''Rocky Legends'' is a 2004

fighting Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is resorted to either as a method of ...

video game developed by

Venom Games Venom Games Limited was a British video game developer based in Gateshead, England. The studio was established by Peter Johnson in 2003 and succeeded Rage Newcastle. Take-Two Interactive acquired the company in 2004, where it became part of the ...

and published by

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

. It is the sequel to the 2002 video game ''

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American independent film, independent sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the Rocky (film series), ''Rocky'' franchise and also star ...

''. The game is based on the ''Rocky'' franchise. The events of the game take place before the films and in between. In the game the player can take control of

Rocky Balboa Robert "Rocky" Balboa (also known by his ring name the Italian Stallion) is a fictional character and the titular protagonist of the ''Rocky'' franchise. The character was created by Sylvester Stallone, who has also portrayed him in eight of ...

Apollo Creed Apollo Creed is a fictional character from the ''Rocky'' franchise, portrayed by Carl Weathers. He appears in the first four '' Rocky'' films, serving as the main antagonist in '' Rocky'' and '' Rocky II'', and later becoming one of the pr ...

Clubber Lang James "Clubber" Lang is a fictional character created by Sylvester Stallone for the film ''Rocky III'', which was released in 1982. He was portrayed by American actor and real-life wrestler Mr. T and serves as the main antagonist of the film. ...

Ivan Drago Ivan Vasilyevich Drago (, ) is a fictional character from the ''Rocky'' film series. He first appears in the 1985 film ''Rocky IV'', in which he is the main antagonist and rival of Rocky Balboa and is also responsible for the death of Apollo ...

and witness their early careers before their famous encounters.

Gameplay

''Rocky Legends'' has six different gameplay modes to choose from including Career, Exhibition, Tournament, Survival, Training, and Practice. Players can also use their in-game winnings to buy and unlock extras.

Career

Career mode allows the player to select one of the major characters of the first four ''

'' films. Each character has a story of how they rise to the top of the boxing world. They all remain true to the canon of the ''Rocky'' films except for

's story, which differs in the match against

. *Rocky Balboa: Rocky's story begins outside of Mickey's gym, where Rocky has a street fight with Joe Zale. The story then progresses through all of the Rocky movies, ending with Rocky's street fight against Tommy Gunn. *Apollo Creed: Apollo's story gives us a backstory to Apollo before his fight with Rocky Balboa. The story begins during a match between Apollo and his best friend Tony "Duke" Evers. Apollo beats Duke, and Duke tells Apollo that he is getting ready to retire and would like to be Apollo's manager. Apollo agrees and the story leads into Apollo's rise to the championship, finishing just before Rocky's rise to fame. *James "Clubber" Lang:

's story starts in the Chicago state prison, where he gets into a brawl with another inmate. After the fight the guards tell Lang that he served his time and he is let go. The story then revolves around the events of ''

Rocky III ''Rocky III'' is a 1982 American sports drama film written and directed by, and starring Sylvester Stallone. The film is the sequel to ''Rocky II'' (1979) and the third installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise. It also stars Talia Shire, Burt You ...

'' and culminates in his victory over Rocky in New York City. *Ivan Drago:

's story is the only one that steps away from the canon of the ''Rocky'' films. Drago's story revolves around the events of ''

Rocky IV ''Rocky IV'' is a 1985 American sports drama film starring, written and directed by Sylvester Stallone. The film is the sequel to '' Rocky III'' (1982) and the fourth installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise. It also stars Talia Shire, Burt You ...

'' and his rise to fame in Russia. This career mode has a twist: not only does Drago beat Apollo, he also defeats Rocky and it ends with Drago receiving a medal from the Soviet Union.

Training

A training mode is included in ''Rocky Legends''. Training can be done in freeplay or career. While training in career mode awards the player points to upgrade their character based on how well they trained. This gives the player a chance to change how the stars of ''Rocky'' fought as the player is allowed to decide which stats to raise. Training in freeplay can be done both alone and with another player competitively, however this has no effect on the character's stats.

Reception

The game was met with average reception upon release.

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

and

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave it a score of 73% and 67 out of 100 for the Xbox version, and 69.47% and 65 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version. Character models and arenas created for this game were adapted for use in the PSP game ''

''.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Rocky 2004 video games MGM Interactive games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 2 games

Legends A legend is a historical narrative, a symbolic representation of folk belief. Legend(s) or The Legend(s) may also refer to: Narrative * A fictitious identity used in espionage Books, comic books, and theater * ''Legend'' (Gemmell novel), a 1 ...

Ubisoft games Venom Games games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in Chicago Video games set in New York City Video games set in Philadelphia Video games set in the 1980s Video games set in the Soviet Union Xbox games