I was half expecting this to be an April fools retrospective where its only them saying, "The Rumble Fish" over and over, with the real video happening a week or so later.

Gotta love how Zen's headband looks like a Rumble Fish's tail,its just so great

10:48 Prior to The Rumble Fish, there were PlayStation-era Gundam fighting games that relied on multi-jointed sprites for the animation of the mobile suits, so that means each limb of the mobile suits had to be separated sprites that can be combined to form the whole body.

The Rumble Fish honestly reminds me of Pokémon Black & White battle sprites, just puppet rigs that are animated with sprite manipulation and some extra unique frames for necessary animations

With how the models animate it honestly looks like a few vtubers finally cracked and started throwing hands; this is a compliment I love this crazy style.

We honestly owe so much to DIMPS, it's crazy how The Rumble Fish really helped lead us into such a revival for the fighting game genre despite no one knowing it at the time.

Dimps and 8ing are two unsung legends in fighting games. They've been either developers or co-developers on some of the most influential fighting games of the past two decades and that deserves a lot of respect.

damn, this was crazy. i knew dimps made both rf and sf4 but it never fully registered for me that dimps is partially (i would even say primarily) responsible for the resurgence of my new favorite genre. what a legendary game for how underappreciated it is. heres to hoping this video gives it a whole new wave of fans!

I hope Waku Waku 7 remains a running joke and all, but I do hope it gets it’s video someday soon. I adore that game.

THE RUMBLE FISH. _(The Rumble Fish.)_ Who would've thought that a couple of niche fighters with weird Paper Mario animation would lead to Dimps becoming Capcom's go-to fighting game studio? It's ironic how between Dimps and Eighting, it's the humble folks who pump out endless licensed anime stuff to keep the lights on who ended up saving the day for Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom and giving a jolt to the 2D fighter space.

Once I heard that title screen in your KoF retrospective, I immediately knew it wasn't a matter of "If" but "When" you would make this video. You absolutely never disappoint, man. Thank you.

In the 2012 version the secret characters were available from the start, so they literally cut content for DLC in the new port. Also the 2012 version was never wide screen. But they recently updated the new port to fix the widescreen.

16:23 it is me, I am the one person whose mind was blown because I've (vaguely) known of Rumble Fish The Game and when I was in middle school I really liked Rumble Fish The Book. Thank you for drawing the connection I couldn't make over a decade ago :)

I'm actually shocked there hasn't been any sort of Cosplays of these characters but I am interested in doing one of Zen.

I think an easier way to describe the visuals in these games is "2D Skeletal Animation" - essentially creating the individual parts (bones) and attatching them together into a model (skeleton) almost like papercraft. Of course, games allowing you to switch out these parts at leisure means its more like... papercraft+. Pokemon Black & White (and their sequels) used this technique for the battle animations as well.

The fact that you mentioned Slap Happy Rhythm Busters unlocked a core memory. I remember me and some buddies going WAY too hard at that game.

Awesome. I'm looking forward to an hour of The Rumble Fish title screen on a loop. 😅

That last chapter gives me so much hope. It's really cool to know that not only are these games not forgotten, but that the artists behind them are still perfecting their medium. I like that.

That animation system is really interesting. They essentially reverse-engineered the “puppet” style of digital animation that would have been fairly new at the time, but with 3D models instead of like 2D Flash characters. Which seems crazy, but I can see how it might be a clever time and money saver.

*The Rumble Fish* _The Rumble Fish_

I appreciate the Escape from New York reference. That is on my top five favorite movies.

Out of all the retrospectives you have done till now this is the one I know nothing about. I knew little to a lot of history about all other retrospectives that you made before but nothing about this one

That title screen sounds like one guy kept forgetting the name of the game and two other people were getting increasingly annoyed. "What was the name of that game again?" "THE RUMBLE FISH! 😠" "the rumble fish 😒"

DIMPS, thank you for reviving 2D fighters and 8ing, you sure did earn my respect. And to all the other companies known to make niche 2D fighters such as Yuki Enterprise/Examu/Team Arcana (Arcana Heart, Daemon Bride, etc.) and even Watanabe Seisakujou/French Bread (Melty Blood, Under Night In Birth, etc.), thank you. And speaking of the mid-2000's dark age of 2D fighting games, please do more of these Fighting Game Retrospectives on 2000's 2D fighting games: Arcana Heart Melty Blood And one last thing, because you've mentioned Samurai Shodown in your KOF Retrospectives, can you please do a Samurai Shodown Retrospective soon?

Because I can’t think of anything new to say, I’m just going to repeat the joke I made during the KOF retrospective (the last time The Rumble Fish was mentioned). Ahem… Man: “The Rumble Fi- Woman: “The Rumble Fish.” Man: “I was talking!”

Great work as always man. I think a grab bag of random obscure arcade fighters and slap happy rythmn busters would make an interesting retrospective someday

This video may unironically the longest documentation about this game. There is NOTIHING on it on KZfaq except for gameplay.

This is cool it's lowkey a bit insane this got a retrospective before Melty. Excited as ever tho thorgi

I’ve been waiting for this since the Rumble Fish but during the KOF restropective. Finally, my prayers have been answered

I've got to jump on this patreon, you do AMAZING work on these retrospectives. That and your voice is so soothing as I'm working and has this playing in the background

Holy shit a core memory was unlocked for me. I remember playing Demolish fist at my local arcade before it closed; but I could not for the life of me remember the name!

Thorgi this channel is the best! Keep exploring the old and obscure fighting games!

I've never played The Rumble Fish, but honestly I'd love to give it a go. I love the more under the radar fighting games to death. Speaking of which, I wouldn't mind a Retrospective on Melty Blood. Keep up the great work!

I have to say this game seems to have that Japanese take on American urban culture. You know the style of like Jet Set Radio,air gear and Digimon at the time even. I always called this theme "bapecore" because the clothing brand Bathing ape or Bape is a lot like this. It's a Japanese clothing company but has a really urban American flair but is still very Japanese. The American influence of Bathing ape is seen in the mouth that is featured on a lot of Bape merch. I have heard some say that it was picked because it was shaped kind of like the Nike logo but I can't find any proof of that. Was is more obvious is the fact it is clearly meant to look like the Shark Mouth the Us military painted on it's warplanes (I say painted because they have since disallowed painting in aircraft at least in combat the only exception being the famous A-10 Warthog because it is so old it predates this regulation). Ironically the American planes that had this insignia were the same ones that harried Japan in World War 2 and as far as I can tell this has never been a point of controversy. I guess this shows the 2 countries have set aside their differences.

You know when you mentioned that "Rumble Fish" gag back in the KoF retrospective, I didn't expect you'd literally be doing it a year later.

Goddamn, this game is peak mid-2000s anime.

It would be interesting to see you cover Chaos Code and Daemon Bride at some point. Though this game looked so badass.

Wow! Definitely didn’t expect a retrospective on The Rumble Fish of all games, but I’m definitely here for it man. I’ve always loved the unique mechanics and graphics the series had. Underrated and overlooked.

I'd love to see a World Heroes retrospective some time in the future. Love this series by the way.

Its really fun to see a retrospective on lesser know titles. I only knew this game exist because that one joke in previous video. The technology is really amazing (but man, the weird fluidity of the moves is hard to get use to) and honestly i really dig some of the desings (Bazoo is such a beast, i love it)

This is one of the most outstanding retrospectives of this year. Keep being awesome dude.

Great video. I especially liked how you wove this relatively obscure series into the larger tapestry of what was going on with fighting games by connecting it ultimately to SF4. Also: I feel that you go out of your way to honor the people who make these games by making them a large part of the story and that's a big part of why I like this series so much.

the lasy line "they desided tp fight for survivel" is great buddy keep up the great work, my love of fighting games grow after every video you make so thank you.

24:27 GET. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD. THORGI! I've been saying this for years 😂😂😂

In disbelief that you've made this video but also super overjoyed!!

The Rumble Fish!!!

I swear the moment I started the video, I looked up the game to see if it really didn't show up on Google and was surprised when I saw there was already a Steam page for it, and as soon as I saw all the reviews were negative and that there were three DLC characters, plus the price of the game? Bro, I couldn't WAIT to hear what you had to say about it, cause my hype for the game literally deflated the moment I saw it. Great video as always, both incredibly informative and hilarious. The Rumble Fish title screen gag was just the best, I couldn't get enough of it.

Wow, randomly found this channel and had to watch. I never heard of Rumble Fish til it came out on PS5 a few months ago, I own just about every 2D fighting game and have no idea how I missed this in 2004. Good video, dude. Much appreciated.

Amazing video as always Professor Thorgi!!! I didn't knew about the many mechanics in The Rumble Fish (like the Offensive Art, Defensive Art, Critical Arts, Impact Blow, Impact Break, Boost Dive and Jolt Attack) Also, Dimps and 8ing deserve more recognition.

I am fan of Rumble Fish now. Thanks for the intro to such a unique looking title!

Your channel is absolutely fantastic. I'm kinda mindblown by the quality. There was this wacky ass fighting game named Matrimelee, something I remembered when you were recounting obscure titles.

I am totally looking forward to this retrospective!

YEZZZIRR WE ON THAT PEAKK 🔥🔥🔥

Another great video. I'm glad that you cover underground gems that most younger FGC members may not know about.

Technically atomiswave wasn't new hardware at the time; It was basically an arcade-ized Dreamcast. Matter of fact, someone ported all of the atomiswave games to Dreamcast by changing a few lines of code, and they work beautifully

Glad to see this. Videos like this feel like they wer made for me. I got Rumble Fish2 almost 2 months ago for my 50 Combos in 50 fighting games. This is a fun game.

I found this video after watching the first part of the Street Fighter retrospective, and I'm so glad I watched it. The Rumble Fish is my kind of fighting game retro~ Props to DIMPS for starting a revolution~

49:23 This line clip needs to be a meme now

I believe Shaman King Spirit of Shamans for the ps1 released in 2002, also made by Dimps, uses a similar animation style. It combines 2d sprites with 3d models and the 2d sprites are rigged in a kind of animation puppet like in The Rumble Fish, but I dont know if this puppets are 2d or 3d.

Imagine taking a shot every time “Rumble Fish” is said in this video.

Im shocked to see how important this obscure fighting game with a goofy name was to the overall history of fighting games and games as a whole, really intriguing

This was amazing and might check these games out because how you talk about how fun they are and the importance of them has got me curious

waiting for that waku waku 7 retrospective

Dimps spending too much money? Who are they, SNK? ...wait.

Thank you for this! I've seen screenshots and some videos of these games throughout the years, now I want to play them! Thank you! "The Rumble Fish! ....the rumble fish..."

Hey, bro. This game is somewhat nostalgic to me, because I played the PS2 version of the game. 😁 Nice to see it getting some love in this fun and comprehensive retrospective. 👊🏻

Here are two suggestions for obscure fighting games I hope you will do retrospectives on in the future: Rage of the Dragons and Akatsuki Blitzkampf.

I remember playing this years ago back at Anime Weekend Atlanta in the early 2000's and it was pretty fun. Awesome video.

After viewing this retrospective a few times, I definitely wanna check this series out! Also I would love to see a future Rumble Fish installment of Build the Roster one day as well.

Great vid! 🔥

Thanks!

I've played my share of TRF whenever I'm at Galloping Ghost Arcade since they have 2. But I never knew there was an update to the 2nd one. Now I just play it on RetroArch.

THIS FUCKING GAME! I distinctly remember last time i went to Too Many Games (2019 i believe) i spent a lot of time in that arcade. Spent most of my time at the Kinnikuman machine because it was actually super sick. But like two machines down there was this game with a weird animation style where there was a giant dude with red arms fighting a little girl in pink with a kendo stick. Never got the name of it. Now i fucking know it. Thanks, Thorgi.

Can't wait for the Slap Happy Rhythm Busters retrospective

I'm kind of glad you decided to do retrospectives on more niche fighters. Cause honestly, as much as the big brands will always have their place, it's these smaller fighters that I tend to like the most. And it's a shame since they often are underlooked, if not overlooked entirely. So much so that you'd be hard pressed to find any decent documentation on them sometimes. I'm a big Examu fan (rebranded as Team Arcana) for instance and finding anything concrete on most of their games is a crapshoot at best. One of their fighters, "Daemon Bride", is still JP arcade exclusive and most videos I've seen covering it usually have surface level inaccuracies. So getting anything that's fairly well researched is both refreshing and legitimately interesting. Like, I'm not kidding when I say that while I knew of "Rumble Fish", I wasn't that interested in trying it out. Watching this has honestly gotten me curious enough to reconsider...though the issues with the modern port is still an unfortunate deterrent.

A Waku Waku 7 and a Slap Happy Rhythm Busters mention in the same video: I'm spoiled. SMA sounds very much like a Live2D predecessor.

Man I love your videos great work

Just got done watching all 4 KOF retrospective all hungry for these

Just bought it on Steam based on this video. Like a lot of obscure old school fighting games presented on this channel, now that I think about it,...90s and early 2000s developers sure have to thank you. ^^

Amazing Retrospective! I literally just purchased Rumble Fish 2 earlier today haha. I've owned the first Rumble Fish on import PS2 for years and never knew about most of the mechanics lol

Would love to see a video on the Battle Arena Toshiden series.

One of the best KZfaq series for gamers.

Can't believe my phone didn't tell me you had a new video

I've never heard of this game before and I'm amazed at the sprites and animation of them :O

Slap Happy Rhythm Busters was one of my first games as a kid. My excitement shot up 9999999999999% at just the mention of the name.

I would love a Build A Roster for a KOF styled Disney + Pixar fighting game.

thank you

I'd love to see a MK & Tekken retrospective next!

You said you were gonna do this..and you did. god-darn Thorgi.

I remember the 2nd game, especially since you can select Beatrice with a code, and while not as powerful as her final boss counterpart, her high priority movesets cuts through CPU opponents with ease. Plus, most of the time nobody wants to challenge someone playing a boss character on par with Omega Rugal in terms of damage

Cant wait to see the title loop for an hour

This one always looked cool, glad it's more available

I just started playing this on fightcade and it looked clunky but I love how it plays it's been a lot smoother than it looks and offense and defense meters are quickly becoming one of my favorite fighting game mechanics

I love the waving an the models movements fight me

12:20 She is definitely Geese' student with that mini Raging Storm. On the other hand this could be one of the reference Takashi-San's older games he wanted in the game

Great dedicated content!!

Slap Happy rhythm buster video when Having now watched this entirely, it's such a fantastic watch. Dimps is such an outstanding dev team

Oh wow, i actually did have access to a Premier Eleven cab, it was next to Project Justice at one of the arcades i frequented in high school. Good times.

Waku Waku 7 is lit, can't wait for the retrospective

I love the art in this game. Some of my favorite 2D animation ever. Looks like the characters are animated in a very advanced and much more powerful version of Flash.