Pocket Rumble

Here’s a 2D fighter that adopts the rather lovely Neo-geo Pocket Color aesthetic, with a two-button control scheme plus character sprites that have big, expressive faces and three whole colours. Pocket Rumble attempts to be friendly to beginners. All eight characters play differently, but their four special moves are activated with the same simple inputs – diagonal down-forward or down-back and one of the two buttons. However, combo timing is somewhat punishing and CPU players are efficient killers from the very first fight. Coupled with a slightly barebones presentation – no character endings and only a basic career mode – we can’t help but feel that Pocket Rumble shows promise but needed a little more time in the dojo.