Not Ready 2 Throw This One Away

I've read the other reviews of this game here on Epinions, and am surprised that it has gotten such poor ratings. Ready 2 Rumble was one of the first games I got for the PS2, and for a certainty the one I've spent the most time playing. I never owned the first PlayStation or a DreamCast, so I'd never even heard of the Ready 2 Rumble boxing games. Needless to say, the picture on the game box of Afro Thunder was enough to pique my curiosity. I have always enjoyed boxing games, and an old favorite of mine is the classic Mike Tyson's Punch-Out for the old Nintendo system. My attraction to the game wasn't so much due to an interest in the sport of boxing, or the satisfaction of beating up big ugly muscle-heads, but more the humorous characters and their comical actions. I enjoy a good game that I can laugh at while playing. And that's exactly what I like so much about Ready 2 Rumble Round 2 for the PS2.

First Impressions

The first time I played the game was against my 16 year old sister-in-law. Neither of us had really read the manual, so we knew nothing about special moves and such. Even so, it was great fun playing just to see the boxers in action. One of the best features of the game is the ability to "taunt" your opponent. Each boxer has several different phrases that they can mock their opponent with, usually while performing some kind of physical taunt at the same time. Aside from the comic value, doing so also gives you RUMBLE letters, which I learned how to use later. After playing for just 10 minutes, I knew I was going to like this game. I just didn't know how much.

Becoming a Rumble Master

After having a fair amount of fun just playing around with the game, I decided to actually read the manual and learn how to play it. I discovered that those RUMBLE letters you get when you do a taunt or an especially devastating punch are quite useful. When you spell the word rumble 1, 2, or 3 times, you can use it to execute a special RUMBLE move. This is basically a very fast sequence of punches that is very difficult for an opponent to avoid. If you spell it 3 times so that the letters are white, you'll knock your opponent straight out of the ring with one punch. Very funny to watch. I also learned how to use different punches by using different combinations on the control-pad. I even discovered some secret moves by just playing around with the control pad and trying different combos. It doesn't take long to get used to the controls, and soon I was beating the boxers in Arcade Mode.

Aside from being good practice, playing the computer players in Arcade Mode will let you "unlock" special characters in the game. Some of the best boxers are the ones that you have to unlock. It was pretty easy to unlock most of the characters, because I had the game on "Easy" mode. Switching it to "Difficult" makes it much more of a challenge, and was definitely a nice option to have once I became better at the game. After I unlocked all of the characters, I thought I'd pretty much seen everything the game had to offer. Not quite though.

Championship Mode was something I hadn't tried yet. I didn't think it would be anything special, but it turned out to be almost like a whole different game. It's kind of like a sub-game, where you're starting your own gym, and fighting to make money and rise up to win the championship title. I was surprised at how much detail they put into this part of the game. The short movie-like sequences have great graphics, and the training games are well done, although some are a little difficult. I avoided most of them and stuck to the speed-bag and weight-lifting, since I could do them well. After winning championship mode with one of the boxers, I discovered that it unlocks special outfits for your boxer. Some of these are more than just different clothes. For example, unlocking the robot's special outfit turns him into a little alien inside of a robotic suit, Freaky Deke gets a new hair-do, sunglasses, and tattoos, and Afro Thunder gets roller skates and a cape. Having these adds some more variety to the game.

This game is not without flaws however. For those who are picky about the quality of the graphics, you will notice some glitches in the rendering of the 3D animations at times. Also, I have experienced the game seeming to run in slow motion a few rare times, and have found some ways to make it do some funny things. For example, if you get the RUMBLE letters 3 times and knock your opponent out of the ring, if you quickly keep pushing the buttons that perform the knockout move, your boxer will keep trying to do the move even though there's no one there. I didn't really mind these bugs though. They're actually kind of funny to watch.

In Conclusion

This game is still my favorite game (so far) for the PS2, and I still laugh every time I play it. I must admit though, you may not find it as entertaining if you are playing by yourself. I always play it with friends, and get bored of 1-player mode very quickly. If you have friends who like to play these kinds of games, it's well worth buying. If you're more of a solo gamer however, give it a rent before shelling out the 50+ bucks.