Rumble Roses XX is, like the box says, “More than just a pretty face”, but unfortunately not that much more. Once you get past all the sexual creepiness that exists throughout you’ll find a simple wrestling game with a lot of variety.

As you step into the ring for the first time you’ll be using the exact same controls as were present in the first release of the series on the PS2. Along with the controls, the fighting engine of Rumble Roses XX is essentially the same as well and is a stripped down version of developer Yuke’s wrestling engine from the popular Smackdown series. You can punch, kick, grapple, and do a variety of special moves. If you fill your opponent’s finishing move gauge at the top of the screen you’ll have the opportunity to perform a lethal or killer move by the tap of a single button. You can also raise your enemy’s humiliation meter, which once filled will let you unleash an H-move. To survive all these attacks you can also pull off reversals that negate what your opponent was trying to do. And last but not least, in a tag match you can execute double x moves which are also pretty easy to pull off and result in some interesting cinematics.

So while it may seem like there’s no lack of gameplay tactics available, things get really repetitive really quickly. After a few hours in the ring you’ll be able to counter most everything and pull off every single move a character has to offer. If you have a friend or XBOX Live you’ll have a chance to mix things up with a real human player and that does make things tougher but a real opponent gets old after awhile as well. Online play was silky smooth when I tried it but unless you find people that are better than you it gets old pretty fast. I suppose the ranking system might keep you coming back but after a week of release even the top ranked player had played only around 200 matches.

On the graphical side of things Rumble Roses XX looks pretty close to next gen. Characters look very realistic and yet small details don’t add up. For example most fighters’ faces look near realistic but their hair is still represented through chunky polygons. Besides the characters, the rings look well designed and the backgrounds are visually striking. While everything fits together nicely the graphics just aren’t quite next generation and always feel like an incremental step above their PS2 counterparts as everything in the game is basically a face-lifted version of the last outing.