The
Rumble Fish STORY:
The Rumble Fish takes place in the distant future
during the 21st century. During the turn of the 21st century, a large-scale
natural disaster tears through the eastern side of an unverified country,
destroying its economical and political operations and taking a total of
158,000 lives. A prominent corporation in the series, called PROBE-NEXUS, moves
its base of operations to the ruined east side and begins reconstructing the
area. The rebuilt area flourishes again as it becomes a wealthy and busy city
known as Zone Prime, which serves as the backdrop for many locales in the game.
In the underground of Zone Prime, PROBE-NEXUS
also sponsors a tournament known as the Fight for Survival, or F.F.S., where
fighters are gathered from the city's slums and compete for sport. The first
Rumble Fish game follows the fifth F.F.S. tournament.
Boyd looks like a friendly
old man... for the most part.
ABOUT:
The Rumble
Fish is a 2D fighter originally released for the Atomiswave arcade
platform in 2004 and was later ported to the PS2 in March 2005. Rumble Fish features 9
characters and uses a 5 button layout (4 attacks and 1 dodge button). Graphically, the game stands out because of a rendering technique
that makes individual segments of the characters body animate separately.
The character sprites are drawn in a high resolution, giving even Guilty Gear
X's sprites
a run for their money. The characters animate very smoothly for the most part, almost appearing
to be 3D. Characters can lose accessories during the fight and their cloths can
become ripped.
These screenshots hardly
do the game justice.
The gameplay system
is pretty standard for a 2D fighter, aside from the "block meter" which
goes down as you block incoming attacks (formerly used in SFA3),
and can result in a guard break. There are also two more meters, one for offense
and one for defense. Players can use these meters seperately for super moves
or use them both for an "Ultimate Critical Arts Attack." Players can also use
their offensive meter for a "Jolt Attack" by hitting LP & LK which makes
the screen turn red and allows for a custom combo.
I always thought Zen was a
cool name for a character.
The Rumble Fish is an
obscure and
not very well-known 2D fighting game. Not much information or artwork is even
available for the game (hopefully that will change eventually). From what I've seen, Rumble
Fish features an odd, yet interesting cast of characters and seems like a
pretty original 2D fighting game. The 2D character sprites definitely have a unique
look to them.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to try it out since Rumble Fish never
had a localized release. I've read mixed reviews on the game...
some say it's good... some think otherwise. I guess those of us who haven't imported it can only hope for an eventual
localized release... it would make a perfect PSN/XBL downloadable title. The
sequel, Rumble Fish 2, was released in 2005.
~TFG
Webmaster
Arcade) 
