First off, you can't knock Ready 2 Rumble Revolution for its "value pricing" coming in a full $10 cheaper than a typical Wii game. However, you can play it for a while and then knock it for costing more than the $2 copy of Ready 2 Rumble on Dreamcast or PlayStation2 you saw at a garage sale.

Fact is, this Wii version is little more than an rehash of an old boxing game series that's only remembered for its caricature presentation and general goofball charm in the first place. It wasn't much of a boxing game back then and is even less of one now, mainly because it tries too hard to be a Wii-generation waggle fest and can't even get that right.

You'll jump into a training tutorial out of the gate where you're told to hold the Wii remote (Wii-mote) and Nunchuk up in front of you like boxing gloves. You'll learn to throw jabs by pushing either device forward like, well, a jab. So far so good. The end.

Next you're shown how to throw hooks, uppercuts and body shots (later, sways and evasive wobbles), but at that point your "gloves" start to feel like big, sloppy, unanchored joysticks as the exercise degenerates into something akin to "backhoe operator for Dummies."

It's not totally unplayable - the mandatory training shows a rather large variety of punches and moves potentially available while the mini-games (i.e. ten variation of "Simon Says waggle this way") are a good lessons in futility - but presentation aside, Ready 2 Rumble Revolution never comes off as a boxing game.

Holding the Wii-mote rigidly vertical, then carefully sliding it right then back left to invoke a roundhouse is an entirely stiff, robotic affair that may not even register as such anyway - or they may register as something else entirely if you so much as breath in the process. An uppercut isn't an uppercut at all; it's a hoist-directly-vertical.

All told, the expected motions require such deliberate efforts (with delayed if not null effect, no less) that it's more like a game of remote crochet... with a backhoe. Computer controlled opponents, meanwhile, have no such handicap and will readily take you to school every time.

When you see Ready 2 Rumble Revolution at a garage sale for $2, pick it up knowing that it offers you and a buddy a couple of hours of jab fest fun, but that's about it. Mind you, if you see a box of tired old boxing gloves at that same garage sale, get those instead.

Ready 2 Rumble Revolution TIP: The trick to is to not think nor act like a boxer. Hold your hands straight out and make small, distinct movements rather than really throwing your best "air haymaker" or whatever.