Before writing this I wasn't sure if I should make this separate or a combined review/series retrospection on one of the most interesting fighting game series few have played. This review was made possible by the awesome guys at 3goo to commemorate the release of The Rumble Fish +. A remastered version of the arcade classic, the original Rumble Fish was released when many fought for scraps of a bygone arcade era.
Released in 2004, The Rumble Fish was developed by Dimps. Its founder, Takashi Nishiyama, was the producer for several King of Fighters and Fatal Fury games during his tenure with SNK. Using his expertise in fighting games, this was one of his first original fighting game titles under the then-new Dimps brand.
His influence from his previous works can be seen in Rumble Fish's simple four-button attack system, featuring two punches and two kicks. The art style uniquely blends 3D backgrounds courtesy of Sammy’s Atmoiswave engine. The sprites are some of The Rumble Fish’s most distinct qualities. Each frame is animated and hand-drawn with a cel-shaded effect.
There have been cel-shaded fighters before The Rumble Fish, with a standout including the PlayStation’s Slap Happy Rhythm Busters. Here, the animations move with a certain rigidness. I wouldn’t consider it “choppy” as the gameplay is smooth. Future titles like Skullgirls would improve on the hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation that was featured here.
The overall aesthetic fits the "Y2K New Millenium" vibe trending at the time with The Rumble Fish taking place in "the near future." There's a tournament being held, every fighter has their agenda for entering, and there are the expected archetypes featured here. You have the main protagonist, the femme fatale, the grappler, and "the evil villain" among others. Menus and music are very "tech-based" which is a style you don't see often in modern fighting games. As I said with the gameplay animations, it's not "fancy," but functional.
Speaking of functionality, despite the influence of the previous SNK titles that Nishiyama worked on, I would compare The Rumble Fish and its sequel to Vampire Savior instead. Attacks follow a hierarchy in which light attacks chain into heavy attacks. Like Vampire Savior, I found consistent universal "bread-and-butter" combos that ended in a sweep. Most attacks can also be linked into a special and a super. The Rumble Fish series had a special meter system split between "Offensive" and "Defensive" bars. The Offensive bar is used for aggressive attacks that advance the player forward. One such technique, the Jolt Attack, stuns the opponent in place, allowing the attacker to get creative with their combos.
The Defense Meter is used to break the opponent's guards as well as activate a character's "defense" super. Every character has at least one super that utilizes their Offensive and Defensive meters, the former being used in combos. The "defensive" super is more proactive, usually in the form of a counterattack, a reversal, or used while blocking. When both meters are full, a player can use their ultimate attack. However, it's far more useful to utilize both offensive and defensive bars as they are rather than save them for one big payout. This dual "offense-defense" system would be later used in games like NetherRealm Studios's Mortal Kombat 11. That game also gave players mechanics that utilized an offense meter for aggression and a defense meter for safety precautions.
Released for the first time for Western consoles, it would be the sequel, The Rumble Fish 2, that most players would be familiar with. The original doesn't get as much attention as Rumble Fish 2 is superior to the original in almost every way. Both games have their charm and certain characters behave differently in one game than the other. For this special enhanced release, The Rumble Fish+ features rollback netcode and all of the arcade features present in an HD remastered package. From what I was able to test, the rollback netcode was solid with few dropped frames. As with most online connections, it depends on the distance.
Stay tuned for the second part of this series retrospective when I take a look at The Rumble Fish 2, again courtesy of the fine folks at 3goo. With both titles made available on consoles and Steam for the first time internationally, I hope more Dimps titles are eventually ported as well. Would be cool to see DemolishFist. The Rumble Fish+ is a worthy addition to the collection of any fighting game fan. It's great to play the origins of cult classic titles and to see them get love decades later.
The Rumble Fish+ is available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam.