OhGizmo! Review – Ready 2 Rumble Revolution

By Chris Scott Barr

If you own a Wii, there’s a good chance that you’ve played the boxing game bundled inside of Wii Sports. I spent some time playing it when I first got my hands on the then-elusive Nintendo console, and really enjoyed it. Of course it was just a freebie game, and thus lacked any real room for growth. Needless to say, I was excited to check out Ready 2 Rumble Revolution, which looked to be the full Wii boxing experience that I was looking for.

Revolution is actually the second game to bear the Ready 2 Rumble title, the first one being for the Dreamcast. I only had the chance to play it a couple of times, but I remember it as being a pretty decent game. This sequel features a host of wacky cartoonish characters for you to challenge. Of course you can create your own character and train them to be a champ. So how does the game stack up in the ring? Read on for the answer.

This game proves once and for all that bad controls can kill what would have otherwise been a fun game. Some people might be inclined to just jump into a quick bout with the CPU, but once you step in the ring you’ll quickly realize that you have no idea what you’re actually doing. After several minutes of controller wagging you’ll very likely find yourself K.O.’d on the mat.

After your first horrible defeat, you might find yourself back at the tutorial which you so foolishly skipped over. This is where the real fun begins. You’re placed in the ring with an opponent which does little more than stand there waiting to be hit. Slowly you’re walked through each of the moves which you’ll only be able to pull off once every few attempts. That’s right, even when your opponent is standing perfectly still, you’re still not going to do very well. You might move the nunchuck up for a nice right uppercut, only to perform a left jab. Or maybe you’ll tilt both controllers forward to try and duck, but your character simply stands there waiting.

After a little while you might think that you’ve got an idea of how to flail your hands about in a way that might knock out your opponent. You’re ready to master the game and so you create your own character. This is a fun process, although you’ll find quite a few options are waiting to be unlocked. After picking out things like a name, your appearance, hair style, tattoos and fighting style you’re introduced to the training sessions.

The training sessions allow you to slowly build your character’s stats up so that you can have an edge in the ring. Finally, a way for you to guarantee a fighting chance in the ring. The training sessions are broken up into several different mini games. A few of the more straightforward games like the speedbag and hitting the mitts are easy to master, others are a nightmare. You’d think it wouldn’t be difficult to move both controllers in the same direction at the same time, but with the game only registering about half of your movements properly, you might as well just flail the controllers around for all the good it does. Oh, and if you don’t do a good job with the training, you actually lose stats, making things even more frustrating.

Oh, did I mention that half the characters and other goodies are locked? Yeah, you’re going to have to play through the crappy Championship Mode if you want to unlock them. Trust me when I say that it’s not worth it. At all. The benefit of having a few more characters and different clothes doesn’t make up for all of the frustration that it takes to get them.

Do I recommend this game? No, I really can’t. For $40, you’re better off spending your money on something that won’t make you chuck a Wiimote through your TV. The only time you’ll actually have any fun is when you’ve got a few friends over. Sure, it’s a contest of who can flail their arms the best, but it’ll keep you entertained for a good half hour or so.

[ Official Site ]