. Often when pushing the “A” button to move quickly toward your opponent, you’ll simply run past her instead, and with some characters, the “B” button doesn’t pin your opponent when she’s down as it should.

  The game has a tutorial, but it’s limited. It provides an explanation for the controls and the various moves and clips of moves being carried out, but no good way to practice them except in a match.

  Konami tried to mix it up a bit by providing several different modes of play. In career mode, as noted above, one can adopt a character and use her against all other characters, building strength, skill and popularity. There’s an exhibition mode that gives you access to singles matches, tag team and four-way matches. There’s also a novelty “Queen’s Match,” the payoff of which is that the loser has to endure some form of humiliation that’s chosen at the beginning, such as performing a dance or being tickled by the victor.

  Playing dress-up

  Outside the ring, players can dress their favorite characters up in unlockable costumes. Players who win enough matches in the career mode also can alter their character’s physical appearance by tweaking muscle tone and breast size (natch).

  One especially creepy feature is the unlockable “photo shoot” mode, which allows you to pose your favorite character, shoot her picture and share it with friends over Xbox Live. It’s not hard to imagine who might find this appealing, but it’s not nearly as interesting as it sounds.

  Online play: sleaze with friends and strangers alike

  At this point, online play is limited by the shortage of online opponents. On the night I played, Quickmatch yielded no games, so I set up a match and waited at least 10 minutes for someone to join. When I finally found a game, the play was fairly smooth and almost indistinguishable from the single-player mode except for a bit of lag. I wanted to ask the 40-something-sounding guy I was playing against what he likes about the game, but he was a little evasive, sort of like a guy who just got caught by a local TV station coming out of an adult bookstore.

  I also got in a little playing time with a friend who invited me in, and the game was laggy but playable. Unfortunately, there’s not a persistent lobby in RRXX, so once we were done wrestling, we got kicked out to a menu. If we wanted to go another round, one of us had to set up a room and invite the other.

  (Note: If you are signed in to Xbox Live, your friends will see you playing this game unless you take steps to hide what you’re doing. Decide for yourself whether that’s good or bad, especially given the ease with which friends can use the 360 to send you taunting messages.)

  Sound: Not really the point, is it?

  RRXX sounds respectable, although it doesn’t really make use of surround. The most prominent sonic feature of the game is the soundtrack. Each character has her own theme song when she enters the ring, ranging from hardcore dance music to heavy metal to garage rock to cheesy Japanese pop.

  During matches, characters taunt each other, but the vocalizing gets repetitive fast. Reiko Hinomoto, my main character, likes to yell “take THAT!” repeatedly as she performs her flying kick, and “here we GO” for her killer move. The voice acting is fairly minimal.

  Gorgeous babes, so-so graphics

  Graphically, RRXX clearly takes its cue from other Japanese fighters like Dead or Alive. All the characters look glossy and a bit soft-focus, with slightly oversized anime-like eyes. But RRXX can’t match the lush environments in Dead or Alive 4, the most recent next-gen installment in that series.

  Menus also look cheesy and low-budget, especially the map graphic you use to navigate among matches.

  Earning enough money buys you the chance to actually alter your character’s appearance by adding bulk to her arms, legs and torso, and difference is evident the next time she steps into the ring. Your character will look unmistakably more muscular, but not freakishly so. (As advertised, it also enhances performance – hits and kicks appear to take more of a toll on your opponent.)

  Clipping is kept to a minimum, which must have been a feat given the number of ways legs and other body parts get tangled during a match. Characters move realistically, especially during their cut-scene entrances. Aisha’s dance, for example, appears to be the product of some pretty good mo-cap. And the wrestling moves are impressively context-sensitive.

  Many of the grapples are so over-the-top (Konami to Yuke’s: “Isn’t there some hold that will get us a better shot of Anesthesia’s crotch?”) that you just have to laugh at their audacity. During “submission” pins, there are even handy camera controls that allow you to zoom and pan around the action lest you miss seeing someone’s panties. I haven’t seen this much contrived girl-on-girl action since Xena: Warrior Princess went off the air. Verily, this is “The Man Show” as video game.

  The bottom line

  And therein lies the central flaw of RRXX; Konami hoped to use a mediocre game as a vehicle for what amounts to soft-core porn, coasting on the sniggering amusement some will find with it for a while. A game shouldn’t exist solely as titillation or snark bait, but RRXX doesn’t appear to aspire to much more than that. There are only so many panty shots anyone can watch before moving onto a more mentally stimulating game like, well, almost anything.

  Rent this one for your bachelor party and then pretend it never happened. You can always blame the booze.

5/19/2006  Tracey 'Jerri Blank' McCartney