A little over a year ago, what should have been one of the biggest celebrations for indie fighting games was met with mixed reviews. On one hand, the return of a classic made available for the first time outside of Japan was a great sign. The Rumble Fish 2 was always a title played worldwide among niche communities and this release showed that publishers were listening to fans of the games who wanted an official release. On the other, many felt the port was rushed in some aspects.
The current status of The Rumble Fish 2 has vastly improved since its launch. When covering The Rumble Fish+, many of the game's quality-of-life adjustments were already featured out of the box. Specifically, the "sidebar" situation that made the game almost unplayable for the first few weeks of its release.
Originally, The Rumble Fish and Rumble Fish 2 were both played on a 4:3 aspect ratio as were almost all arcade titles at the time. During the 2000s, titles slowly began to phase into a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio as it gave the player more real estate to move their characters. The process of moving from a crunched 4:3 ratio to an expansive 16:9 breaks certain games not built around a wider ratio.
Upon launch, the game had a special "Wide" function, which forced the game to zoom in areas to compensate for the new ratio. While it gave the illusion that it was running on native 16:9, it was very quickly discovered that combos that worked on the original arcade release didn't work for this one.
A solution was to simply add "sidebars" to the ends of the 4:3 aspect ratio, a feature seen in most game compilations. Games that also have this option also have the option for a "wide" mode. Due to the amazingly rendered 3D backgrounds, this "wide resolution" is hardly compromised. The publishers learned their lesson by making the "4:3 with sidebars" appearance the default for The Rumble Fish+.
Most of what I discussed about The Rumble Fish+ can be applied here. The same "neo-future" aesthetic is applied here, with a cleaned-up GUI. The game runs smoother while maintaining the retro "SNK-inspired" gameplay engine of four attack buttons plus a dodge button tied to the game's more advanced techniques. One of the newest techniques in The Rumble Fish 2 is the "Boost Dive" mechanic. Every character has a unique ability that is activated through Boost Dive, which usually amplifies their core gameplay. Sheryl is a character who revolves around setting traps, so her Boost Dive amplifies her trap-setting abilities, for example.
Despite being released two decades before, this mechanic is similar to the Heat System that will be featured in Tekken 8. The Rumble Fish 2 was ahead of its time not just in its Boost Dive mechanic, but also for the frenzied fast-paced scramble gameplay the title is known for. There are several new characters added with gimmicks not seen in other fighters. Bazoo is a character who doesn't follow the usual "Rush Combo" system but instead uses his long-range and "rocks" to zone out opponents. Sheryl, as mentioned earlier, is a nimble assassin with hidden traps to set a minefield for her opponents to go through. Even the returning characters have new tricks up their sleeves on the merit of the new Boost Dive mechanic.
The Rumble Fish 2 is simple to learn, but every character is unique enough to have their own quirks. I mentioned that The Rumble Fish reminded me of Vampire Savior and I reiterate this point here especially because of its new gameplay elements. The base gameplay remains the same, in fact, most of its assets were simply transferred over to The Rumble Fish 2. I would consider it less of a sequel and more of an expansion of the first game. A Super Rumble Fish title would have been perfect.
What's special about 3goo's port of The Rumble Fish 2 is that it's based on the updated "Nesica Live" version and not the original "Atomiswave". The original and its sequel ran on Sammy's Atomiswave engine but the popularity of The Rumble Fish 2 led to a network release on the "Nesica Live" service. This also served as a balance patch update, changing several game mechanics, and adding new ones. The issue with this port is that most of the critical changes to the game's mechanics aren't well documented in the game itself.
In almost all of my games coverage on 1UP Infinite, I tend to include links to the company or game websites in the information boxes. This is usually a way for readers to learn more information about the games I cover. It's also usually the source of information not found in the game itself. Seriously, take a look at the "How To Play" tab on the main website and there are tons of information that isn't featured in the base game. That's because both games are arcade ports, sure, but other publishers could create anthologies with relevant guides and information pertaining to each title. Why not here?
Another decision I didn't quite understand was locking the boss characters behind a DLC, again considering that this is a port of an arcade title. For context, the boss characters, Greed, Beatrice, and Hazama, are playable but they are locked behind a code. Not the "Akuma" code where the player highlights each character for three seconds, but an actual system code that requires the player to enter the bios menu. Since this can only be accessed via official arcade hardware, the boss characters aren't available by default but they are purchasable DLC.
Capcom recently released a fighting game anthology that featured several boss characters, some of which involved system codes as well. Capcom also included the characters as a bonus option in each game menu, at no extra cost. While I bought each character for the sake of this review, at the time of the Winter Steam Sale, it was a total of $5. I can't fathom a good reason why anyone would charge for content that is included in a twenty-year-old game, but it isn't enough for me to hate this port.
The Nesica Live version of The Rumble Fish 2 is rare to emulate, so it's nice to see an official version available for players as the "tournament standard." While it does bode well for the future of tournaments, it's the greed of charging DLC for bundled content that ruins it for me. Pick up The Rumble Fish+ if you want to support the game but not support the questionable decisions made a year before in The Rumble Fish 2. Both games are fantastic either way and age exceptionally well.
The Rumble Fish 2 is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/s, Nintendo Switch, and Steam