GAME THIRTEEN: ROCKY (1987)

INFORMATION:
Publisher/Developer:  Sega
Format: Cartridge
Game Size: 256K
Rarity:  3
Game Type: Movie License/Side view Boxing game.
Region: USA
Other Ways to Play:  None that I know of.  Thankfully.
Power Base Convertor Playable?: Yes, 6 button controller compatible.

PERSONAL DATA:
Price I Paid: 10 Dollars
Price I Would Pay: 2 Dollars
Condition: Game, Case, Manual
Game Rating: BAD
My History:  Bought for the collection.  MY BAD.

  Oh dearie me.  Yet another incredibly poor Master System game.  Not only is it incredibly short, it has iffy play control, limited actual control PERIOD, three dumb mini games, and a mere THREE OPPONENTS TO FIGHT.  Yes.  It is a Boxing game with only three opponents.  (Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, and Ivan Drago.  I guess getting to punch BA and He Man might have appeal to some however.)

  Rocky is... its a disaster.  Its 256k of game data and clearly 200 of it was spent on the graphics.  Three badly controlling fights in the same ring, three mini games that are 80% button mashing, 20% timing.  GAME DONE.  Seriously.  I watched a video on youtube completing it.  With ending it took 7 minutes and 50 seconds thereabouts including the opening screen animation.  \

  The game is yet another SMS title where they clearly either needed more ROM space, a good three more months of tweaking, and three or so months of  playtesting.  This game is a worse boxing game than Activision's Atari 2600 effort which at least controlled well.

  Ok let me try to explain.  Before each match you have to complete a mini game that is mostly about how rapidly you can press the fire button.  Depending on how well you do on these games you will do better in the boxing match.  They aren't fun.

  Then you get to fight one one three increasingly difficult boxers from the first four movies.  You can KIND OF move Rocky left and right, sort of block your head or stomach with one button and directional control, and punch forwards, downwards, or upwards with combo hits coming once you hit enough times or have done well enough in the mini games and the match itself.  If you get knocked down you can attempt to rapidly press buttons to get up.  When the timer runs out you get some life bar back and I presume the score can have a ten round victory by points.  Otherwise knock your opponent down three times in a round, get their life bar low enough that a knockdown keeps them down, or just smash your head against the nearest sharp corner you can find because the control SUCKS.

  There are no real "tells" to figure out what the opponent is doing.  The control isn't responsive and you take too many cheap hits for no apparent reason and the animation is so poor you can't even time blocks or counterattacks.  I have had more fun with LCD/VFD type boxing games than this pile of nongame.

  This is an ALPHA build.  It clearly reminds me of the infamous ET on the Atari 2600.  It was shoved out the door on the license and no damns were given about balance, play control, or anything else.

Shots from Kega Fusion emulator on deck!

 Got a knockdown somehow.

 Pointless training minigame!

 I pity the fool who bought this god awful game.

 The good is a lie.  This game is ASS.

 I am blocking but it might as well not matter.

I have connected with a normal combo or something I think.

The next three shots are from an actual Master System

 Look at all this gameplay content!  Three opponents and three mini games that suck!  

In the beginning Rocky fights in the same ring with white shorts.

And two Genesis shots.  For posterity or something.

   Master System Play:  as usual the graphics are bleedier on the SMS.  The 6 button Genesis pad is king again, with the SMS pad being ok in a pinch.  But the long button travel will make the training mini games suck.  The  Control Stick is hampered by the need to whale on the buttons as is the Epyx when the auto fire isn't working or on.

Rating:  Oh so very, very BAD.    It isn't a game.  Hardly anything to do, and the control in that tiny bit of game is poor to nonexistent!  At the moment this might possibly be the worst SMS game I have played period.  Many SMS games clearly needed more time in the oven.  This pile of junk hasn't even defrosted!  The only thing besides the graphics that I can say is nice is that you get to replay the mini game and match that you lose.  So hooray for continues in an SMS game without having them be limited or a button combo?

Next Time:  The US version of the other Boxing game on the SMS is expensive as hell and had a big name (well for around three to six months anyhow..) but the UK version went generic instead and is thus ten dollars complete versus two hundred or so for a loose cart.  Will Heavyweight Champ be any better?  It sure as hell can't be any worse, right?

Right?