Oh, and here’s another sequel you can review without playing the original. The downside is that you don’t know the history of the title and you might miss a few little gems. This game works just fine on its own, as you’ll see below.
Rumble Fish 2 follows the trail of 2D arcade fighters. There are throwaway stories that are easy to ignore. Better to focus on action. It works well with cartoony graphics. Between characters and backgrounds, the game offers a lot of visual interest through shapes, colors, and movements.
The fighter moves fairly smoothly, with only a slight hesitation when the character is hit and stunned. That small opening is all it takes for other fighters to advance and land one of the countless special attacks that really suck your hit points. Rating T for teens. You get this in several ways. The first is the decidedly violent nature of the action. The second is the representation of specific assets, especially when combat damage occurs.
Speaking of special attacks, the game offers players a menu that allows them to map attacks to their liking. If you’re happy spending your time looking at these settings, focus on combos and specials. There are a lot of them, and the game isn’t very good at providing this information spontaneously.
Luckily there is a training area where you can play on settings so low that your opponent never fights back. And you have to. The tedious practice may seem tedious, but the first time you perfectly execute that combo in combat, it’s worth it.
Other modes of play include Arcade, Survival, Time Attack, and Vs Mode. Of course, online and local multiplayer is now available as well. Let’s take a look at arcade mode. When you start playing, the game will start a countdown to select your fighter from a list of options. If you don’t choose a fighter, the choice is made for you. The game then selects a random opponent from the same list. Yes, it is possible to do rounds where you are fighting yourself. The game will change the color of your opponent’s outfit if this happens. I practiced with some characters and thought, “This is fun.” let’s go! ‘ That quickly turned into ‘Where the hell did you come from?! Some of the combos and specials range from annoying to downright devastating. This is great if you know how to use them before getting used to them.
The game comes with a few meters that need to be monitored. This is both the strength and the weakness of this game. There are meters that show energy levels for attack, defense, defense, and hit points. It’s nice to know where you stand with key stats, but the layout can be a little easier to digest in the heat of battle.
As I mentioned earlier, the Rumble Fish 2 game is ready to kick hard enough to land next Tuesday. If you are good at this type of game, you will face fun and good challenges. If you’re not good at this type of game (like me), you’ll spend a lot of time watching characters rise and eventually get knocked out quickly. But that’s the point, right? Practicing and mastering timing and combos is he one of the fun of action arcade games.