Once upon a time, a clever toy company created a
generic, simple line of flesh-tone action figures from minute amounts of rubber.
"M.U.S.C.L.E." figures were plain wrestling fellows that did nothing, and were
fun, but toss-away toys that belonged in bubble-gum machines. You could fit an
entire Federation of these guys in one pants pocket. That evolved into a
cartoon show that rivals Ultra Man in its craziness. Who’d have thought that
years later, they’d be the center of a video game fun-zone and still be
entertaining?!
Back in their creation, the One to watch was King
Muscle. The burly, experienced grappler could take on any foe your imagination
could present to him. He was the Andre the Giant of the miniature rubber
wrestling world. Now, in Ultimate Muscle: The Path of the Superhero for GBA, you
are given the challenge of molding the King’s son, Kid Muscle, into the warrior
his dad once was. To do so, you must battle through the various opponents and
gain experience and skills. Realistic and fair, I think.
Lest you think this is a wrestling game a la WWE
"whatever"– think again. The rules, moves and characters here are out of
bounds. In those "other" ‘rasslin games, you cannot fight a cellular phone who
will whip you with his antenna and taunt you with comments about receiving a
"collect call from pain!" There are a host of colorful, refreshing characters to
experience. It’s almost fun being beat up by these guys — just so you can see
their various finishing moves and flamboyant styles. Still, your goal is to win
and exceed your (lack of) expectations. Your Father was the Master, and you
start with very little skills.
You can start in a Training mode, which will
tutor you on various moves, combos and attacks. Once you feel up to it, you can
move onto "Story Mode", "Survivor", "3 vs 3", or head to head against a linked
GBA opponent. There is no traditional "3-count" for victory, but instead you
must pummel your opponent into a knockout situation like a fluffier version of
Mortal Kombat.
Story mode starts you as the Kid, and you are
weak and inexperienced. Again, the goal being to win matches and gain abilities.
One by one you will (hopefully) move through the ranks to become the Ultimate
Muscle hero. Not an easy task. The opponents graduate steeply in their
abilities, and you must use some serious hand/finger action just to keep from
being pummeled. Achieving the Ultimate Muscle goal is very rewarding, but your
hands will hurt so badly, high-fives will have to be done with your feet.
"Survivor Mode" allows more freedom in selecting
players (not being stuck with the Kid), and you can unlock choices as you
progress. 3 on 3 mode pits a team against a team… with the "last man standing"
rule. You are done when you have no more able wrestlers available. All of the
modes are the same: fast action, insane moves and bizarre opponents. You half
expect to see Mothra come up next. The whole thing feels like some Anime freak
show…. but in a good way!
The graphics are good, but not great. Sometimes
blocky and primitive to the point of annoyance. You are provided some
interesting choices for platforms on which to battle, but sometimes the
backgrounds are lost in the fury of battle. Not much time to admire the scenery.
I think the sound is the biggest technical
shortcoming. Most GBA games I experience have decent sound once you use a
headphone. In this case, not even that enhancement was an asset. I found such
little difference, I unplugged and just played it "open air". Poor music and
"tinny" crashing sounds. Not good considering the development obviously
involved.
Aside from the technical issues, it plays fun and
was a refreshing escape from the "real" wrestling games on the market. Just as
in a title such as "Outlaw Golf," it is nice to take a genre, keep some basic
rules but not take it too seriously. There is plenty of variety with more than
20 wrestlers to experience. It is possible to keep within the intentions of a
format, without having to abide by the restrictions of reality. What else would
you expect when tiny pieces of molded rubber battle until the Ultimate Muscle is
declared?
Gameplay: 7.5
Lots of fun, but some of the moves were too hard to execute with intention.
I found myself just doing the "Hail Mary" thing and pressing all the buttons at
once — in hopes that I could topple my opponent. The combos and finishing moves
were outstanding, but usually hard to do on purpose. In Story mode, playing the
Kid, you get better used to things, but if you’re tinkering with various players
in other modes, expect to re-learn everything over and over. There is a
play-by-play text-based announcement system, which I mostly ignored, but was
nice all the same.
Graphics: 7
A weakness that might not have been necessary. I visualize a room full of
creative minds, day after day, brainstorming on cool moves and ways to demolish
one another… then spending one afternoon actually laying out the design. That
may be harsh, but that’s the feeling you get.
Sound: 5.5
The music and sounds were below what I’d expect from a player like Bandai.
Even though they have thrown in sounds from the actual TV cartoons, they are
sporadic and there isn’t enough clarity to enjoy the banter. Fortunately, you
are so absorbed in the rest of the game, sounds are the least of your worries.
Difficulty: Hard
I found it satisfyingly challenging to get through Story mode with the Kid.
To be frank, he’s useless at first. It’s like moving a bag of sand through mud.
My first (several) attempts were short, ugly matches. I lost, but learned. The
tutoring mode was barely helpful. It took a lot of work, but the pay-off was
nice.
Concept: 8
Breaking the boundaries of any genre is usually a good thing. To do it so
in-your-face is even better. Not holding to the norms of "real" wrestling games,
UM stretches beyond and makes it fun to grapple again. Expect to see the old
favorites experiment with this type of thing. Look for future games in which
Hulk Hogan can pile-drive The Rock from 30 feet in the air in some kind of "no
rules" scenario. Just remember who did it first.
Multiplayer:
You can link up another GBA player via the link cable, though I did not
attempt this. I imagine that could be some serious, taunting fun.
Overall: 7.5
An excellent game with only technical shortcomings to prevent a higher
score. Such things remind me of the beauty of the old platforms… in which you
had only the gameplay to keep you interested — versus fancy graphics and
dramatic sounds compensating for a otherwise boring game. Paying attention to
the various power bars will make the experience more rewarding, as success is
enhanced by those hints.
