Introduction: Originally appearing on the Dreamcast, along with the Nintendo 64 and both the Playstation 1 and 2, Ready 2 Rumble was an arcade style boxing sim that was highly praised for its over the top action and sense of humour. Providing likable yet stereotypical characters, the action in the game was some of the best for a boxing title at that current time. With original developer Midway going through troubles times, the brand was sold off and Atari have subsequently bought it up, bringing a new iteration in the franchise exclusively to the Wii for your enjoyment, although the title provides the opposite result.

GamePlay: Ready 2 Rumble Revolution is a new title in the series, taking almost everything that made the original good and throwing it away. To say the title is bad would be a bit forthcoming but there are some severe problems which ruin the experience. But let's look at the positives for the moment. The title boasts all the modes that you could want in an arcade boxing title. You've got your standard Arcade mode, where you fight through a succession of opponents until you become the best, an expansive Career mode which provides an extensive amount of content to play through from training exercises to improve your custom made character to customising said character to arranging bouts at the end of every week. The Career mode is likely where you'll spend the majority of your time because of the longevity it provides. It eases you into the experience by giving you weaker opponents and subtly increases their strength as you get better at the game and as your character becomes stronger and progresses through the ranks. It's a steady learning curve or at least it would be if it wasn't for control problems, which I'll touch on later.

Besides these two modes, you have a collection of mini games to play through in both single- and multi- player as well as Quick Fight, Tournament mode, Create A Character and the obligatory Multiplayer mode. The amount of content the game provides is spot on for what you'd expect in a boxing title in this generation of games. The major downside to the game, besides the controls, is that because the franchise has changed hands, previous assets are no longer in use so favourite characters from the original, such as Afro Thunder and Boris "The Bear" Knokimov, are not here which really detracts from the experience. Instead, Atari and developers AKI have opted to provide comedic takes on well known 'celebrities' and let you beat the living daylights out of them. While there is certainly nothing more satisfying than taking out a caricature of the likes of David Beckham and Simon Cowell, it doesn't feel like Ready 2 Rumble anymore because of these characters and has lost a lot of what made it both good and humorous in the transition from Midway to Atari.

Control: Boxing in Wii Sports showed you how well a boxing game could work on the Wii. The controls showed great premise and with fine tuning, would make for a truly great title. That's not the case here. The idea with Boxing in Wii Sports was that it was simple and easy to play. Here, Atari have tried to simplify everything control wise but in doing this they've instead over complicated everything. Trying to pull off a basic punch is a chore, never mind trying to get in a left hook. The game requires you to do specific gestures to hit but the controls rarely recognise them and so when you go to punch sometimes nothing will happen or your character will do something completely different. The game is really let down by the controls because they are so useless that no matter how much practise you put in, you'll never be able to land the punches you want and constantly find yourself face down on the canvas. This is the area where the game should shine but it stinks of poor development.

Introduction: Hailed as one of the best strategy game series available on handhelds. Advance Wars doesn't really need an introduction, unless you have been living in a hole for the past 4 years of your sad, deprived life. Advance Wars: Dual Strike is not a major upgrade to previous instalments, but it doesn't really need an upgrade since it's fine the way it is. The developers, Intelligent Systems have gone from strength to strength with their strategy games, starting out with Famicom Wars on the NES (only in Japan) and continually making sequels that get better each time. They also made this little gem called Fire Emblem.

GamePlay: The gameplay of Advance Wars has never really changed - build & destroy. Similar to other Turn Based Strategy games out there, but extracts the boring bits and injects big hefty doses of fun. If you've ever played any other Advance Wars games, you know what to expect. If you haven't, then go out and buy Advance Wars: Dual strike this minute. Bought it? Good.

Well there are a few upgrades to Advance Wars: Dual Strike, most noticeably is the Dual CO missions. Where you can pick from 2 CO's and power them both up. You can then use the "Tag Power", which allows you to execute both CO's Special Powers and control your units two times in one turn. Pretty nifty. Another noticeable upgrade is the unique use of two screens. In some Dual CO missions the CPU controlled CO will be on the top screen, usually with planes and fighter jets in the air. You can send units up to help your ally and defeat the enemy. This is just the story mode, there is also War Mode, Map Creation, Versus and even a Real Time Combat mode.

In Combat mode, you choose 8 or so characters with your limited funds and control one with the D-Pad and move around and fire Real Time. Although this takes away the point of Advance Wars, it's still fun for a "pick up and play" session.

Control: Previous instalments of Advance Wars required you to use the D-Pad, and this control was perfect and well suited for it. Advance Wars: Dual Strike adds the functionality of the Touch Screen to control your units. Which, does feel more natural, but I'm not even sure it speeds up the process. Map Maker makes very good use of the Touch Screen, and after playing with the Map Maker with the Touch Screen, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.

Graphics: Ditching what made the original good in many places, here at least the graphics are decent. Character models are details and show semblances to their real life counterparts and they show real time damage through the bumps and bruises you dish out. But while the characters are well done, they've lost the charm and humour of the original because the developers have gone for the use of 'celebrities'. Even throwing in some of the series' classic and best known characters would have helped. They've also tried to move the sport into the big time, similar to wrestling. You'll see entrances from the characters on crude stages which really don't have much place in the game or the sport. It doesn't feel like an evolution of the game. It feels more of a devolution of the original formula.

Sound & Music: The music is largely forgettable as you'll never really notice it because you'll be so frustrated with the game and its controls. The sound clips of the crowd or from the characters themselves are looped but they are well done for the most part. Just not very original and the sounds from the characters aren't as humorous as you'd want them given the series' history in providing humour.

Final Comments: The last time we saw Ready 2 Rumble was 2000 and it was great game then. Having changed hands since then, the series really didn't need much of a reboot, just a brush up for the modern generation of consoles and yet Atari have gone out of their way to reinvent the wheel so to speak and have all but ruined the game. Horrible controls make playing problematic and frustrating to the point you'll stop playing after a couple of minutes. Even Boxing in Wii Sport, with its basic skills, plays out better than this. You can have all the content in the world, something this title does well, but if the controls aren't in place then there's no point in playing.

Pro: Large amount of content to suffice everyone
Con: Problematic controls ruin the experience, returning characters have been ditched for horrible 'celebrity' caricatures, all humour and good gameplay has been lost
displayed on the top screen for easy viewing.
Final Score: 4.0

Reviewed by: Chris Coyne