The early 2000s was an interesting period for fighting games, with many of the big names having difficulties and bowing out for a time. There were of course big names still like Tekken and Soul Calibur, but these were just the big names left in a then shrinking field. The west stopped seeing fighting games as a big thing, and it wouldn’t be till nearly the end of the decade that the genre would make a major comeback.
Japan on the other hand still had a fighting game scene thanks to Arcades not falling out of favour there yet, and one such game that never made the leap to the west was The Rumble Fish from Dimps. A fighting game worked on by veteran fighting game developers, it and especially its sequel had a lot going for them, with mechanics that helped them stand out at the time, such as a guard meter that’s reduced every time you protect yourself against an immediate attack and would slowly regenerate over time to keep things balanced. The games would develop a strong reputation in the west and now the sequel has finally been localized, but the results are not the best.
Released by publisher 3goo and complete with Rollback netcode, The Rumble Fish 2 seems to be a great port on paper but things drastically change once you start playing. For one, despite being a retro release, the game is priced at 30 USD and still has several characters held back as 3.99 USD DLC characters, and yet the game doesn’t have much to merit premium pricing. The content besides what was available before is rather minimal, with this port being based on a later re-release, and other fighting games offering much more content at a lower price.
Then we get into the deeper problem, namely that the emulation has several inaccuracies. There are issues with input delay, slowdown and more that were not problems in the original release and throw off the experience for hardcore fans. And let’s face it, it will be hardcore fans who are in the market for the game.
The online works great but there are no lobbies and matches are over and done with fast leaving you disappointed. And if you want to try and get better, all you have is a CPU dummy to train against and a move list. There was no attempt to add any tutorial or guide on how to do the moves, leaving you struggling at times. This would not be as massive of an issue except for the aforementioned pricing.
If this is being given a premium price, then more needed to be done to make the game worthwhile to players. As it stands, The Rumble Fish 2 just does not have what it needs to be a game worth checking out value-wise. With emulation problems and a lack of options, there are just too many other better fighting games to check out instead.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided