Ready 2 Rumble: Revolution
By Harold Goldberg,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Horrible controls + stereotyping = one big sucker punch.
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What’s It About?
READY 2 RUMBLE: REVOLUTION is Atari's attempt to revive a
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Midway boxing series, one which didn't understand the difference between hurtful
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racial stereotypes and honest satire. In career mode, you choose one of about a
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dozen fighters, some of whom look like Brad Pitt or Jack Black, to rise among
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the ranks to become the top boxer.
Using the Wii Remote and the nunchuk, you are supposed to be
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able to pull off a variety of moves from jabs to uppercuts to roundhouse
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punches for offense. For defense, you are able to block, bob and weave. In
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addition, there are some mini games which require precise target punching to
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complete.
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Is It Any Good?
There is really very little to commend the game, unless you
simply want to brawl. If you have a love for old arcade games like Punch Out,
which approximates the sweet science of boxing and adds humor to the escapade, you'll be
disappointed. If you love more simulation-like representations of fisticuffs
like the recent Fight Night series, you'll go from disappointment to despair
because the controls are rarely accurate. You end up flailing around a lot.
Heck, the simple Wii Sports Boxing is more exact than this.
If you're at all sensitive about bigotry in games, Ready 2
Rumble: Revolution will raise some red flags. One African American
character's mother had 18 children. Another character looks like a pimp out of
grade D movie. This isn't funny: it's degrading. Plus, the so-called parodies
of Jack Black as a kind of spoiled child and Brad Pitt circa Fight Club will
cause some to raise eyebrows. Unfortunately, this boxing game is a debacle rife with
bad taste at the least and racism at the worst.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about satire in video games. Do you think there is a fine line between funny satire and offensive sterotyping? Are there any characters you like in game? Which ones
promote negative stereotypes? How so?
Game Details
- Platform: Nintendo Wii
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: Atari
- Release date: March 17, 2009
- Genre: Sports
- ESRB rating: T for Cartoon Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, Tobacco Reference
- Last updated: November 5, 2015
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