fighting

This game is pretty good, but it is certainly not the best it could be. This game has the "Good Things" and the Bad Things." I'll start with the good.
The Good Things
1.The graphics are good, but not the best. Some of the boxers are not as muscular as they should be, but the graphics aren't solid like The Legend of Zelda Windwaker.
2. The story is great. It basically follows the Rocky movie series. I do wish you could be boxers like Clubber Lang and Apollo Creed during movie mode.

3. Every button on the left control pad is a punch, and you can use the arrows and the "R1" button to combine with the other buttons to make a stronger or faster punch.
4. The variety of characters is amazing. Once you beat the game, there are many characters, such as Ivan Drago, you can be during exhibition mode. Now for the bad things.
The Bad Things
1. On movie mode, once you get to a certain point the game becomes virtually impossible. The beginning of the game through the Rocky IV part is no challenge.
2. It is really hard to gain points for strength, speed, stamina etc. unless you use auto train. The only easy one to gain points is for strength. You also lose points when you win a fight.
3. You almost always fight a boxer with points that exceed yours. But for me, stats doesn't really matter, because I kick their butts!
Those are really the goods and the bads about Rocky. If you are a huge Rocky fan, I definitely reccomend this game. If you are uncertain about the game, like I was, rent it first. Again, this isn't as good as it could be, but overall is a really good game.

I am shocked that so many video game sites wrote this game off as mediocre. There is nothing mediocre about the game, yeh it has it's flaws, but so does every game. There are a couple different modes in the game: Knockout, Exhibtion, and Movie. Movie Mode is where you can unlock all the characters & arenas. Some of the boxers in the game you can unlock: Tommy Gunn, Ivan Drago, Clubber Lang, Apollo Creed, Union Cane, Joe Czak, Billy Snow, The Rock Statue (yes it is alive lol), and good ol' Mickey Goldmill Rocky's Trainer. The Movie Mode follows the storyline from the Rocky I-V you first battle as Rocky I then II then III then IV and finally at V. The graphics are pretty good, gameplay rocks, and it's certainly worth $19.99, but certainly not $49.99 when it orignally came out. So if you're a big fan of the Rocky films, I highly recommend getting this game, you'll have fun playing it.

Prognosis: Excellent

-Dr Gamer

I saw this game at a retailer here and being a fan of the Rocky films, I knew I had to have it so I got it, popped it in the PS2 and was amazed with what I saw. It's exactly like the saga of Rocky Balboa beginning from the chapel match against Spider Rico in 1975 to the brutal no rules street fight with Tommy Gunn in 1990. This one's got most of it covered. It has excellent graphics in the fight venues and beautifully choreographed fighters with changeable costumes and actual boxing moves used everywhere. It's got great sound too. I had to turn my volume down to about 5 decibals to keep from blasting crowd noises and music throughout my house. The FMV sequences are amazing. ROCKY depicts Apollo Creed's discovery of Rocky and leads up to the Bicentennial Superfight in Philedelphia. ROCKY II shows Rocky and his dog, Butkis watching Apollo on TV talking trash about Rocky and how he doesn't have the guts to stay in the ring 5 minutes with a superior athlete like him. That one is very realistic because if you notice it, Rocky's turtles Cuff and Link are in the bowl on top of the TV and Rock and Adrian's wedding photo is there too. ROCKY III shows Rocky doing rather well and Clubber Lang's jealousy. It goes into showing an obituary for Mickey in the paper and Clubber's intense training. "You had your shot, now give me mine!" ROCKY IV, my personal favorite shows Ivan Drago's scientific demonstration and his ruthless murder of Apollo Creed. "If he dies, he dies. I cannot be defeated." and ROCKY V sums up Tommy Gunn's training and betrayal and Washington's speech about how he must taunt Rocky to provoke a fight. They were all very realistic and just movie dialogue and some voice action was used to make the sound. There's also an intro showing movie scenes and the credits show movie press stills. After completing movie mode, you unlock the knockout tournament in which you fight through bronze silver and gold belts. It's extremely fun. You build Rocky's strength with training sessions and can even do an Autotrain where you can build his stats and not even go through a session. Though i reccomend going through the sessions to build Rocky up faster. The only things wrong with this game are the facts that Adrian and Pauly aren't even in any FMV sequences, the fighters you go against become too predictable, and only the Rocky theme, Gotta Fly Now, is used as music. They should've put No Easy Way Out and Eye of The Tiger in as well. Plus you get sluggish after you come up on extremely tough fighters. It took me at least 19 tries to defeat Austrailian boxer Tim Simms. But other that this, this game is perfect. Menu Navigation is easy and has help options if you're confused and a sparring mode and exhibition matches to practice for big rounds in movie mode. Buy this game. It's a real Knock-out!