Pocket Rumble -- 8 December 2019
Wait... did I not already have some multiplayer footage of this game? I swear I did. Maybe I only meant to?
Let's get ready to rumble:
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It's weird that all I did before was play some arcade and show off the general features of the characters in a rather vague and less than especially illuminating fashion, because where the game really comes alive is when you're playing with another human being... who... maybe... knows... some stuff about how the game works?
Frankly, I'm not convinced that I know how it works in the footage shown here. It's so simple that it becomes complicated again!
For the record, I'm throwing P2 into this totally blind, except for whatever unhelpful explanations and statements unconvincingly predicated with an "I think" at the end I can come up with in the heat of the moment.
Except P2 is technically P1, because of sync order... but the game will happily oblige and let us choose which side we choose to play on anyway, just like many fighting games do in their multiplayer components.
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Match #1:
Naomi vs. Tenchi
a.k.a. "button check"... a.k.a. "how do I do a thing again?"
For such a deliberately simple game, it feels slightly less simple to explain than necessary. Once you get it, it's easy to grasp, and anything you learn as one character can be applied to most other ones, except for their signature gimmick, and certain types of characters specialize in totally different types of attacks...
However, I think the crux of the issue is that it's VERY dedicated to being a two-button fighter without special arcane sequences of directional inputs you'll need to memorize... which means that, in order to get the variety of moves included in the game to differentiate, you need to tune in to the logical wavelength on which its commands are built.
Regular attacks need to be a thing, obviously. So will crouching attacks, to make high/low guarding a thing. Plus aerial attacks, which can only be blocked high, to complete the rock-paper-scissors of basic attack types between offense and defense. (SNK Heroines has NO high/low guarding, which makes a strictly face-to-face 2D fighter start to feel a little stale without some kind of movement-based defensive agency.)
We'll also need to be able to attack while advancing and retreating, so it can't be a simple alteration by "directional normal," since our two attack buttons are "Light" and "Heavy" attacks. So... what are we to do?
Pocket Rumble utilizes a "tap" versus "press" system. Pressing either attack button for just an instant will guarantee that it's always going to be a normal attack. Pressing it longer than that... would still lead to a lot of input flubs in the heat of battle if that's all it took to generate a special move.
So it's down+forward or down+back, your diagonal inputs, to use your specials. You obviously won't be moving while you're crouching, and it avoids assigning anything in combination with up, which is your jump input.
See how long it took me to mentally untangle all that? No wonder we didn't use many special moves here.
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There's also a little bit of awkwardness to the fact that "Rematch" sends you to the character select screen, unlike 90+% of all fighting games these days, which usually means you want to use the same exact characters. Pocket Rumble is actually pretty dedicated to the idea that you'll want to switch who you're using, so it keeps separate stats on each player's win rate by the character.
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Match #2:
Parker vs. Quinn
A defense-minded trap-master versus an all-out rushdown speedster... who can get even rush-ier once per match until he gets hit or his meter runs dry.
It doesn't help that Parker gets to parry, but only until he messes up three times. (If you succeed, you don't consume a block on the parry gauge.) Usually, for me, a missed parry attempt is its own punishment.
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Match #3
Subject 11 vs. June
Pocket Rumble, the game where all attacks do one point of damage, decides that throws are the exception and get to inflict two. So its resident grappler character becomes a high risk/reward proposition by needing perfect execution to do... tons of damage.
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Match #4
Keiko vs. Hector
Neither of these characters should be used by newbies, but Hector's the one that outright harms himself if he doesn't notice his specials hurt himself and he needs to regularly cash in the "stock" on the meter each one adds so he can heal it back. Any excess, and you're literally killing yourself without any means of recuperating additional losses.
You can also switch characters mid-round! ...for some reason! That's... confusing!
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Match #5
June vs. June
I wanted to June. Everyone likes to June. June, June, June!
I don't think she's just for spammers... June, what with repeated blocking of specials resulting in "chip" damage and the ability to set up her own unavoidable mixups, is probably the strongest in the game.
Change my mind. (Please do!)