Rumble Roses

In 2004, Konami decided to put a foot in a genre that is rarely touched by video game companies, the wrestling genre which in the last years was in the hands of THQ, the holder of the WWE license (well, at least outside Japan). However, to the surprise of a lot of people, Konami announced that this game would be a pure woman-wrestling game instead of a game with sweaty men (this may have been related to the announcement of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball around that time). The end result was a big Fan Service extravaganza, with 10 ladies — each with her own Face and a Heel persona — wearing quite revealing outfits, appealing to various fetishes. Aside from these regular in-ring costumes, they would also wear swimsuits for beach-side mud wrestling matches. Fanservice aside, Rumble Roses had actually good gameplay and nice graphics with the PS2 game even being notable for using the most amount of polygons per character compared to any other game in it's library.

The story modes for each wrestler persona are also notable in a B-movie way. But let's go into a little more detail. It's set up more like a Fighting Game than a Wrestling Game. Anesthesia, the Big Bad of the series, wants to take over the world. She plans to use a wrestling tournament to do it, offering a large cash prize to the winner as an incentive. She plans to take the DNA of the tournament winner to make an unstoppable cyborg army. Each of the girls has their own reason for being involved in the tournament. Reiko Hinamoto is trying to live up to her mother's legacy and search for her lost sister. Aisha is obsessed with a rematch against Dixie Clements, who she was never able to beat. Makoto Aihara is an Olympic judoka seeking competition. Candy Cane wants the cash prize to save the orphanage she grew up in. Miss Spencer enters the tournament accidentally while trying to chase down a recalcitrant runaway student (Candy Cane). Anyway, at the end of the tournament, the player fights one of Anesthesia's cyborgs, Lady X, and whoever wins goes home happy.

As right now there is one Sequel, Rumble Roses XX for the Xbox 360. It introduced three new modes - tag team, "Queens Match" and street fight - as well as a very unelaborate create-a-wrestler feature. It also introduced "Superstar" personas for each character's Face and Heel modes. Unfortunately, it featured no storyline mode at all, and an incredibly labyrinthine and time-consuming method of unlocking characters and rewards. Additionally, the "extras" like Queens Mode, Street Fight, the shoddy create-a-wrestler system and the playable bear proved very unpopular overseas. While Rumble Roses was generally considered a decent game, Rumble Roses XX was enough of a flop that it seems to have brought the series to an end.

It is worth noting that the female wrestlers, Anesthesia herself included, are referred to as "Rose" individually and "Roses" as plural.

Now with a Character sheet

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Tropes that are present in the games:

• All Your Powers Combined: Lady X Substance in the first and second game has access to many of the moves the Roses have to spend meter and meet conditions to perform as part of her regular moveset and they are just as dangerous as when a Rose spends meter for them. Subsistance in the second game averts this instead getting even more powerful made up attacks.
• Baby Got Back: Applies to the XX game to a lesser degree but the first game gave all the girls rather rotund rumps, very notable on the smaller girls Aigle and Makoto. Makoto's shrinks considerably in XX alongside some others.
• Bare Your Midriff: Most of the Roses, though some like Becky's Superstar outfit are notable exceptions.
• Beach Episode: There's a beach arena. There's also the option to wrestle in swimsuits. Oh, and by the way, there's also a mud wrestling match, which takes place at said beach arena, and the only selectable outfits for that match type are the swimsuits.
  • The second game it is intended for the Roses (robots, clowns and bears are not allowed) to wear their swimsuits and when the player battles CPU in non exhibition the opposing Rose will always be wearing her swimsuit rather than her default outfit but the player is free to have their Rose wear whatever they want and even choose what the loser will wear whether they win or lose.
• Bear Hug: Many Roses could perform one and there is even a killer move variation that is more powerful. Fittingly Non-Non the bear could do these but it almost requires the other player to not be holding their controller for even the least flexible Roses to give in to him.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Fan service aside, the Roses do take some serious hits and even fall incredible heights against Lady X Subsistance but they never get any physical wear or trauma.
• Being Good Sucks: Aside from a few exceptions the face side of the roster IE Becky rather than Candy Cane have subpar humiliation stacking especially in the second game. Good luck winning PHM matches with them. As reversals also stack humiliation expect if you pick a face Rise expect to see her on the floor sulking with shame often. Even Sebastian could often sort out most of the face roster with H-Moves,
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: RR has the same control scheme as the WWE SmackDown series, but the actual buttons aren't the exact same, so get ready to run headlong into your opponent a few times when you meant to grapple them.
• Defeat by Modesty: Sort of. Using a hold that "presents" your opponent to the audience in a suggestive way fills the embarrassment meter, and if it fills to the end it triggers humiliation mode, a temporary stun that opens up special finishing moves, and a special victory type. Some maneuvers add to the attacker's meter, or to both, if it puts them in a compromising position. There's a special match type that only allows victory by humiliation. This type of victory is more practical against the bulkier Roses.
• Didn't Think This Through: Anesthesia made no preparations to be exempt from the activities alongside the massive humiliation and degradation the other Roses have to go through because of her. She also is no less of an applicable victim of Lady X Subsistance who is just tailor made to handle female wrestlers by Anesthesia herself.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Both games, Did your favorite Rose just stop Lady X and saved the world and even became champion? She is still just as subject to the humiliation mechanics as anyone else in the game and be forced to tap out due to shame rather than actually giving up. Though this is the actual catalyst for a good number of the face Roses turning heel.
  • The XX version takes this further, is your Rose both the Rose of Roses and Tag Champ? 100% popularity and in Superstar Mode? Take her to queen's match and she will still be forced to clean the pool, get tickled, rub oil on her opponent and generally be at the mercy of her opponent.
• Everything Is Worse With Bears: Subverted in The Black Belt Demon's entrance.
  • But played incredibly straight with the playable bear in Rumble Roses XX. Although his stats and attack sucks.
• Evil Costume Switch / Good Costume Switch
• Face & Heel: Gets a little weird. See, each character has a 'face' and a 'heel' persona. But, for example, Bloody Shadow is pretty clearly a face, yet because she's darker than her alter ego Judgment, is labeled the heel persona. Same goes for Candy Cane to Becky. Likewise, Anesthesia (the face persona) is lighter than Dr. Cutter despite also being presented as evil. Most characters get the heel/face thing straight though.
• Fan Service: The main selling point of the game, really.
• Fragile Speedster: Becky, Benikage and Yasha. Benikage being the faster but frailer of the two while Becky being the more agile and slightly more bulky. Candy Cane falls more into Glass Cannon territory with her guitar and is rather handicapped in match types that do not allow it.
• Foe Yay: Almost everybody pretty much pairs off for this, but specifically Dixie and Aisha.
• Foreign Fanservice: Dixie, Miss Spencer.
• Franchise Killer: Rumble Roses XX
• Game Breaker: Miss Spencer easily. Her Atomic Drop infinite allows her to end even Lady X Subsistance rather quickly. SS Aisha is very powerful in attacking power with above average defense and Lady X Subsistance is the intentional superboss of the game though the latter two still are weaker in comparison to Miss Spencer.
• Glass Cannon: Makoto and her alternate form, Aisha/Sista A and Candy Cane. Makoto's submissions can end even the sturdiest of Roses in low time even without Humiliation but she has around Becky levels of damage tolerance, Aisha and Sista A have the most natural damage output in the game (not counting ear cleaning robots) and Candy Cane's guitar attacks could end matches faster than even Miss Spencer's atomic drop infinite when used right.
• Guilty Pleasure: Admit it. The game certainly does.
• Hoist By Her Own Petard: Both Roses have a say on both the penalty for losing a queens match and the outfit the loser will wear during said penalty. Essentially their own attempt to embarrass her opponent backfires if she loses.
  • The Humiliation move could be reversed if the opponent also has a meter, in this case instead of the would be victim using her own H-Move instead the would be victim puts the attacker in HER own humiliation attack.
  • Some attacks add humiliation to BOTH the Roses involved in the attack, and some even do so for the attacker only leading to the same result for the attacker if her humiliation fills just as if her opponent did it.
  • Really when Anestheisa is humiliated or she falls victim to anything Queen's match related could be this. She set this up to make the Roses suffer shame and she is just as capable of being subject to it.
• Humiliation Conga: Oh man the Queens Match could be brutal with these.
  • First a Rose could be humiliated during a match then defeated with an attack that accentuates the humiliation.
  • Then said Rose has to perform a task ordered by her opponent wearing an outfit the opponent wants. Apply oil to the winner? Check. Do Limbo and fall on your butt because you were ordered to? Check. Get tickled by the person who humiliated and defeated you? Check. Get on all fours with your rump sticking up to the air and act like a cat? The losing Rose can be forced to do that too.
  • Lastly the losing Rose immediately after being forced to perform such tasks has a camera follow them even though they often ask for them not to do it that is meant to get her raw unfiltered reaction to her penalty for losing.
  • This ignores other details, such as the loser could have been defeated by a rival they can't stand to lose to in the first place such as Aisha to Dixie, also some penalties actually could have the performing Rose fail such as the aforementioned Limbo and Round Truck.
• Idol Singer: Rowdy Reiko and Makoto.
• Irony:Many of the roses have a voice clip for when they take a high damage attack on a highly damaged area saying "not yet!" on the second game. This is an indicator for the attacker to go for the pinfall on the Rose who is likely too worn out to kick out. A similar quote for "not yet!" lacking roses exist with them saying "why you!" for the same reasons.
• Jack of All Stats: Reiko is SUPPOSED to be this, but everything is more like below average being just above Becky in ability to take a beating who herself isn't that much above Benikage's. Miss Spencer ends up more being this.
• Jiggle Physics: Yyyyup.
• The Jimmy Hart Version: Quite a few, actually. The opening song (which is also Dixie's theme as a face), is a cover of David Lee Roth's "Yankee Rose", Ms. Spencer's theme sounds very similar to Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher." Also, Reiko's theme as a face is one of many official remixes of Konami's rather popular Dance Dance Revolution song "Look to the Sky"; and Makoto's theme as a face sounds very much like "Cha La Head Cha La". Evil Rose's theme "Pluck The Roses!" may very well have been inspired by Disturbed's "Down With The Sickness" (If the similarity is indeed intentional, then considering the lyrics of the original song, it's very, very appropriate for someone like Evil Rose).
• Leotard of Power: Noble Rose/Evil Rose, Bloody Shadow/Yasha.
  • Any Rose could have this via the game's DLC.
• Literal Ass-Kicking: The Roses take quite a bit of damage to their rear ends, they could be tripped and they land on their rear end, tossed in the air and they land on their rear end, their rear end lands on the opponent's knee and Candy Cane delivers her knee to the kiester of her opponents for some attacks. And of course Candy Cane's motto is "I'm gonna kick your ass"
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Evil Rose is actually Reiko's Brainwashed and Crazy older sister. Lady X is Kamikaze Rose, Reiko and Evil Rose's mother.
  • Not quite. She is a cyborg made from her DNA.
• Male Gaze: Everything.
• The Minnesota Fats: Dixie to Aisha.
  • As a more minor case, Aigle to Makoto.
• Moe Couplet: Reiko and Dixie; Miss Spencer and Candy Cane; Makoto and Aigle.
• Modesty Shorts: The Mimi Outfit has a dress like top but this in the bottom alongside leggings making it one of the, if not the, most covered up outfits in the game.
• Mud Wrestling: The first game features it and all contestants, including both variants of Lady-X funnily enough, are required to wear swimsuits rather than their normal ring gear. The game does have a feature unique to this that if a Rose is knocked down with too much mud on her or falls face down on the mud she will have to clean up a bit and get mud off her eyes before standing up leaving them prone to taking a hit while this animation goes on.
• My Hero Zero: Reiko as a face is nicknamed "Zero Fighter" (having the word stamped on the outfit helps).
• Nice Girl: Mostly averted, most of even the face Roses and even some heel ones are Jerk with a Heart of Gold territory and one of the "good" Roses is secretly the Big Bad of the series. Still Reiko, Becky and Makoto fit this.
• Ninja: Bloody Shadow and her alter ego, Judgement.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Noble Rose is blatantly "inspired" by Cutey Honey. Aisha is sort of a portmanteau of a few different pop starlets, including Britney Spears, Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Lopez.
  • Also there's Becky (Candy Cane's face gimmick), who looks like a cross between Britney at the start of her career and Emma Bunton.
    • Candy Cane is a teenage punk rocker from Canada. Although she is a lot "meaner" than Avril, the similarity is obvious.
• Not So Above It All: Reiko is seemingly a down to earth wrestler who doesn't play in to the secondary gimmicks such as Becky being a cheerleader, Dixie a cop and Aisha a dancer, Benikage in the story mode is portrayed as cleaver and could pick up on things the other Roses can't and is aware 100% of the real purpose of the Rumble Roses tournament and finally Anesthesia is the one running things setting up the constantly humiliating activities the Roses have to partake to win the prize. All three of these ladies are just as prone to the rest to be humiliated in match or be forced to do degrading tasks after queens matches EVEN if they are the Rose of Roses.
• Obvious Beta: Rumble Roses had a couple of really blatant flaws in the AI ("ignore the running opponent", "continually go for pins in submission-only matches" and the usual "just doesn't work right outside the ring"), one completely finished ring that just wasn't included in the final version along with a couple partly-finished ones, a match type that wasn't actually selectable (although you could configure the rules to get the same thing).
  • Rumble Roses XX's labyrinthine unlocking system is believed to be the result of inadequate playtesting.
  • The U.S. Playstation 2 version has some attacks that lead to submissions but inexplicably end just causing normal damage. The Japanese version keeps these submissions fully.
  • In XX Becky and Yasha have a unique tag attack together but are not part of any official tag teams, being the only Roses like this. Furthermore for some reason picking them together makes one of the turnbuckles give Roses strange behavior when thrown to it.
• Panty Fighter: As hard as it is to believe there are more girls who are not this than ones who are... Game still has them though.
• Painted-On Pants: Despite Aisha, Noble Rose, and the superstar Benikage having clothes that fully cover their pelvis's they hug the area so much they do not leave much to the imagination.
• Pro Wrestling Is Real
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Lady X/Lady X Substance/Lady X Subsistence.
• SNK Boss: Substance in the first game will be spinning sending the Roses flying and blasting the Roses in the face with her killer move to victory alongside forcing them to stick their rear ends up for her H-move. Subsistance takes this even further with attacks that add on humiliation quickly, moves that surpass the power of most killer/lethal/h-moves in the game, an attack that damages the head of the opponent and humiliates them as she puts her fingers in the ears of her victim and rotates them... and could someone explain how a woman with basic human anatomy is expected to kick out from this?
• So Bad It's Good: The charm of the PS2 game's rather bad plot is often cited by fans of the game of why they like it.
• Start of Darkness: Conveniently provided in the introduction to the Heel storylines of normally Face characters.
• Statuesque Stunner: Obviously the 5'11 Dixie Clemets but this can apply to most of the Roses, for example Becky at 5'8 and Miss Spencer at 5'9 are well above the average height of the average Canadian woman. Even the smallest Rose on the roster, the Japanese Makoto Aihara is well above the average height of Japanese women.
• Stripperiffic: Well, of course.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: All the wrestlers' finishing moves fit this trope.
• That Girl Is Dead: The essence of some of the Roses' responses to their former friends' attempts to get through to them post-Heel-turn.
• The One Guy: Sebastian the Clown is an unlockable in Rumble Roses XX.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • The Split Legged Atomic Drop Double X Attack, after the victim's legs are spread and being held up high by the two attackers, before they toss the victim so she lands in a seated position on the mat the then would be victim could be seen shaking her head with a concerned look on her face as if asking the two attackers not to do it.
  • The Doomsday Device Double X move, the victim has this expression after one of her attackers forces the victim to sit on her shoulders and the victim is helplessly awaiting the other opponent to climb to the top rope for a clothesline.
  • This is the victim's face in the upper view while the player can see the victim's face during Lady X Subsistance's lethal moves while the after the victim lands with the upper body of Lady X holding her waist in a suplex position and the legs of Lady X locking the victim's legs in place before the camera moves and the 3 count starts.
  • The Roses audibly protest and even sometimes go as far to beg their opponents not to be put in their H-Move while being set up. The 360 game even have them continuing to audibly protest once the submission starts and just before they actually give up due to humiliation.
  • When a Rose is humiliated a cutscene plays with them sulking in shame, Sista A even says "no, this sucks" when hers is activated. In the first game Anesthesia says a rather distraught "get away from me" when it happens to her.
• Third Person Person: Aigle/Killer Khan
• Too Dumb to Live: Some offense actually requires the opponent's co-operation and said opponent sometimes assist the attacker in performing their attack.
  • In the PS2 version one of Becky's turnbuckle attacks actually requires for her opponent to place Becky in a full nelson hold for Becky to use the ropes to get out of it and hurt the opponent.
  • The biggest offender is Yasha's lethal attack in XX. It requires the opponent to avoid Yasha's high kick (avoiding grapples after the grab connects is a rarity in this game) then proceed to attempt a German suplex on Yasha while Yasha is turned around. When Yasha lands a log takes her place. With the opponent now confused Yasha comes from above and hits said opponent. This will work the same way every single time against any opponent.
• Virtual Paper Doll: In Rumble Roses XX, there are outfits that can be unlocked, although the process of doing so is as labyrinthine as everything else in the game. The girls also come with a slider that can cause them to gain muscle or gain fat, turning them into Amazonian Beauties or Big Beautiful Women. This slider is adjusted by which moves you use in the matches.