Rocky
Score: 60% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Rage Media: Cart/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Sports/ Fighting
Graphics & Sound: The GBA has seen very few titles in the fighting genre and nearly zero titles in the boxing genre. So when I heard that Rocky was going to be released on the GBA, my interest was perked. The console counterpart has undoubtedly done great since its release, so how did the version on the handheld pan out? From a graphical aspect, the gameplay in Rocky is very photo-realistic for a handheld. The GBA's color palette was definitely put to some good use. The frame rate during gameplay suffered from this immensely, which throws your reaction time off by a lot. The title interface is interesting, and there are a few cut scenes (not movies, just text and images, folks...) for the player's viewing pleasure during story mode. Sound is also a nice touch. Voice-overs are excellent considering the abilities of the GBA speakers, not to mention sound effects. The crowds chant 'Rocky, Rocky!', as well as cheer and boo on cue, which gives a realistic edge to the game. The synthesized music from the movies is not great, however.
Gameplay: The actual concept of Rocky is great - in Story mode, the player builds up Rocky Balboa's (a.k.a. The Italian Stallion) stats and fights all of the same fights in the movies (from I - V). Before each fight, a cut scene is shown with the same dialogue from the movies and image cut-outs. All the makings for an immersive game! Between fights, the player can do exactly two exercises. Balboa can take a run on the speed bag or the punching bag or choose from a couple of other exercises. His performance on them will affect the stats for the next fight. A good run will make the upcoming match much easier, while a bad run won't help the player at all. Unfortunately, the immediate reaction to the gameplay is that it reacts slowly to input or is just slow period. The game implements a stamina meter and a health meter. Stamina is spent when the player punches a lot, while health is lost when, you guessed it, he gets clobbered. The frame rate makes dodging opponent's blows a real chore, however, not to mention there are only a few frames per animation, which makes a big difference as well. Sure that makes for a really good screenshot, but as me grand-dad once said, 'If something seems too good to be true, it probably is'.
Difficulty: While difficult is a good word for the gameplay in Rocky, frustrating is far more suitable. The low frames for animations really kill the fun in each match since you simply have to block immediately after the opponent throws a punch if you want any chance of keeping your health. The exercises aren't explained well at all, so you will be wasting your first few exercises for sure (trust me, I didn't figure out how to work the damn speed bag until after at least 4 fights). Then the stamina meter could have been implemented better (or done without). My advice is to choose between blocking and dodging and stick to it because after you've noticed the opponent is swinging and begin to decide on which move to make, WHAMMO.
Game Mechanics: The controls need a lot of work, and the reaction time needs to be a lot quicker. Basically, everything could have used a little tweaking. As a matter of fact, it would make a world of difference. The graphics are nice and that, in conjunction with the game design make a great combo, but in this case what was on paper and what was packaged were two different things... In all, Rocky for GBA isn't fun. I would find it hard even to recommend it to hardcore movie fans. Take my advice and save your bucks for the next big boxing hit on Gameboy Advance - or better yet, get Rocky the console version. Now that's a game.
-Goat, GameVortex Communications AKA Brandon Arnold
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