As the story goes, Captain Blue is retiring as a superhero and will be pursuing a career as a film director. His directorial debut will be for a superhero flick, but he can't decide who to choose as a leading man to fill the shoes of the onscreen champion. To figure out who this lucky soul is, Captain Blue elects to hold a tournament. Lame story? Yes. Lame gameplay? Not exactly.
The build we were given had only a four-player battle mode with only a handful of characters and stages. The base characters were all accounted for, including Joe, Sylvia, Alistor, Captain Blue, Captain Blue Junior, and the Dark Emporer Jet Black. Many others will be available once unlocked, and all have their own distinct moves to keep the game's constant chaos at bay
The stages included a construction site, the face of a skyscraper, an Aztec-looking setting, and the wings of an old-school biplane. The visual style is still gorgeous and clean, keeping with the VJ trend, and doesn't disappoint at all. The only potential drawback is that it's a bit difficult to keep up with all the onscreen action. Playing on a 24" TV set, characters vanished, hidden among the various backgrounds and effects -- it's a scramble to keep up until you adjust and learn to identify them.
Adding a new twist by including the trademark VJ VFX power-ups to the fighting sequences, you can grab various upgrades that fall onto the battlefield which will endow your chosen fighter with extraordinary powers. Powers include "Slow," which slows down time and allows characters to slow down everything in the environment, save themselves, and unleash torrents of hurt on their opponents; "Mach Speed," which adds speed and power to your movements and attacks, rendering foes defenseless against the onslaught; "Zoom," a power that enlarges your character while keeping your adversaries at a normal size and outgunned by your temporary stature; and "Sound Effects," which turns sounds of your attacks into a deadly offense.
Though a nice array of special moves are accounted for, the basic maneuvers haven't been forgotten. Jumps and regular attacks, as well as special attacks, are present and offer up a great base of defense. The only problem is that, unlike Super Smash Bros., where you can charge up any attack and unleash it whenever, in VJRHR that only applies to the special attack.
The game's story mode will follow players as they guide their character to the ultimate goal of landing the lead in Captain Blue's film. To do so they must face off against other characters gunning for the same position.
While Red Hot Rumble doesn't offer much that's new or innovative to the fighting genre, it does bring some of the VFX dynamics from the series which adds to the anarchy of the game. It's going to face some comparisons to Super Smash Bros., seeing as that's the benchmark for all games in this fighting style. Will it actually hold it's own against its competitors or will it fall flat? We'll find out when the game hits the shelves this November.