Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 (PlayStation 2)

The King of the Ring is Back!

• 23 Boxers – Afro Thunder and company return with 13 all new characters including five special celebrity characters!– New Rumble Modes – Save up your power for a Knock-Em-Out-of-the-Ring Punch!
• Party Modes – New Tournament and Team Battle Modes for head-to-head competition for you and all your friends.
• New Mini-Games – Increase your strength, speed and agility by training with rumble pads, jump rope, speed bag and more.
• Improved Single Player AI – Smarter, Harder and Faster!
• Includes – famed boxing announcer Michael “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!” Buffer.*

 

Art thou prepared for conflict?

If so, then strap on your over-stuffed gloves and get ready for another trip to Midway’s outrageous world where pugilistic pummelers rule the ring. The competition’s stiffer, the multiplayer action is more intense, but the attitude is just the same.

Like the first Ready 2 Rumble, the heart and soul of R2R2 is the Championship Mode. In this grueling test of strength and stamina, you take a boxer from the shadows of obscurity to the limelight of a championship title fight. This is accomplished by competing in prize fights and building your boxer’s stats in a series of entertaining training modes.

You get to determine your boxer’s training schedule on a day-to-day basis, which adds variety and realism to the game. The actual bouts are far from a boxing simulation, though, a fact that’s obvious as you watch your fighter taunt the competition and throw wild punches in the ring.

Veterans of the Ready 2 Rumble series will find the road to the championship to be much more intense this time around, because the computer-controlled competitors are faster, smarter and less willing to take a fall than in the original N64 game.

To unlock new faces like Johnny “Bad” Blood (sheepherder turned contender) and Joey T. (a former hitman from Italy), you’ll have to become king of the ring by working your way up the championship ladder. Awesome hidden boxers like Michael Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal and others make the journey more than worthwhile.

Ready 2 Rumble 2 won’t teach you a darn thing about the intricate skills of real-world boxing, but it delivers hours of over-the-top action that’s both humorous and challenging. Although the characters and voice samples are outrageous and light-hearted, the game mechanics and play control are well designed and tight as a welterweight’s pecs. If you’re dying to see big Mama Tua sucker punch Afro Thunder below the belt, what are you waiting for?