SMS ~ Rocky Review

Overview

We all know Rocky Balboa the Italian Stallion don't we? The Rocky series, the king of all boxing movies, the ones that turned Slyvester Stallone into STALLONE. And we can all play with him in this Sega Master System effort.

Gameplay

In this game, you get to play the Italian Stallion Rocky Balboa. Like in the movies, your goal is to defeat Rocky's three main archrivals in the boxing ring in the following order; Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang and Ivan Draggo. Before each match, you must go through a training session, where the 1st two involve punching bags, and the 3rd one involves hitting mits. These training sessions nicely fit along with the spirit of the movies. The harder you train, the better prepared you are for the big match ahead. To box in the ring, button 2 is for throwing punches and button 1 is for defensive moves, including ducking, guarding high and low. You use the D-pad to move left and right. Now for the fights, you play in a side view, with Rocky to the right. Each match consists of 15 rounds, where the winner can either be decided on a TKO, 10 count or score cards. Each boxer will have a stamina meter and this gets recharged after each round, while your opponents strangely get recharged more. When you're down for the count, tap the buttons to make Mickey smack the canvas faster, very funny indeed! Rocky can do a fair number of moves. Jabs, power punches, body shots, and upper cuts. The controls are reasonably good and you can't ask much more of a Master System.

Apollo Creed is an easy chump to take out. Just keep whipping punches all around to keep that sucker down and pity the fool. Next we have Clubber Lang. He's no easy chump to beat, cause he's hungry for your chump. I mean, his mid-air punches while you're down for the count, means he's starving. Rocky's final match is against Ivan Draggo. Lets just say you'll feel the same pain as Rocky did when Draggo drove his knuckles into Rocky's skull to deliver some serious brain damage. You'll have to rely more on your training sessions to defeat Clubber and especially Ivan, because the defensive moves are difficult to use consistently when Clubber and Draggo want to KILL you.

8.5 out of 10

Graphics

The graphics throughout the game are pretty good. Rocky really does look like Stallone. The side-scrolling "ROCKY" just like in the movies was simple, yet classy. The boxing animations are quite fluid, especially when the boxers get knocked back, a very nice effect. Animations elsewhere were rather basic.

4.75 out of 5

Sound and Music

It's not music from the movies, but it still sounds good and suits a boxing game. Sound effects are basic, consisting of swooshes when punching, kah-blomps in landing power punches etc, yet they're effective and combine well with the music to create alot of tension.

4 out of 5

Versatility and Playability

You'll get away with beating Clubber by aggressively throwing punches and ducking every now and then. But Draggo will require some sort of strategy, just throwing punches will back-fire. If you leave the controls alone, Rocky will automatically move left and right repeatedly. Sounds silly? It could be a good thing since if you got distracted and your fingers left the controls, at least Rocky isn't meat for pounding. There should've been some way to show how the training contributes to your attributes speed, power etc, like Mickey telling you.

3.5 out of 5

Longevity and Options

Sadly the game has no options. There is 2-player, but only Rocky vs Apollo. As mentioned earlier, you only get to fight Apollo, Clubber and Draggo before the game ends. Draggo is awfully hard to beat, so this game should keep your head dizzy for at least a few days as it did for me.

3 out of 5

For: highly entertaining, good controls, fluid animations, simple but effective sound effects, a hungry Mr T Clubber Lang, Russian robot Ivan Draggo out to KILL you.

Against: very short game, some basic animations, no options, Apollo's a lousy chump, I pity the fool.

Rocky is a short game up till you face Ivan Draggo. If it had options, and more guys to beat up, I woulda given it a Gold or better. A game worthy of the movies indeed. Don't pity the fool.

It's the eye of the tiger

its the cream of the fight

risin up to the challenge of our rivals

and the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night

and he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger......