Rumble Roses

Stuff

Gallery mode (aka Pants Around Ankles mode) lets sexually repressed gamers get ridiculously close to some virtual flesh.

GameShark

Its sexuality comes off as more silly than really erotic and, if there wasn't actually a decent wrestling game under it all, it would be as disposable as yesterday's newspaper.

GameZone

By far one of the most unusual and surprisingly satisfying wrestling games and those fighting fans that don't mind a little tease will highly enjoy this one.

Worth Playing

Oh, yeah, and the ladies? They look good. Not only do they look good, their dresses, poses and mannerisms run the range of surprisingly ingenious and tasteful to downright scandalous. Got a fetish? Rumble Roses has it covered.

Pelit (Finland)

A competent show-wrestling game with sexual overtones. [Mar. 05]

IGN

It's one of those rare games that manages to capitalize on the whole sex appeal thing without sacrificing the gameplay along with it.

Game Informer

A surprisingly fun time. And yes, the girls are pretty hot. [Jan 2005, p.125]

Next Level Gaming

It looks and plays very well. The big problem with Rumble Roses is the lack of depth. No real deep story mode, and really only two match types.

Play Magazine

Beyond the titillating visuals, Rumble Roses also packs a punch in the gameplay department. [Jan 2005, p.82]

Weekly Famitsu

8 / 7 / 7 / 7 - 29 [Vol 845]

TotalGames.net

It can actually be quite a laugh in a very basic sense - but the fact remains that there are better example of both genres, albeit independently.

Yahoo! Games

OK, we admit it: Rumble Roses isn't the deepest thing going, even for a fighting game. But it's an entertaining and eye-catching spectacle of male-oinker-oriented wrestling fun. Plus, it's populated by some of the best-looking, most meticulously modeled virtual girls ever designed.

PSX Nation

Rumble Roses' knockout visuals, spot-on control and near-flawless execution of an outrageous premise flirt with greatness. Lack of depth, repetitive moves, and horrendous voice-overs hold back Konami's chances of giving "Smackdown! Vs. Raw" a run for its money.

My Gamer

When Yuke's broke onto the faltering wrestling scene a few years back, they reinvigorated it with simple but elegant controls, solid animations, and added impact to the fights. They've done it again with Rumble Roses, though it seems to be more of a decent first effort [for a new franchise] than the game that will redefine the genre.

GameSpy

The graphics in Rumble Roses are astounding, and are every bit as good as the fare put out by Tecmo or Namco in its fighting games. I'd even go out on a limb and state these lasses are more attractive than the cast of "DOA," and they easily show more personality.

GamePro

So while Konami succeeded at building a simple but graphically enticing fighter, it failed to create anything but an average game with a penchant for g-strings and larger than usual cup-sizes.

1UP

For video game vixens to look as hot as these do is almost disturbing.

PSM Magazine

Without a fat set of features, I really feel like the developers should have amped up the one unique thing the game has going for it - the girls...As it is, Rumble Roses is a tease - you like what you see, but it won't go as far as you'd like. [Dec 2004, p.70]

GameCritics

Perhaps this is just a pitiful attempt to justify my horn dog instincts and guilty pleasure in playing Rumble Roses behind some twisted logic. But who could blame me? After all, I'm only a man. My wife, while rolling her eyes, sympathizes.

Games Radar UK (Pre-2006)

If Rumble Roses didn't feature near-naked girls, this just wouldn't have a point at all. OK, the fighting has a sense of power and speed about it, but it's lacking in diversity and is no more than a shameless display of jiggling polygons. [PSM2]

PSX Extreme

A one trick pony--a no-frills wrestling game that tries to compensate for its lack of modes and options by providing all-out titillation. If that's what you're looking for, then, by all means, rush out and buy this game. You won't be disappointed. Just don't expect a rich experience underneath the jiggling flesh.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

Finally, a game that embraces the inherent homoeroticism of pro wrestling. [Jan 2005, p.132]

Electric Playground

A good softcore tease with a decent wrestling game thrown in. If you're into that sort of thing.

Game Over Online

While there's something to be said about the upfront nature of Rumble Roses as a jigglefest, you'd almost hope there was more behind it to make it more of a guilty pleasure than a gimmicky title.

Jolt Online Gaming UK

Unfortunately, Rumble Roses is just stuck inside a teenage boy’s fantasy about Anime and the WWE, with no ambition or revolutionary features even attempted.

IC-Games

To call this title lame is really an understatement, the graphics engine looks very nice though but I’m afraid that the gameplay as so often seems the case now lets the side down badly.

GameSpot

While the game's wrestling mechanics are sound, the game's overwrought method of titillation gets completely in the way of the action, and the game's campy-to-a-fault story mode is just plain terrible.

GamerFeed

Behind the glitz and curvaceous bodies is a rock solid wrestling experience that allows you to deliver bone-crushing finishing maneuvers inside as well as outside the ring (and even in the mud).

DarkStation

So the game has great graphics, but it doesn't have the modes to back it up. The story mode is ridiculous and the gallery mode just had no reason to be in this game.

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

I'll admit it's nice to play as a girl instead of watching one prance around the ring for the boys. Unfortunately, the experience bogs down amidst the sex appeal; for a game with such an overage of cleavage, it's ironic that after a couple hours, Rumble Roses starts to feel flat.

Operation Sports

There are too few modes, not enough worthy unlockables, and no type of extended functionality, such as a create-a-wrestler - and this brings down the longevity of what would otherwise be a quality game.

G4 TV

Rumble Roses will probably go over very well at fraternity houses, bachelor parties, and the bedrooms of sexually frustrated teenage boys everywhere. It's too bad that there's a pretty good game underneath all the fluff here.

Gamestyle

Beyond the jaw-dropping visuals there's actually a fun and entertaining piece of 'soft' ware to be held, er... had. So what if it raises a few eyebrows? It's only a game.

Boomtown

Unless you happen to be a die-hard wrestling fan or a female equality activist, I’d go and play a more sincere wrestling game that doesn’t try exploit the good ol’ sex sells idea and is considered less of a gimmick for the deprived.

AceGamez

As a rental title, Rumble Roses is a good choice for a drunken night in with the lads but you're never going to have a long term relationship with this one.

Gaming Age

Rumble Roses takes the biggest body slam in the lack of modes to give the title some longevity...There is a particular crowd that Rumble Roses is gunning for, and the hardcore wrestling fan is not one of them.

Gamezilla!

Sadly, it's still hard to really pull off your basic wrestling moves with any regularity, and more often than not, you'll be repeating the same move over and over again.

netjak

There's cheesecake here, there's just not anything else. I think if they revamped this to fix the graphics, and plug in a deeper fighting interface with gauges and such to facilitate playability from the masses, they could pimp this out to be a rival to the "Dead or Alive" series.

AltGaming

Overall the appeal of Rumble Roses has to be limited to the hormonal crazed wrestling fan adolescents, though really they could do better getting Smackdown and having a browse on Google images.

3DAvenue

It's a shame because under the skin of absolutely stupid game modes, there is a fairly accomplished wrestling game.

GMR Magazine

Brings style aplenty, but it rarely stoops to substance and is easily surpassed by its videogame brethren. [Jan 2005, p.85]

RewiredMind

An average game that looks like the characters were developed first, with the gameplay being filled in as the coders went along.

BonusStage

If Jerry Springer were given a computer and the technical expertise it took to make a video game, this would be his masterpiece.

eToychest

Almost everything in Rumble Roses is poorly done, from the controls to the graphics to the writing to the voice acting. It's cheap, it's sleazy, and it utterly fails as a game.