Rocky Legends (PS2)

The original Rocky saga set the stage for modern boxing films (Not to mention the Italo-American male stereotype), with scenes that are burnt into the mind of every male from 15 boy to 70 year old man.  Who could not feel the emotion as Rocky cried ‘Adddriannn’ after fighting Apollo Creed?  Who didn’t want to be running up the steps of the Philadelphia Town Hall waving your arms around like a mofo?  Well in Rocky Legends you get that chance.

Rocky Legends is set across all five movies, you get to take the ‘Italian Stallion’ through the critical scenes from the Film fighting all of the major bad guys.  Sick and tired of playing as Rocky, no problem, you can also take on the guise of  Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang (Played by Mr ‘looking mighty fine in those jeans’ T), Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) and the ever forgettable Tommy Morrision (Tommy Gunn.) Rocky Legends is heavily focused on tie in s from the film and an awful amount of though has gone into appropriate placement of original footage in to the game.

The game has several modes including Career mode, one on one, quick fights, training sessions and unlockables.  Rocky has a whole stack of unlockable’s including original movie trailers, more boxers, extra training levels (including the chicken chasing scene from Rocky II) and posters. The most time you will spend on Rocky Legends is career mode, you take control of any of the 5 characters and take them through their boxing carrier, starting out street fighting, eventually working up to prize fights and even the world championship.  After each match, you get to train in the gym.  Each training exercise is different for each character but allows the character to build key statistics, to make the punch faster or harder, move quicker and evade better.

When fighting against other characters in the ring, the controls are intuitive and allow ducking and weaving whilst still landing punches on your opponent.  Each character has a super move that they can release on their opponent, unfortunately this generally involves a finger twisting button combination making is difficult to pull off unless you like to dislocate your thumbs. Graphically the game takes allot of getting used to.  When you initially start the game the character appear to have greatly enlarged heads, NBA Jam style.  You quickly become to realise that when you build up your characters strength or endurance the body shape changes in relation to the Gym exercises performed.  Do lots of bench presses the character gets bigger pecks, lots of skipping the character gets bigger legs, its this level of detail that helps draw you deeper into the game.

The sound is by far the best portion of this game.  The In game audio samples all of the original movie sound tracks, and is quite outstanding.  One highlight in particular is when you are fighting another boxer and his or your health is down to nearly zero, the original movie soundtrack starts to play, exactly like the movies.
Several times you will find the music inspiring you to boxing genius and you will pummel your opponent into the ground and fling the controller across the room in a fit of testosterone.

Overall Rocky Legends is an addictive fun game that you will not put down until you finish it.  Rocky Legends has great replay value and you will find your mates reliving some of the classic fights from the movies for weeks to come.

Graphics: 3/5
Sound: 5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Longevity: 3/5
Replay: 3/5
Overall: 3/5

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