Underplayed Gems

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing (1999)

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing cover
Developer
Midway
Platforms
Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Dreamcast
Genres
Fighting, Sport
Rating
2.6 of 5, 23 player ratings

More by Midway

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More games like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

A goofy, over-the-top boxing brawl bursting with cartoonish personality and arcade energy that keeps things fun and breezy rather than serious or punishing.

arcadeycomediccolorfullightheartedfast-pacedaccessibleexaggeratedcasual

About

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing is a boxing game for the Dreamcast, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64 and it was released in 1999 by Midway. The success of the Dreamcast version led to it becoming one of the few Sega All Stars titles. Like Nintendo's Punch-Out!! series it features many characters with colorful personalities (i.e. Afro Thunder, Boris "The Bear" Knokimov, etc.); however, unlike the Punch-Out!! series, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing is in 3D, thus allowing for more control over your character in the ring, and also enables the players to choose whichever fighters they want. Throughout the fights in the game, there is a special RUMBLE meter which fills up, one letter at a time, until the word "RUMBLE" is spelled at the bottom of the screen. Letters can be obtained by successfully landing hard blows or taunting the opponent. Once the meter is full, the player can power himself up, enabling access to a special move called "Rumble Flurry", which might as well instantly knock the opposite player out cold. One unique graphic feature of the game is the gradual bruises gained by players as the fight progresses (like hematomas and swellings), present in all fifth-generation versions. While this is not necessarily a new feature to games (it had been implemented before in SNK's 1992 game Art of Fighting), it garnered much appraisal from reviewers, because of the added fun factor this element supply to the game

Screenshots

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing screenshot 1Ready 2 Rumble Boxing screenshot 2Ready 2 Rumble Boxing screenshot 3

More games like this

More by Midway

This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.