Ultimate Muscle: The Path of the Superhero review (Game Boy Advance)

What separates Ultimate Muscle from other wrestling games is that you don't win matches by pinning your opponent. Instead, you have to KO your adversaries by performing signature moves when their stamina is low. You can execute a signature move when an opponent is stunned or has been launched into the air, but the timing window for performing these moves is much shorter than for normal grapples. The only time the blue area of the meter is substantial is when your opponent is completely worn out. Otherwise, you'll need to activate what's called a friendship power in order to supersize the meter. The friendship meter builds gradually every time you and your opponent come in contact, typically giving you two or three opportunities to perform signature moves during a match. Signature moves liven up the pace of a match considerably, mainly because they're accompanied by glitzy graphical effects and digitized voice clips taken directly from the cartoon series.

The cutscenes that occur between matches and when signature moves are performed help tie the video game into the cartoon series, but even the action in the ring bears striking a resemblance to the TV show. The characters are large and look exactly like they do on TV or in the toy packages, even if the animation isn't as smooth as is possible on the Game Boy Advance. Every time you perform a signature move or activate a friendship power, you'll hear the actual characters call out their moves, thanks to the use of digitized voice clips. There's even running, text-based commentary from Mac Metaphor and Doc Nakano that scrolls across the bottom of the screen. Some of the ring locations don't display much in the way of outside detail, but that doesn't detract substantially from the game's intended celluloid look.

While Ultimate Muscle: The Path of the Superhero is primarily a game for fans of the franchise, there's enough in it to appeal to enthusiasts of traditional fighting and wrestling games. The characters and their moves are positively hilarious, and the combat system is complex enough to allow two human players to play match after match without growing bored.