HAZ CLIC AQUÍ PARA LEER ESTA ENTRADA EN ESPAÑOL.
Hello everyone! How is the shooting frenzy going with Hard Corps Uprising? I just hope you didn’t break too many controllers already… Anyway, you cannot say I didn’t warn you… In this new entry I’m going to talk about yet another classic style game which origins are also in the arcades and that, just like Hard Corps Uprising, never received much attention despite its quality. The game is called The Rumble Fish. Let’s see what this unique (and little known) 2D fighting game has to offer.
Developed by Dimps, a Osaka based studio founded by former Capcom and SNK employees which includes titles like the Dragon Ball Budokai series or the recent Street Fighter 4 and 5 in their curriculum, The Rumble Fish is a 2D (or 2.5D to be more precise) fighting game that was published by Sammy exclusively for the Japanese arcades back in 2004 under the Atomiswave arcade board, although later Sega ported the game to Sony’s PlayStation 2 in 2005, which will the version I will be talking about in this entry, although both versions are virtually identical. The story of The Rumble Fish takes us to an unspecified moment in the 21st century where a great natural catastrophe destroyed the whole east area of an unspecified city, causing thousands of deaths and destroying the economy of the area. A powerful corporation know as PROBE-NEXUS then decides to transfer their HQ to the devastated area to rebuild it, transforming the ruins into the bustling city of Zone Prime, and it’s in this city where the Fight for Survival (or F.F.S.) fighting tournament takes place, a tournament organized by PROBE-NEXUS and where all the game’s characters will participate for different reasons.
Regarding the gameplay, The Rumble Fish is a classic style 2D fighting game like those we could find during the golden era of the arcades. The game makes use of a 5 buttons layout, four for the weak/strong kicks and punches, and a fifth button for the evasion movements. The game includes 12 characters, two of whom were added for the PlayStation 2 version and that come directly from the sequel which was only released (unfortunately) in the Japanese arcades. Although 12 characters can seem a rather small number, it is important to mention that the 12 of them have been provided with unique styles that make them 12 unique characters with their very own distinctive features. The 12 characters are:
Greed
(These two characters were added for the PlayStation 2 version.)
One of the great virtues of The Rumble Fish’s system resides in its enormous flexibility when it comes to create combos, allowing the players to perform dozens of different combinations that will result in complex and flashy combos just by combining the basic attack buttons. However, achieving the combo master level won’t be an easy feat, requiring hours and hours of practice to adapt to our character’s play style. As I always say, every single fighting game that wants to have a chance to survive in this highly competitive genre must include some features that help the title to set itself apart from the rest, and in the case of The Rumble Fish that feature is its Attack/Defense Gauge. This double gauge displayed at the bottom of the screen during the combats will allow us to use the game’s special offensive and defensive skills. Every time we attack our rival, the attack section (red color) of the gauge will fill up, while every time we block an attack, the defense section (blue color) of the gauge will fill up instead. The Attack Gauge will allow us to perform the following actions:
- Advanced Attack: our character will rush against our rival and will deliver a weak attack that will allow us to chain a combo. This skill will consume 50% of our Attack Gauge.
- Jolt Attack: our character will perform an unblockable attack that, if it lands on our rival, it will leave them defenseless for a few seconds. The mechanics of this skill is similar to that of the Focus Attack of Street Fighter 4. This will consume our whole Attack Gauge.
- Offensive Art: our character will perform a powerful attack equivalent to Street Fighter’s Super Attacks. This skill will also consume our whole Attack Gauge.
The Defense Gauge will allow us to perform the following actions:
- Impact Break: this skill will allow us to block an attack and recover instantly, thus allow us to counterattack instantly. This skill will consume 50% of our Defense Gauge.
- Quick Recovery: this sill will allow us to recover mid-air after being thrown by our rival, allowing us to break their combo. This skill will also consume 50% of our Defense Gauge.
Finally, if we manage to fill up both gauges at the same time, we will activate the Critical Gauge, which will allow us to perform the Critical Arts, which are the most powerful attacks we can perform. Think of the Ultra Attacks in Street Fighter. Of course, on top of all this, we will also be able to perform many other typical actions of the 2D fighting genre, such as the throws, Dashes or double jumps, giving as a result an agile and spectacular combat system that will surely please the fans of the genre. In fact, in my humble opinion, I think The Humble Fish resembles Street Fighter 4 in some way despite the fact that Dimps title was released several years before, although perhaps it’s not so surprising if you think that both games have been developed by the seam team, which makes me really wonder how much did The Rumble Fish influenced the development of the fourth installment in Capcom’s multimillion selling fighting franchise.
Regarding the game modes, The Rumble Fish includes all the modes you could expect from a game of the genre back at its time, with a typical Story Mode that will allow us to fight a series of characters controlled by the console and in which the events of the story of each character will be narrated, then we have an Arcade Mode, which is essentially the same as the previous mode but without the story parts, a Versus Mode that will allow us to fight against other players in local multiplayer matches or against rivals controlled by the console, there is also a Survival Mode in which we will have to defeat as many characters as possible to get the best score we can, and finally we have a Training Mode that will allow us to practice the different combos and skills of each character. As I said, the typical stuff seen in most of the genre at the time.
As for the presentation, The Rumble Fish is a game that, despite being a bit outdated when compared to modern titles such as Street Fighter 4 and 5 or Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, it is still somehow visually attractive, although definitely not as flashy as it was back when it was released. In fact, The Rumble Fish is in a way one of the precursors of the 2.5D style that many recent fighting games are using recently, such as the above mentioned Street Fighter 4 and 5 and Guilty Gear, Mortal Kombat 9 and 10, Marvel VS Capcom 3, Injustice: Gods Among Us or Blade Arcus, so just like in these titles, The Rumble Fish is a fully 3D game, although its gameplay style is that of a 2D fighting game. The character models are well done, with a nice cel shading effect applied to them, as well as really detailed and fluid animations, and the same can be said about the stages where the combats will take place, all of them full of details are really varied. It’s also worth to mention, even if it’s just as a curiosity, that the clothes of the character will shred every time the characters receive a powerful attack. The menus of the game are also really polished, showing how much love and attention to detail the team paid to the game’s presentation.
The Rumble Fish is definitely a great fighting game that I personally think it didn’t get the attention it deserved back when it was released, perhaps due to the genre not going through its best period at the time. In fact, as I was saying before, when you compare The Rumble Fish to Street Fighter 4, you can see many of the elements of Dimps’ title in Capcom’s game, like the graphic style or the concept of the Focus Attacks among other small details, so you could almost say that The Rumble Fish is in some way a precursor for what we would later see in Street Fighter 4. Who knows, perhaps it was this game that convinced Capcom that Dimps was the “right one” to help them to develop the new entry of their classic franchise, and Dimps somehow saw this, not just as a chance to work in a prestigious project, but also as a “chance for retribution”, infusing Capcom’s title with part of their unfairly ignored fighting game to rescue it from oblivion, allowing all those players that couldn’t or didn’t want to play The Rumble Fish back at its time experience some of the good ideas Dimps came out with for their game. Anyway, if you are looking for a new 2D fighting game, and/or you like Street Fighter 4 style, you should definitely give a chance to The Rumble Fish, for I truly believe the game deserves it, and I’m sure it won’t disappoint you. Enjoy it!
GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UFzsz6_TGw
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario