Ready 2 Rumble games first appeared way back in 1999 on the Dreamcast, the great caricature looks, real time damage to the faces and a solid arcade mode made this game stand out from all the other boxing games that were on offer at the time. The sequel upped the ante with even better looks and loads more characters, this time around they were loosely based on famous faces.

 

 

Ready 2 Rumble Revolution continues the trend with over 18 characters to play as including some parodies, such as Simon Cowell and David Beckham to name a few. From the start I was impressed by the look and also what is on offer. Selecting the Arcade mode will have you fighting through each of the opponents, unlocking new characters along the way. There is also a multiplayer mode, team play and a tournament mode to get through. The cartoony look of each character is really well presented, with the Wii handling each player and punch with ease.

 

Each fight is set over three rounds, after the introduction of each boxer by Michael "lets get ready to rumble" Buffer its fight time. The general idea is to punch your opponent until they either hit the mat where the ref will then count them out or last till the end of the fight as the better boxer or finally use the Rumble attack to knock them out of the ring. The Rumble attack is built up during the fight by connecting swings or taunting your opponent, once at full power just trigger it, get in close and start swinging those hands, when you connect they will either drop like a sack of spuds or get launched out of the ring, giving you an easy win.

 

That would normally be enough for any gamer but Atari have also put in a Championship mode. In this mode you can create your own boxer and give them moves and stats to suit your own style of fighting, you then go from week to week training and boxing. On the training days you will have a chance at some stat increasing mini games like skipping, running or using the punch bag, then when your happy you move to the ring to get some fights behind you. When you start your career proper, you will start in an empty training room before moving onto the bigger fights at the grander venues. As you progress through the ranks you also earn extra items, allowing you to customize your boxer even more, personally I was surprised to find this mode on the disc and ended up playing it more than the arcade mode as it offered a lot more depth than usual.

 

 

The contents on disc are great but in the final round the game really mucks it up and gets KO'd with some truly appalling controls. The moves are sensibly mapped with the Wii-mote for the right hand and the nunchuck for the left, for simple punches you just move whichever hand you want, though the real confusion comes with the overcomplicated input you need to do for any other moves, some punches require you to tilt the controllers and then push forward while others need you to swing from left to right, then if you want to go for body shots you need to do all of that with the C button held down. It's just too much to remember for relatively simple moves when in the heat of battle. Add to that the fact that the nunchuck feels quite unresponsive and it really spoils the game. If you had a choice of using a regular controller this game could have been great, so it’s a real pity that the use of the standard Wii controls spoils the experience.

 

Ready 2 Rumble Revolution really could have been a serious contender against Nintendo’s much anticipated Punch Out, however the over complicated and unresponsive controls really let it down, that said it is still a slightly better game than EA's Facebreaker.