Rocky (PS2, XBX)
By Susie Vee

PLATFORM: PC

PUBLISHER: Rockstar

DEVELOPER: NEO/Remedy

GENRE: 3rd-Person Shooter

ESRB: Mature

SCORE:

Now, far be it from us to pass judgment on the sad state of Sylvester Stallone’s career, but let’s face it: he’s barely two steps above Chevy Chase on the Hollywood leading man list. So the time has come for Sly to lean on his past glories and pump out a movie-license game about a series nobody’s given a thought to in the last decade.

Not to be too hard on old Rocky Balboa, of course. The original Rocky (scripted by Stallone himself) was a classic. But like many a film franchise, lame sequel after sequel wasted any good will Sly had with the movie-going public. Of course, everyone has fond memories of Mr. T as Clubber Lang in Rocky III, but have you tried to sit through that movie since you were eight years old? Eye of the tiger indeed.

Moving on up to 2002, we get Rocky, the video game. With recent titles like Victorious Boxers and Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing, the boxing genre wasn’t exactly burning up the charts, and of course, boxing itself is an acquired taste that’s always eluded us gals. It must be something about that combination of lumbering steroid-heads pounding each other senseless and the stogie-chomping fans who love them.

But, much like military service or zombie hunting, there are things that may not appeal to gamer gals in real life, but can be fun virtual activities. Rocky the game is one of the more amusing boxing titles we’ve played, and can actually suck you into some addictive gameplay if you’re not careful. The very first time we picked it up, we were halfway through the plot of Rocky II before we knew what hit us (no pun intended).

Gameplay is pretty simple. After an intro for each fighter, you dance around the ring and try to knock the other guy down. You’ve got a variety of head and body blows to work with, as well as the ability to block and taunt. Your punching power and stamina are represented by life bars, and you’ll want to keep them both up, or you’ll be eating canvass before you know it.

You can fight sample “exhibition” matches, play against a friend, or go through all five Rocky movies as Mr. Balboa himself. 3D models of actors like Stallone and Carl Weathers turn up in cut scenes, but the audio seems to be lifted directly from the films.

One clever touch is the training sessions you do between matches. You can pick from several mini-games and after some furious button mashing, you’ll add to your stats in various categories like stamina and speed. Annoyingly, you’ll also randomly loose points between matches, for reasons that are never adequately explained.

Graphically, the fighters all look good, and there are dozens of them to unlock. As you progress, your main Rocky model will change from Rocky I up through V. The only real difference? Less feathered hair as you move forward in time.

However, this game is one of the few examples we can think of with a real difference between the PS2 and Xbox versions. While the boxers and action in the PS2 version are clean enough, the crowds of cheering fight fans are one of the saddest things we’ve ever seen. Little blocky pixilated guys and gals that seemed to be ripped from an old PS One game at best.

But when we booted up the Xbox version, the crowd was what you’d expect. Fairly detailed, with lots of different animations. While not directly affecting the gameplay, this PS2 graphical glitch is a serious detriment to the overall experience and it smacks of an unfinished product.

While this game may not everyone’s cup of testosterone, if you can see yourself getting into a boxing title, Rocky isn’t a bad one to try.