Why do they keep trying to make video games based off of some of the greatest movies from the 80s and 90s? This time Sega decided to create a game for their new Master System home console. The Master System is a console I'm unfamiliar with, but it did have some decent games on it such as: Wonder Boy. Although, this is not one of them. I used to watch the Rocky movies all the time as a kid, and when I found out Sega made a game out of them, I had to play, then I was extremely disappointed. I shouldn't have been because the Master System is an old gaming console, and Rocky is an old game. I still thought it could've been better.

Graphics 5/10: The characters and background objects look very dated in this game. It isn't a horrible looking game, but the characters look pretty stupid looking! Apollo looks nothing like he did in the movie and neither do the other opponents of Rocky's. Rocky looks sort of similar to the way he did in the movies, but he could have looked better. The background is terrible, and everything in the game looks so awful and dated looking. This really looks like one of those old arcade games from the early 80s despite it being released in 1988. Compared to the popular Nintendo games out there, Sega couldn't compete, and you can see why this game wasn't very well-known by the public.

Music 0/10: When I first heard the opening track to this game, I busted out laughing!! OMG! THIS IS ROCKY!? You get the familiar "ROCKY" logo, but the music sounds like Sega trying and failing at re-creating the Rocky theme from the first movie. MY GOD, THIS WAS SO LAUGHABLE!! James Rolfe of AVGN really made fun of the title track, and the rest of the songs aren't any better. The ones for those boring training stages are just as bad. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!? Sega ruined my childhood!! I can't get over how bad the music is in this game! I just listened to some of the songs from this SHORT soundtrack, and I can't stop laughing!!

Gameplay 3/10: This part isn't much better. I don't think there is any skill to this game at all!! The trick is to do good on the training stages. The first two stages consist of Rocky hitting a punching bag. All you do is tap the 2 button as fast as you can until your hand gets tired. If you can over-qualify by hitting the bag so many times within a second, you'll do good in the fights. The fights are the same ones from: Rocky, Rocky 3, and Rocky 4. They skipped Rocky 2 because all he did was just fight Apollo again for that one. Unlike the training stages, there is some skill to the fights. Rocky moves back and forth by pushing the arrow keys and punches with the 2 button. Pushing the Down and Up buttons give Rocky more powerful punches.

What's stupid about the fights is the fact that Rocky can't get up if he gets knocked down, but his opponents can! Why? Then, it's Game Over where you only get one continue, then after that you have to re-do those God-awful training stages and wear out your arm pushing the 2 button. The only training stage I liked was the one where Rocky trains with Mickey to fight Drago from Rocky 4 (which makes no sense because Mickey was dead by this time). Mickey held up boxing gloves for Rocky to hit, but he moved them. This was to improve Rocky's accuracy by land hits on them. I got to the fight with Drago and it all depended on how well you did on this part.

It's hard to explain, but I enjoyed this training stage. Mickey would hold up a glove, then you'd have to hit it before he moved it and held up another one with his other hand. This was something you could improve on, but the game would usually give you a Game Over by this part, and you'd have to go through that impossible match with Clubber Lang and those grueling training stages for that match and the one with Apollo. Rocky the video game all depended on luck until the final fight with Drago, but by then you'd ran out of continues. This game does have some re-play value but very little.

Story 0/10: There is no clear storyline for this game. It just randomly throws in the characters from: Rocky 1, 3, and 4. Rocky never had a rematch with Apollo, and Mickey trains him for his fight with Drago. MICKEY WAS NEVER IN ROCKY 4!! HE WAS DEAD BY THAT TIME!! For some reason, this part is so depressing to me. Maybe it's the music or how Sega just got all of this so wrong! Mickey comes back from the dead, or now, he never died! IT'S LIKE THEY RE-WROTE THE ROCKY TRILOGY WITH THIS STUPID GAME!! I don't know, but this game has no storyline to it. The plot that it does have feels like a dream that was a pure fantasy! NONE OF THIS EVER HAPPENED IN THE MOVIES, GO BACK AND WATCH ROCKY 3 TO SEE FOR YOURSELF!!

Content 1/10: Rocky is a video game that only consists of 3 fights plus the training stages for those fights as well. I find myself getting a Game Over and just giving up because I'm not re-doing those training stages again! Even if I did, there would not be much else to look forward to. You just fight Drago, and then Adrian comes out like she did in Rocky 4. I never made it past the fight with Clubber Lang but once or twice. It ended with Rocky 3 most of the time with me. Nonetheless, this is a game without much to it, and you're not missing much.

Difficulty 10/10: Like many of these poorly designed video games, the difficulty is very unfair. WHY CAN ROCKY'S OPPONENTS GET BACK UP AFTER HE KNOCKS THEM DOWN, BUT HE CAN'T!? You only get 1 continue in this game, and after that you have to replay the whole thing, training stages and all!! Clubber Lang will always knock you down before you can get to part where you have a chance of winning. The training stage with Drago is the only one that's fun, but by then, you have no more chances. Rocky doesn't give players much of a chance to get better at it, and there doesn't appear to be much of a way to avoid being knocked down. I've even been knocked down in the first fight with Apollo and had to start all over!! You can see how unbalanced this game really is!

Overall 1.8/10: Rocky on Sega Master System is a joke! The soundtrack is terrible, the gameplay is awful, and the plot feels way off in left field. I hate the way this game makes me feel. It just doesn't have the great feeling you had from watching the Rocky movies. I have to say this game sucks!! The Karate Kid on NES was better than this! There is nothing good about this game at all! It's just plain horrible, and it didn't do justice to the greatest movie trilogy of all time. I hate how unbalanced it feels, and just talking about it really bums me out! I give it a big thumbs down and would just throw it down on the ground and stomp it like James Rolfe did in his review of Rocky for the Sega Master System!!

That is a pretty bad rating you gave this game LOL! It sounds like it has some major flaws in it and that the gameplay seems unfair with Rocky not being able to get up but his opponents can and having to redo everything over again.

I agree with you that the people making these games on movies typically do a terrible job at the transition. The only game to movie I like is Mortal Kombat. From what I've heard, ET is the worst movie to game ever made, worst Atari game ever made and possibly one of the worst games ever made in general so that goes to show just how bad movie to game transitions can be.

JigSaw : After watching a lot of AVGN's reviews, I figured I play this game and "The Karate Kid" to see how bad they really were. This one was laughable! The Karate Kid was bad too but nothing like "Rocky"! This game was horrible compared to the movies I grew up with. Most of AVGN's games are so bad, I don't even want to bother playing or reviewing them.

luigi25 : No most of the avgn’s games are NOT bad they are good. You should bother playing and reviewing them

ZezzyBoi : No thanks. I've watched him play some of those games, and there is no way I'm playing them. Especially, the game they made off Beetlejuice. That game really looked like ass!

As a fan of the first Rocky movie, that is so sad. This game was probably just slapped together to make a quick profit. I gotta go check out what the title screen theme sounds like now just so I can laugh at it until I cry!

Very good and detailed review! You have successfully convinced me that I have every reason in the world to be happy that I never played this.

Pacman+Mariofan : This was more like a rant than a review. I didn't enjoy making it, nor did I enjoy trying to play the game. I would've much rather talked about a game from my childhood that I enjoyed playing. Something I had fond memories of like I did with the "Rocky" movies.

luigi25 : Yeah, not everyone enjoys reviewing some of the worst video games ever. I know some people who enjoy reviewing bad things as a hobby, but most people I know don't. Also, I have great memories of the first Rocky movie and hope to watch it again with some friends sometime!