Ready 2 Rumble Boxing is a boxingvideo game developed by Midway Studios San Diego, published by Midway Gamesin 1999 for the Dreamcast, PlayStation, Game Boy Color, and Nintendo 64. The success of the Dreamcast version led to it becoming one of the fewSega All Stars titles. Like Nintendo's Punch-Out!! series, it features many characters with colorful personalities ; however, unlike the Punch-Out!! series, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing is in 3D, thus allowing for more control over one's character in the ring. Also unlike Punch-Out!!, players can choose whichever boxer they want from a rather large selection of characters. Throughout the fights in the game, there is a special RUMBLE meter which fills up, one or two letters at a time, until the word "RUMBLE" is spelled at the bottom of the screen. Letters can be obtained by successfully landing hard blows; most such actions will yield one letter, though some particularly strong punches may yield more. Once the meter is full, the player can power himself up, enabling access to a special combo called "Rumble Flurry", activated by pressing a button combination. Each character's "flurry" is unique to them, and consists of a series of punches which does a large amount of damage if landed successfully. One unique graphic feature of the game is the gradual bruises gained by players as the fight progresses, present in all fifth-generation versions. While this is not necessarily a new feature to games, it garnered much appraisal from reviewers, because of the added fun factor this element supplied to the game. The Game Boy Color version was one of the few games for the system to feature built-in rumble. The Dreamcast, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64 versions each have an exclusive boxer: these are, respectively, Jimmy Blood, Gino Stiletto, and J.R. Flurry. Ring announcerMichael Buffer appears in the game as himself.
The game received "favorable" reviews on all platforms except the Game Boy Color version, which received "mixed" reviews, according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Chris Charla reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "With fast action, seriously funny character design, and excellent graphics, Midway once again proves it's untouchable when it comes to arcade sports." Adam Pavlacka reviewed the Nintendo 64 version of the game for Next Generation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "After playing the Dreamcast version for months, it is hard for us to accept an inferior version of the game, even if it does play just as well."
Sequel
The game was followed by a sequel in 2000 called ', and was later followed by a third game in the series, ', released on March 17, 2009. Afro Thunder features in TNA Impact! upon gaining 750,000 style points.
