Rocky: Legends (PlayStation 2)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.8 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Alex Navarro
• Reviewed on: 10/04/2004
• Released on: 09/28/2004
• Originally published on GameSpot: Rocky: Legends (PlayStation 2) Review

A little under two years ago, Ubisoft published Rocky, a boxing game based on the famous film franchise that starred Sylvester Stallone as a Philadelphian boxer who rose up from the streets to become the unlikeliest of champions. While it certainly would have made for another good underdog story had this seemingly ill-fitting, film-licensed game turned out to be a champion among boxing titles, it sadly wasn't, thanks to a few blatant gameplay exploits and some rather shoddy graphics, which dragged the game down. In 2004, Ubisoft is giving the Rocky license another go with Rocky: Legends for the PS2 and Xbox. Legends manages to do pretty much what a sequel should do, correcting a lot of the first title's flaws and adding a number of new features. Unfortunately, Legends is still not an especially noteworthy boxing game, but for serious fans of the Rocky films, the game does have its worthwhile moments.

Rocky: Legends is an arcade boxer through and through. If you're expecting anything like Fight Night 2004, taper your expectations immediately, because this game offers nowhere near that game's level of depth. As far as the mechanics go, the four face buttons on the controller are used for your basic right and left high jabs and low jabs. By pressing up or down on the analog stick while pressing one of the face buttons, you'll perform a hook punch. And depending on what version of the game you're playing, by holding down the R1 button or the right trigger button while pressing one of the face buttons, you'll perform an uppercut. You can also use the L1 or left trigger buttons in conjunction with the left analog stick to perform blocks and dodges to counter your opponent's punches. The game's combo system is simplistic, in that it simply relies on orderings of button presses, and not much else. If you can memorize the proper button-tap sequences, Rocky: Legends quickly becomes a breeze on the default difficulty. That is not to say that this game is a simple button masher, as you will have to keep your punch and combo variety up throughout a match to be successful, but once you get the actual combos down, causing large amounts of damage quickly becomes a basic exercise.

Rocky: Legends isn't too far off from the previous game in terms of gameplay mechanics, but a big difference comes in the way of artificial intelligence. In the original Rocky, it was possible to win every single match by taking advantage of the dopey opponent boxers and some unfortunate glitches, which allowed you to simply jab your way to victory. The good news is that these really blatant exploits are gone. Each computer-controlled boxer behaves somewhat differently depending on his skills and personality, but nearly all of them manage to act at least fairly intelligently during a match. They back off at the right times and attempt to circle around you to work the proper angles, and they adapt to your style of boxing as rounds progress, forcing you to change up your methodology as you play. The issue with animation glitches seems to be almost totally gone, although, in a couple of matches we did notice that we were able to get opponents into a few jab-based punch loops, and we got in a good five or six shots simply because our opponent couldn't recover quickly enough. It doesn't happen often and it can't be abused as much as it could be before, because eventually the CPU will find a way to get out of it. So, ultimately, this issue is not a deal breaker.

Legends features a significantly higher number of playable boxers than its predecessor, each and every one of which was either featured, or at least mentioned in one of the Rocky films. Everybody from Ivan Drago to Tommy Gunn is here, and they're fully playable (though many of them must be unlocked). There are a few modes of play in Legends, including a quick exhibition match, a championship tournament mode, a basic survival mode, and a career mode, which is definitely the most interesting mode in the game. The first Rocky game only let you play as the Italian Stallion himself, and it spanned all five of the Rocky movies. In this mode you can pick from four of the main feature boxers in the game, including Rocky himself, Carl Weathers' Apollo Creed, Dolph Lundgren's Ivan Drago, and Mr. T's Clubber Lang.

Each storyline gives you some brief insight into how each fighter got his start. You'll get to see Clubber work his way from incarceration to championship contender and you'll learn of Ivan Drago's military beginnings. The cool thing about the storylines for the non-Rocky characters is that the endings provide sort of an alternate history to each movie in which the boxers were featured. What would happen if Clubber Lang beat Rocky once and for all? Well, now you'll know. However, the unfortunate downside to the career mode is that there isn't a whole lot of story outside of a few cutscenes that show up from time to time. You still get a decent sense of plot from these scenes, but the stories would have been a lot more effective had they been expounded upon a bit more.

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