Knock Out: Rocky Legends Hands-On

Rocky Legends is shaping up to be possibly the best looking boxer ever, but has the gameplay taken a beating?

Venturing through last month's Convention Center war grounds we eventually found a small crowd had gathered around the Rocky: Legends at UbiSoft's impressive booth. Hopping up and down, bobbing and weaving while throwing punches into the air, we had hoped to hear hoardes of adoring fans chanting the name, "Rocky, Rocky, Rocky!" - but instead, we got dead silence and strange looks. Nobody was cheering, and after picking up Rocky: Legends for a play, nether were we.

Rocky: Legends, instead of being just another Rocky game that simply rehashes the storylines of the movies, is designed as a prequel to the original hit film, Rocky. The game features an all-new career mode that chronicles how it all began for movie boxing legends; Clubber Lang, Apollo Creed, Rocky Balboa, and Ivan Drago, taking you through their careers as raw amateurs and seasoned professionals - an interesting approach that could work quite well if done right.

There are over 40 opponents to unlock and plow through in Rocky: Legends, 26 of which are new fighters with the rest made up of returning fighters from the previous game. Along with a pretty healthy roster of fighters the game also features 20 fight venues - 13 of which are new - allowing players to revisit a variety of familiar spots from the film, some of which include the Russian training camp from Rocky IV (Russian spies not included), the Philadelphia Art Museum where Rocky has run up those long tiring steps on many occasions, and even the Docks in Philly where some of Rocky's fondest memories were of roughing up poor schmucks who couldn't pay their debts.

The game's expanded training mode features eight different training games that can be played in single player mode or with a friend in the 2-player mode. There are also 5 tailored training sessions for each boxer to choose from in their respective career modes.

While Rocky: Legends contains a solid range of options and gameplay features, the most important aspect of the Vencom-developed game will ultimately be how well it plays. After hitting start we selected the Russian tower of power, Ivan Drago as our boxer of choice.

Pitted in a David vs. Goliath styled match up against a smaller but faster CPU opponent, the mighty Russian was completely overwhelmed with hits coming from all directions. Struggling with the controls of the big man we selected one of the smaller, faster boxers and still struggled with the game controls a bit, as the boxers seemed to move at a sluggish pace. Other than that, the game's core fighting engine seems pretty solid - and the Xbox version will feature Xbox Live support allowing for player vs. player online matches and leagues.

After playing the E3 build of Rocky Legends, I can't say that we're all that impressed by it - while the game sports some pretty sweet graphics containing well-constructed character models, detailed backgrounds, and decent crowd animations, I'd gladly trade all of that in for more intuitive controls and gameplay.

With months of development time left on the game, let's just hope the developers polish it up enough in time for its November release.

Joseph Jakcosn
Staff Writer, Kikizo Games