Ring Rage is pretty terrible. It looks horrible, and the gameplay isn’t that good. This caused me to look a little deeper.
The Game Boy game is an awful port of an arcade game released in 1992 by Taito. There were a lot of changes made to the game. I have no idea if the arcade game was fun, but it had to be better than the handheld version.
I had more fun trying to find information on this game than I did playing it. There isn’t much to the game, and you can experience all that it has to offer in about 15 minutes. There just isn’t much there.
TLDR: An awful port of a forgotten arcade game from Taito.
Narrative
There is no story in Ring Rage. It is just five guys who want to fight in a few arenas for all eternity. There is a championship, but no effort is made to give the player a reason for why these five people would want it. I can’t even blame this on a garbage wrestling promotion because none are mentioned.
Gameplay
The gameplay isn’t too bad. It is a button masher, which isn’t something I would want in a wrestling game. This game plays like an inferior version of LJN published games on SNES and Sega Genesis.
There are three game modes. If you are playing by yourself, there are only two available. Here is the list:
- Tournament – Which is a gauntlet match
- 1P Extra Match – The best one-on-one match of 3 falls.
- 2P Extra Match – This is only available if you have a link cable, a second Game Boy, and another cartridge.
There are five playable characters:
- Rody
- Spike
- Yasha
- Shadam
- Joe
Each has a finishing move, which is more than what I expected from this game. The controls are fine, but the hitboxes and hit detection are awful. You can do quite a few moves in this game, and each character plays differently.
When you look at the manual, which can be found online, you’ll see that each wrestler has a few different moves. The controls are also a little complicated. The developers got the most out of the Game Boy in that respect.
The game has a lot going for it, but this isn’t good. It is a shallow experience with only two game modes and a lot of hardware requirements for a disappointing two-player mode. I’m glad I played it, but I’m disappointed with what I played.
Visuals
Ring Rage is an ugly-looking Game Boy game. The arcade version used digitized sprites, which were chewed up and spit out in the Game Boy port. I like the look of WWF and WCW Game Boy games much more than this.
There are five rings in the game. These do have some impact on the gameplay, as three are normal rings, and two are special. Here are the rings:
- Miami – Normal Ring
- Los Angeles – Normal Ring
- Calgary – Normal Ring
- New York – Iron Ring
- Chicago – Chain Ring
Thank God the character names are on the select screen because the portraits are awful. You can see a face in most of them, and they do look different, but they are really pixelated. Cartoonish graphics look much better on the Game Boy than digitized sprites.
I don’t like the way this game looks at all. These graphics look better in the arcade or on the home console. Whenever they come to a handheld console, they look very ugly.
5/10. You can play this game, but I have no idea why anyone would want to. There are much better wrestling games on the Game Boy than this one.
Pros
- Decent Controls
- Several Rings
Cons
- Bad Graphics
- Horrible Hit Detection
- Small Roster
Conclusion
Playing this made me want to try the arcade game. I tried to find more information on it, but it looks like it is too obscure for the internet to care about. From what I found, it is a rare game that the few people who have played it seem to have enjoyed it (Link).
I didn’t like this game at all. The graphics are horrible, and the gameplay isn’t very good either. The nicest thing I can say about it is that the game is playable.
If you liked this post, please check out my other posts about Game Boy wrestling games, such as WWF Superstars and WCW Main Event.