by
Ted Kritsonis
Faze Video Game Editor

Adrian! Adrian! Well, you won’t be yelling out her name at any point in Rocky Legends, but the game does provide an interesting look into all the boxers that made the movie franchise famous.

Rocky Legends has a career mode that lets you assume the roles of Rocky Balboa (whom Stallone made famous), Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang (good ol’ Mr. T.) or Ivan Drago, before they appear in the Rocky movies. Each career path takes you down the long road to respectability and a shot at the world boxing championship. In between fights, you go through training exercises to enhance attributes like power and quickness.



Before I go into the actual boxing element of the game, I should mention that the training exercises can be extremely frustrating in the early going. The button combinations employed are both unnecessary and unhealthy. For example, Ivan Drago’s situp exercise can only be successfully done by “rhythmically” tapping the O and X buttons. All the “rhythms” I tried ended in abject failure. What would’ve worked better was holding the button for a certain period of time and then releasing at just the right moment, which was the same configuration used for other training exercises in the game. But as it is, all the button mashing can leave you with a sore wrist.

As for what goes on in the ring, the actual boxing can be a lot of fun. Controls are fairly straightforward with different analog stick-button combinations controlling bigger punches. Super punches, which are employed by using the R1 button along with a punch button can be tough to pull off. The instruction manual says you have to tap the R1 button, but after tapping away, I couldn’t throw the punch.

This is why it’s important to take ample time in the Practice mode before anything else. There are a ton of punch combinations and you’ll need to learn the art of blocking as well, since it could mean the difference during a bout in the ring. You can change settings so that your sparring partner just stands there, attacks or defends.



There are plenty of interesting locales to fight in, which include the streets of Philadelphia, Madison Square Garden and the Moscow arena from Rocky IV, along with a list of 40 boxers to choose from, after all have been unlocked.

The lack of any online play is a real sore spot for Rocky Legends, but it does come across as a decent arcade-influenced boxing experience. It can be pretty easy to get into it and one-on-one matches with friends can be plenty of fun too. There are some frustrating angles in certain aspects of the game, but they don’t overshadow what is an interesting look into the Rocky franchise.

Publisher:
Ubisoft
Developer:
Venom Games

Platform:
PS2

Rating: 7/10