Rumbleverse (Xbox Series X)

Rumbleverse is a wrestling game where a city serves as your wrestling ring. You can elbow drop off the top of a skyscraper, pile drive someone into the ocean, or rip up street signs to smack around the other wrestlers in a 40 man royal rumble that exaggerates sports entertainment to an even greater extreme. This free to play battle royale from Iron Galaxy is certainly a creative twist on the genre and one that benefits greatly by breaking away from the shooters that populate that niche, but unfortunately, it never did quite catch on and hence we’re here today to give it a look before its servers shut down on February 28th, 2023. While it always stings to lose a game entirely, Rumbleverse definitely didn’t deserve such a premature end, there being a good deal of thought put into a game that at first sounds like it’s just about flashy moves and absurdity.

 

A round of Rumbleverse begins with 40 players being launched towards Grapital City by a giant cannon, each of them aiming to be the last wrestler standing. While there are team modes where you can instead be working with up to three other players to be the final surviving wrestlers, the idea is still to outlast everyone else and inevitably you’re going to have to get your hands dirty to earn that win. Fighting in Rumbleverse requires you to get in close to get in damage, there being a few ways to attack from afar but they’re not strong enough to clinch you a win on their own. You can find all sorts of items littered around the battlefield, but it’s telling that if you do chuck a starfish you found on the beach at another player its flight path will actually bend some to follow them if they try to outrun it, the focus on being physical meaning these tools had to be a bit more accommodating or they’d not be worth the effort to utilize at all.

Most of the action will come down to how you act when you do start trying to beat down another player to knock them out. You have two basic forms of attack, a punch combo and a grab, but these can be mixed and altered in many ways to gain you a different edge in a skirmish. A grab can’t be blocked and deals a pretty strong suplex when landed, but your normal attacks can interrupt a grab attempt and let you pummel a foe a bit. If you press the grab button as part of a combo you can shake up how it unfolds, such as launching an opponent behind you or into a wall, and running variations of your attack can let you land a surprise drop kick or Irish Whip someone into a nearby barrier. Usually after taking a hit a player has some time to safely recover, but they also can utilize get-up attacks so you can spin in place to push back anyone waiting over your body or you can do a gut punch that can’t be blocked and leaves someone open for a strong follow-up. Throw in aerial attacks like the elbow drop and already you have a good range of battle options just in what you can utilize at the very start of the match, but where the battle system becomes interesting is that all these skills exist to counter each other. If both wrestlers try the same trick, they’ll clash and no one will do any damage, so a confrontation becomes about predicting your opponent’s attack plans and trying to be unpredictable yourself. Your attacks may be incredible spectacles with plenty of flashing effects around them, but you need to be smart in how you counter your foe’s approach and starting to recognize trends in their attack patterns can help you gain the edge and eliminate them. With up to 40 players it’s not hard to earn a few eliminations even if you don’t come out on top but there’s also always the risk some other player may pick up on your habits or figure out a good way to string together certain actions for heavy damage, Rumbleverse never feeling like its about figuring out a best strategy because blocks, grabs, and strikes all have clear counters but you need to manage a fight well to utilize them.

 

There are ways to tip the scales in your favor, and that’s where Grapital City itself comes in. Set across two islands, Rumbleverse’s enormous arena has a wide variety of places to land and explore. The island to the east focuses more on metropolitan locations, this being where you can find giant skyscrapers, a construction site, and highways. Around the edges you can find a more affluent suburban area as well as more rundown part of town, there being many locations that do provide different advantages and disadvantages because there are times you might want to cut and run in a battle or perhaps you’re not eager to be out in the open until you bulk up some. Over on the western island is Low Key Key, a resort island that does pack an enormous wrestling stadium on its volcanic mountaintop, but it focuses more on areas like its beachfront, ruins, and an aquatic entertainment area. Where you fight in a match is determined by a large circle that will start to shrink over the course of the match, this helping to keep wrestlers near enough to each other that conflict is inevitable but early on you will have time to gather useful items. When the ring does reach its smallest size it even begins to slowly move around to keep players on the move and engaged with each other, but if you end up outside the ring you’re not doomed. A countdown begins that gives you ten seconds to return to the designated battle area, but even if you do make it back in, that timer takes some time to reset, meaning you can strategically try to shove someone outside of the ring and get them instantly eliminated when that countdown reaches zero. Not only does the ring therefore keep people close and lead to frequent enough conflict, but it is also a good way of segmenting up the areas you fight in so different matches can unfold in a variety of ways, certain locations sometimes becoming unexpected hot beds of action because the ring drew everyone’s attention to it.

When a match begins you probably don’t want to dive right into battle though, boxes of loot dropping down from the sky that you can bust open to see if the random contents might help you out. Some of these include the earlier mentioned weapons and you can find helpful healing items like chicken and nachos inside too, the player able to store up to four items on their person for later use. What you’re likely going to be looking for most though are the protein pods and the magazines. Protein powder comes in three variations, the player able to boost their health, stamina, or attack power by downing the appropriately colored pod. The boosts can definitely be felt in a battle, stamina especially important since your attacks use it up and if you’re out of stamina you can’t run or use certain moves. However, there is a limit on how many of these pods you can utilize per round, a maximum of 10 in solo play and fewer per player when on a team. This means you have to consider if you want to invest in a certain stat more than others or if you’ll just take the power wherever you can find it, and since things like food and protein pods take time to consume, you also have to make sure you’re not left vulnerable while utilizing them. Magazines are perhaps just as important though, the player able to learn two additional wrestling moves they can utilize in the fight. From charging bull rushes to sumo slaps, literal rocket jumps to a spray of poisonous mist, and plenty of recognizable wrestling moves like the spear tackle, giant swing, and choke slam, these magazines can not only give you a new battle option that further ups the amount of counter play possible in a fight, but they come in different varieties so you can pick one with extra effects. The empowering roar for example is normally a means of pushing back foes and giving yourself a damage boost, but it can also come with a stamina regenerating effect or a health boost instead. All of these still fit into the vital balance of certain attacks invalidating others although special moves do get priority over their basic counterparts, but again your efforts in exploring the city can be rewarded as you try to get the best set of two extra skills to up your chances of coming out on top.

 

If you are considering just trying to survive longer than other players rather than engaging in battle, Rumbleverse makes sure that there’s good reason to get involved, incentivizing battle in a few key ways. First is Superstar Mode, the energy for this powered up state coming mostly from battle even though there are little stars all around Grapital City that can give you small boosts to its energy meter. Superstar Mode increases your power and starts restoring some your health and stamina when active, and with its special spinning piledriver that can deal huge damage, it’s a great way to turn the tables in a fight but not foolproof either since you still need to land a grab that people will know you’re hungry for now. One interesting element of Superstar Mode is if you don’t spend its energy before you get knocked out, it instead gives you a way to revive with a bit of health so you can instead keep it in your pocket in case things do get rough. Unlike Superstar Mode though, Perks absolutely have to be built up through battle, the player earning experience by facing other wrestlers that pays off with randomly provided boosts. These can be things like restoring a tiny bit of health when you hit someone, getting boosts to how strong a weapon is in your hand, or easing up the stamina costs of dodges or dashes. None of these are huge game changers, but more aggressive players are rewarded for putting themselves at risk as the perks start piling up, Rumbleverse again finding a good balance for a clear way to gain an edge but one that won’t guarantee victory unless you can utilize its battle system properly.

 

With matches usually lasting a little over 10 minutes if you make it near the end, Rumbleverse cuts a quick pace and even if you do spend some time bulking up at the start, you won’t be away from action for too long. This also makes it pretty easy to pop in and start another match to try again, and initially this free to play multiplayer-only game offered another incentive for doing so. Performance in a match is tied directly to the Fame you earn for random unlockable costume pieces that were also available for purchase with real money, Rumbleverse having a wide array of cosmetics you can mix and match to deck out your wrestlers. The game certainly leans into goofiness with a good deal of them, many outfits being things like full body dog and alien costumes, but there is some traditional wrestling attire on offer and some gear that could be used to create a more traditionally cool character. Different body types don’t restrict what you can wear either, and while they technically provide no extra edge in combat, there is something to be said about how a large character in flashy gear will definitely stand out in the city more than a lithe one in something subdued. They do show off the game’s amusing attitude quite well though, an enthusiastic announcer covering each match and the many locations you fight in will have silly wrestling-themed twists. Rumbleverse’s cartoonish presentation certainly matches the kind of game where wrestlers can scale skyscrapers quickly with their bare hands and the city is littered with both giant springs and cars with bouncy tops so you can reach areas quickly and easily, Rumbleverse surprisingly refined in how things hold together even when a lot of its elements have some comedic inspiration behind it.

THE VERDICT: Rumbleverse takes the battle royale format and makes the fight to be number one surprisingly personal and strategic despite it still working as an over-the-top wrestling game where people dressed as chickens can choke slam you off a mountainside. Going around the city to collect stat boosts, healing items, and special moves is still a great way to gain an edge, but battle requires you to get up close with your opponents and try to anticipate their attack strategies, the way different moves counter and cancel each other out making such skirmishes a thrilling test of your ability to outwit other players that then pay off with flashy attack animations. Many smart decisions like how the ring is handled further push this game towards an excellent mix of ideas that make it easy to be hooked into playing game after game without ever feeling like you lost for an unfair reason.

 

And so, I give Rumbleverse for Xbox Series X…

A GREAT rating. Even now I can feel the desire to dive back in and do a few more Rumbleverse matches, the game speed excellent for quick play but not overwhelming since you can often find the time to search for some helpful tools that impact your success but don’t feel absolutely necessary either. Rumbleverse hinging on the dynamics between players is where it shines, the focus on the interplay between wrestlers as they need to figure out when and how to act to come out on top. The items still provide moments where you’re excited to find something you know you can put to good use, a certain special move occasionally able to achieve interesting strategies like the goal kick great for knocking players out into the instant death ocean. However, you still require the right openings to set it up and the other wrestlers can aim to counter that strategy if you make it too obvious what you’re going for, but since the range of attacks a player can pull off isn’t too vast, you never get to the point where there are far too many tactical considerations to make in these action-packed confrontations. Rumbleverse can still be about reveling in the sight of a heavily exaggerated execution of a wrestling move rather than buckling down and trying to think ten steps ahead, the speed of each match and the ring’s size great at pushing players together and making it important to fight quickly but intelligently. After all, predicting how one other player behaves is manageable, but when players get grouped together, the options widen and you can start seeing opportunistic play shine or chances to break away and utilize your healing items. The map being so large continues to pour more variables into the affair that help shape matches into something more unique, battles not blending together even though your fundamental attack options remain fairly consistent.

 

So the question of course then arises, why is this game getting shut down after only six months on the market? Well, it’s possible the marketing is the problem. Rumbleverse perhaps put too much of its silliness forward in its advertising rather than focusing on the clever interplay and personal feel of each fight, but also, it could just be a curse of the genre. The successful battle royales tend to be shooters because being the last player standing feels much more achievable when you’re firing weapons at people from afar rather than getting in close and being asked to make tactical considerations. Other battle royales can have the odds tip heavily based on what people find, to the point not having the right items can guarantee a loss. Rumbleverse is excellent because its action is involved and engaging, but it can be disheartening to some players not to earn a win, the luck of the draw not likely to propel them to victory since there are more factors at play than just pointing and shooting with the best gun around. Shooter battle royales aren’t bad and skill can help make you more likely to come out on top in them, but Rumbleverse unfortunately looks like a casual and silly experience while winners actually need to earn their top placement through smart responsive play, this niche not quite strong enough to draw in players to give it the love it deserves. Iron Galaxy’s creative approach to the genre may not have paid off in a literal sense, but they did put together an excellent game even if it sadly wasn’t appreciated in its short time with us.