Reviewed: December 11, 2002
Reviewed by: Loki
Publisher
Ubisoft
Developer
Rage Software
Released: November 12, 2002
Genre: Sports
Players: 2
ESRB: Teen
7
6
6
7
6.8
Supported Features:
This was an interesting review for me. I hate boxing but I love Rocky. Yeah, go figure that one out. I really don’t see the sport in two men getting into a ring and pummeling each other with padded gloves. But there has always been something…inspirational about the Rocky movies. Perhaps it is the story of the underdog rising up against impossible odds only to lose it all then get it all back again, or perhaps I’m just a sucker for bad dialog and worse acting.
Rocky for the GBA lets you relive the Rocky legend in one of the most comprehensive movie licenses ever released. This title just doesn’t use a few token characters from the movie so it can cash in on the license. It encompasses all of the movies, all of the major characters, and all of the locations made famous in the five feature films.
Rage Software has done a fantastic job of capturing the look and feel of the Rocky franchise starting from the moment you turn your GBA on. You are greeted with a MIDI rendition of Bill Conti’s signature piece, “Gonna Fly Now”, and even without the lyrics it still invokes a certain emotional mood.
While boxing games are plentiful there aren’t a lot of them (if any) that are based on a movie so it is understandable that this game plays out more like an interactive movie with boxing thrown in that a boxing game with movies thrown in.
You have several game modes to choose from in Rocky, but the movie mode will be the place you want to start. This is akin to the career or season modes found in other sporting games. This allows you to start off as the aspiring boxer and go through all five movies, fighting all those fighters that were responsible for inflicting so much damage on our hero.
Control is pretty easy with the A and B buttons assigned to left and right punches. Remember, Rocky is a southpaw. You can also pull of some fancy combos using the D-pad and R-trigger while the L-trigger lets you sidestep or dodge an incoming blow. Dodging looks a bit strange as you only see the boxers from the trunks up, so you never see any fancy footwork.
You can build up Rocky’s skill, stamina, and other attributes by training in the gym and sparring with other boxers before you mix it up in the big event. One of my friends has the GameCube version and he was telling me that you could train Rocky by beating on the sides of beef in the warehouse. Apparently, and much to my regret, this was cut from the GBA version.
As you progress through the various fights you unlock cutscenes that are composed of captioned movie stills that tell the story we should all know by heart. With so many memorable scenes the designers could have chosen for these cutscenes I was very surprised to see how well they actually did in picking the perfect visual to tell the tale.
Once the cutscene is over you can begin to train for the next movie fight. One nice feature is that you are not required to train yourself if you don’t want to. There is a handy auto-train feature that will have the computer randomly increase your stats. Personally, I like to control my own destiny, but the option is there nonetheless.
The graphics are adequate considering that this is primarily a 2D boxing game. The fighting rings are all unique for each movie in which they take place and you will recognize many of your favorite rings from the films. They are kind of low-res compared to the excellent character models and animations.
The boxers all look great and you will instantly recognize Apollo, Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago, and others. They move pretty well and throw realistic punches and combos. The various animation sequences are all tied together with plenty of transitional frames to keep everything looking lifelike.
The music is pretty generic stuff once you get past the stirring opening theme. You’d be better served turning the music off so you can enjoy the above-average sound effects. There are plenty of punches, grunts, thuds, bell dings, and the ever-present murmuring and cheering of the crowd. The crowd noises were oddly detached from the action so it seems like the cheering is on a repeating loop rather than taking its cues from the action in the ring.
The movie mode is fairly comprehensive but you can still work your way through it in a single sitting. As you progress through the movie mode you will unlock new characters that you can play in the exhibition mode. These are also available for link play if you have a friend with a copy of the game and a GBA link cable.
While each character has a certain set of stats, you cannot change or improve these since training is not available outside the movie mode. This takes a little of the longevity out of the exhibition mode.
When you have finished the movie mode you will unlock the Knockout Tournament. This is essentially a survival mode where you pick a group of fighters then take them on one at a time. This is nothing that games like Tekken haven’t been offering, but it does offer some extra gameplay.
There are several boxing games available for the GBA but none of them have the history or lore of Rocky. While this might not be the best or most advanced boxing game on the market it does have style and anyone who like boxing or even more importantly, Rocky owes it to themselves to at least give this a rental.
