As everyone knows, Tecmo has had startling success with their Dead or Alive series. In addition to the ladies skimpy outfits, Tecmo also brought some fantastic gameplay and a lot of play modes to keep the game interesting. DOA Volleyball came along and had horrible gameplay but guys loved the half-naked women, so it sold pretty well.

I don’t know what it is about Japanese developers and their objectification of women, but it continues with Rumble Roses XX, which is an extension – I wouldn’t call it a sequel – of their game for the PlayStation 2.

For a quick introduction: the idea behind this game is wrestling, but a quick look at the manual makes me think I picked this up at an adult video store. At least they are honest – make no mistake, this is designed to show off women in various stages of undress.

Let’s get to it: The graphics in this game are very good and incredibly detailed – almost too detailed if you know what I mean. At least Konami is upfront about it – you’re going to buy the game for the softcore porn and hopefully stay for the gameplay; however the gameplay isn’t much of anything to write home about.

With Yuke’s – the company providing the engine behind many of the Smackdown games, you’d think the wrestling pedigree of RR XX would be very good, but it is only so-so. If you’ve ever played a Yuke’s game, you’ll feel right at home; however they’ve reduced each character’s feature set significantly. With a limited number of moves, it’s pretty easy to figure out what you need to do to win as well as what the CPU will do to win.

During the game you’ll fill up power meters and when you do you can unleash a ‘lethal’ move or a ‘killer’ move. The killer move is the one your character will always do and the ‘lethal’ move is the one that you can only do under certain circumstances.

As is always the case with these types of games, you’ll need to get very familiar with the blocking and counter, or “reverse” moves to stop you’re opponent. It gets very ho-hum very fast with the lack of moves here, and very quickly you can figure out a pattern for your character to win.

During a submission move you can move the camera using the right stick. Apparently this allows you to become quite the voyeur when you have a leg lock hold going on. It doesn’t make me want to play the game any more than usual, but it is an interesting touch.

You can set up a variety of matches, and there are some new modes add to this game when compared to the original PS2, such as Battle Royal and Tag Team. There’s also a ‘humiliation match” where the only way you can win is by using your “humiliation move.”

The gameplay just doesn’t have a whole lot of excitement to it. Rumble Roses XX might be a nice way to show off the graphics of the Xbox 360 but the gameplay itself just doesn’t cut it for me.