Gamebar

Rumble Box

Vitals

Developer: DigiPen
Publisher: DigiPen
Genre: Action > Fighting
Released: May 30, 2005
Players: 1

- 2005 Game of the Year: Innovation

Rumble Box is a unique and distinctive 3D action, arcade, beat-em-up with a twist. Instead of going down side streets and rugged urban neighborhoods looking for a crime boss, Mafia leader, crooked politician or whatnot, this game takes a rather risky gamble by keeping the player in a box: a small box, a medium box, and sometimes a large box. Most of them vary in height rather than surface area. The trick to this game is the unbelievably fast-paced fighting that goes on inside these colorful boxes. There is only one button for the attack and a second button to grab. But the different combinations available in chain moves and in linking various strikes adds a rather old-fashioned feel to the simplicity of the game tactics and keeps it very open in the kind of attacks the player can utilize. Primarily based on the directional button and how fast and at what point the attack button is pressed, the fighting feels a lot like an old Bruce Lee film, where dozens of foes attack and get, nearly simultaneously, beaten into a pulp by just one person.

The AI in this game is not the brightest and best, but is adequately suited to this kind of game. For the most part, it is entertaining trying to pull off as many chain combos as possible while dodging oncoming foes and bombs, yes bombs. The mayhem that takes place inside the box is kept alive with constant barrages of enemy forces trying to beat the living polygons out of you, and timed bombs that, depending on the stage, are either carried into the box by your enemies, or fall from the sky.

The enemy forces are varied in their skill and attack forms. Some, it seems, are just there to get in your way, others take cheap shots from behind, and some charge you with flying jump kicks. Together they add up to a substantial amount of resistance and the player is required to sometimes re-do and re-think how they approach that stage because a couple of good hits or bomb strikes can easily deplete a player�€™s life-bar.

For those wondering about the purpose of all this box talk and exactly how and why it all takes place in a box, well there is a simple explanation. The whole point of the game is simply to get out of the box, a feat which may sound far simpler than it actually is. There is no story or plot significance to it all, it is primarily a challenge to the player�€™s skill. I thought at first that the game would be a breeze, but strategy and quick-thinking play a much larger part in this game than you might think. Mainly because in order to escape the box, players are granted no door-ways or hatches, but must climb out, not using ladders or ropes of any sort, but using the body parts of the enemy, stock-piled to reach the top. This is not in any way gory or gruesome, nor is it overly violent or sadistic, after all, the people are made out of blocks, much like the boxes they are fighting in.

When the player defeats an opponent, their geometric body-parts fall to the ground, where the player can walk up and/or over them. Hence, by repeatedly knocking a foe�€™s block off, (literally) players can build up the block pieces in order to climb up and out onto the top of the box. But players must pay attention to how and where they defeat an enemy within the box perimeter. For instance, swinging a foe around using the grab button, and throwing the enemy into three other opponents coming towards you will result in all four of the block-people being knocked to pieces. But if that happens in the opposite corner of the box from where you are trying to build up enough pieces to escape then it isn�€™t all that helpful. This keeps players alert to how and where they do most of the fighting, especially since each stage is on a time limit.

The difficulty of the game grows rapidly with the progression through each level, forcing players to become more and more selective of which tactics they use or abandon. I thought that I could use a very simple tactic of stock-piling enemy forces in a corner using the grab button, basically going over to a bad-guy and grabbing him, and then walking over to the corner in which I planned on escaping, and throwing the bad-guy against the wall, watching his blocks stack up in the pile. I kept repeating this procedure for the first two levels and thought it would be a convenient way of beating the game. I was proven wrong very quickly as the stages became much harder. In some cases players may actually have to fight every single on-coming foe and let the blocks naturally stack-up where they fall.

The difficulty also varies between the two different modes of play. There is �€˜Play�€™ mode in which players go through the game, level-by-level, or box-by-box, earning points and trying to rank in at number 1 with a high-score. How well you do in each stage determines whether or not you go to a bonus round and what kind of bonus round it is. Bonus rounds range from dodging dropping bombs from the sky to defeating as many enemies as you can before the time runs out. There is also �€˜Challenge�€™ mode, in which players must make progress through each box, the same as in �€˜Play�€™ mode, except twice (or maybe three) times as hard. As it states, it�€™s for �€œRumble Masters Only�€?. You can also view the credits and high-scores. There is no multiplayer nor are there other options for control or graphic schemes. It�€™s a simple game made for quick fun.

Graphics: 6
I�€™m certainly not a sucker for graphics. If a game has excellent graphics and poor gameplay, I would never recommend it simply for its looks. Conversly, if a game has poor graphics but excellent gameplay, I would recommend it for that reason. This is one of those cases. There isn�€™t any clipping or malformation of the graphic models, but the graphics are rather 1993'ish with a colorful pallette and various simple shading techniques for the objects and characters. The main character is actually just a formation of a half-dozen polygon boxes that make up a humanoid figure topped with a flesh-colored sphere for a head. There is no texture depth (in the characters anyway) and when the screen started really filling up, I was sometimes confused as to where I was in the chaos of hundreds of floating polygons. But the shading is smooth and the box arenas are well designed, much like Wetrix except they don�€™t dent or fall in. The animations are quite good though, with a variety of moves and techniques for the player to use, and the bad-guy variety is distinguishable based on the makeup and the color scheme of their floating-box body parts.

Sound: 8
Sound and music make-up a huge part of the gaming experience and this game captures both elements quite well. The sound effects are typical beat-em-up sounds: Punch, kick, throw, whoosh, etc. with the occasional sound of boxes falling to pieces or the bonus effects if you do well, but the music in this game is what truly makes it original. Game-show, jazzy, pop-rock is what comes to mind. It�€™s quite entertaining all on its own, and it fuels the fights with good energy while you try to find a way to clamber out of the box. The music really does this game a great service.

Gameplay: 7
The game is more surprising than it is shocking; surprising because of the fluent and easily smooth gameplay, especially since it is keyboard based. Moving around the arena and executing combos and grabs is very easy. The bad-guys are never too hard or too easy when you might expect them to be. The different play strategies required in different segments of the game changes the actual feel of how you progress through the stages. One of the few drawbacks would probably be the slow-down caused by the polygon build-up from the deconstructed enemy forces. It can really bog down the fighting the more they pile up.

Value: 9
For a free 11MB download, I doubt anyone would agree that it�€™s an unfair price for what you get. There aren�€™t many stages and the modes are quite short, but considering that it�€™s free and the replay value ranks high as a simple time-filler, I can�€™t argue with what you get. Well, I can�€™t argue at all, it�€™s free and it�€™s very fun, and, compared to most games out there, it�€™s small. 11 megabytes is cache fodder and hardly makes a dent in most hard-drive�€™s capacity. It also downloads quite quickly, so even on a 56k connection, you can get the file quite easily.

Concept: 8
It would be wrong to say that this game style, type, or genre is over-done and over-run with clones. It�€™s actually far more creative for what it is than a lot of other over-priced published titles. Escaping a box seems simple, but with all the other ridiculous ideas being published with big-budgets, this game takes a leap into creativity others shouldn�€™t be afraid to follow. Especially with the easy-to-learn fighting scheme and the various ways in which players can utilize the box to escape over-the-top. It makes for a mighty original piece of work in comparison to many other action arcade titles and puzzle games.

Fun: 8
I had to peel myself away from the option menu after dying for the hundredth time. The game is overly addictive, giving players the constant feeling that �€œThis time, I�€™m going to get over the top, if I just... .�€? You finding yourself restarting to do battle with the box fiends again and again. Rumble Box has an amazing pull for replay. It�€™s as addictive as about any good arcade game I�€™ve played and makes you feel like you just have to find a way to finish that stage. Albeit, multiplayer support and a couple of more stages would have upped the fun factor even further.

Overall: 7
Good gameplay, fun but limited stages (counting play mode and challenge mode there are about 8, not including the bonus stages) and cool fighting moves make this an instant time-filler game that you might play while waiting for a download or something of the like. The sound is good enough, and the music is a notch above the rest. Enemies threats increase as the stages go on and the bonus rounds are quite fun. If the graphics were better and couple of more game modes and stages were included, this could have been an easy 10. But for what it offers, the game is quite original and very different from most of what else is out there on the market. Anyone interested in a fast-paced arcade type beat-em-up with an edge of puzzle, ought to give this game a try.

By: William Usher
Posted: Friday January 06, 2006