| The Rumble Fish review |
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Matt Dillon gives a commanding performance in Francis Ford Coppola's '50s tribute drama playing the young......oh wait, it's a different Rumble Fish?!
That's right people, The Rumble Fish is here and it has nothing at all in common with the early '80s teen movie. Sammy challenge us with a slap to the face with another 2D fighter, this time with Dimps doing the underlying work in the stead of Arc Systems who brought us the beautiful Guilty Gear series.
You can't really mention Sammy without tossing a thought their way with respect to the Guilty Gear series. As those who've played them will testify they're almost untouched by anything else visually, with glorious hand-drawn characters and animation. Arc did a fantastic job of realising the now-familiar game and presentation, which gave Dimps a tough act to follow and put pressure on Sammy to deliver again with their new Atomiswave hardware and a game built for it from scratch. Dimps are perhaps best known to the world as the people who developed Dragonball Z: Budokai series and the Sonic Advance efforts.
Visually the game continues the bloodline of the Sammy fighter pedigree, and in a slightly different way to before. Something striking upon the first play is that while the characters look bold and detailed, there's something odd about the way they move. Not necessarily in a bad way, just differently compared to what's expected from this type of game. This is largely down to the new animation technique employed called M.J.S. (Multi Joint Sprite), and it's apparent right from the start. Limbs look as if they are separate to the body, essentially because they are, but it's a style of its own and one not seen in a game yet. It's very reminiscent of the rotoscoping technique employed in the seminal classic "Another World (Out Of This World)" - animations are fluid, with occasional stylised "jerking" during celebrations, and the technique of layering sprites upon one another means that extra touches can be added. These include things like clothes being torn after a character has taken a real battering, hats being knocked off and hair getting ruffled. These aren't big things, but they add to the overall atmosphere and impart that touch of polish and sparkle which is often the difference between a game which feels finished and one that doesn't. The backgrounds are beautifully rendered and animated in 3D whilst oozing atmosphere and conveying the industrial, futuristic feel apparent in the game. All of this follows a beautifully realised anime intro. If there is one blemish to the prettiness it would have to be the relatively low-resolution textures used in the backgrounds.
What about the woman behind this striking Geisha make-up? Cheap, shallow, otaku-loving tramp or mysterious Asian temptress? Thankfully it's the latter; there's a great gameplay mechanic which works around several fundamental staples of the beat-'em-up genre. Firstly the controls, which are pretty standard fare: the D-pad moves you around and blocks and the four face buttons correspond to the punches and kicks - in both light and strong flavours. R1 houses a dodge move which we'll come back to in a moment. The movement controls should be second nature to any fighter veteran now; jumping, walking, dashing and blocking are all as you'd expect and they've thoughtfully included the down/up super jumps from games like Guilty Gear and King Of Fighters. The dodge button allows you to slide forward in a blur, under high attacks to unleash whatever may take your fancy, or it can be combined with down on the D-pad to bust out a short hop move, very handy against players who like to play footsie and great for opening combos.
Moves are executed with the tried and tested input methods from back in the good ol' days of Capcom and Street Fighter II, and short combos are easily linked. You have not one, not two but three glorious gauges (besides your life bar) to keep your eye on now. A Guard bar which wears down pretty fast, so turtling players beware, you'll have your guard crushed in no time if you try to steal a cheap hit then hide it out for the rest of the round. Next up is the Offense bar, which builds up as you attack. Only landed hits count now though, be they clean or blocked. No more endless jumping backwards kicking, or deliberately whiffing special moves to power up in the style of just about every fighter that's come before, not on your nelly. The third and final bar is the Defense bar, which builds as you block and reverse your opponent's attacks. This bar can be a tricky one to intentionally build, as you have to balance it against having your Guard bar eroded. Once full, these bars can be used in return for special moves of various kinds. The usual super versions of normal special moves are there, but there're a couple of others which make things interesting. For example, hitting LP and LK together costs a full Offense bar and produces a fast attack which once landed renders the other player helpless and paralysed for a few seconds, the screen glowing red ominously and giving you ample chance to land a free combo. Other specials include mid-juggle resets (very useful), and a great continuation move that throws you forward mid-combo and lets you carry on your barrage, proudly displaying 'Advanced Attack' on the screen. Best of all, if you like flashiness and brutal damage, there are the Critical Art moves, which cost both a full Offense and Defense bar, but can often take half a life bar on a clean hit. Combos invoke the appearance of a display at the top of the screen detailing the number of hits and percentage of damage done.
The game works well on a deeper level too. There’s a lot to learn in terms of move priorities, juggling, launching and stringing impressive combos together. Unusually for a fighter you can attack enemies on the floor, and being able to bounce enemies off the sides of the screen opens up even more juggle and combo possibilities. Those who like to learn cancels and super cancels are in for a treat as well. Although only having a limited time with the game so far, it seems apparent that there's plenty to master. All that said, the learning curve isn’t too steep and the included training mode gives newcomers plenty of opportunity to practice.
The characters themselves are varied and have well thought up histories and ties to the central game plot. Thankfully there isn't too much in the way of clone characters, which is a good thing considering the fact that there's only twelve to choose from (including a couple that weren't in the arcade original). As far as Japanese import games go, it's very accessible, with all menus and speech in English, and the Japanese that is there is kana-heavy, so not too much kanji to worry about. All of the usual suspects are present on the main menu: Arcade, Story (almost identical to arcade but with kana-filled static cut-scenes), Vs, Training, Options etc.
Aurally it's pretty standard fare. The music is good but not overly striking... you won't find yourself humming it as you go to bed. The speech is good and clear as are the sound effects, with plenty of meaty thwacks and thumps. Dimps haven't done quite as well as Sammy did with the GG games and their renowned guitar-fuelled rock tracks, and it's a little disappointing in a way as the two things that most people associate Sammy with are excellent graphics and strong audio work.
It is worth bearing in mind though that this is the first in a brand new series, and with an arcade sequel already done, it’s just a matter of time before this new franchise sees the same number of characters and incarnations that were needed to turn the King Of Fighters, Street Fighter and Guilty Gear series into the genre heavyweights that they are now. As far as ‘first in series’ games go, this is a very good effort. A solid gameplay mechanic, which in all honesty feels like a mix of Guilty Gear and King Of Fighters (and a bit of Melty Blood React mixed in for good measure). Unique sprites and animation help to lift it above the ‘also rans’, and any 2D fighter fan looking for something a bit different to sink their teeth into could do a lot worse. Not a worldbeater of a game, but good in its own right. |
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System: Sony PlayStation 2
Genre: Fighter
Developer: Dimps
Publisher: Sega-Sammy
Players: 1-2
Version: Japan
Reviewed: Apr 2005
Writer: Adam Richards
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Pros:
- Gorgeous graphics
- Tight gameplay
- Good individual characters
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Cons:
- Small number of characters
- Sound and music short of Sammy's best
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