On March 15th, 1975, the reigning heavyweight champion of the world Muhammad Ali faced the challenger Chuck Wepner. Everyone was expecting an easy victory for Ali, however, Wepner kept fighting back until Ali finally downed Wepner in the 15th - and final - round. 
This was a surprise to everyone, even Wepner was surprised he had lasted that long. This even surprised Sylvester Stallone.

During this time, Stallone was a struggling actor waiting for any role he can take. During a cold winter day, Stallone stayed inside of a library to get warm, and he started reading Edgar Allen Poe novels. This inspired him to start writing his own stories. After moving from California, he was so low on money that he went to a liquor store to sell his dog for $50. Someone got him down to $25.

On March 15th, 1974, Stallone saw the Ali / Wepner fight on TV, and this inspired him to start writing his own story about a up-and-coming boxer who gets an opportunity the fight the champion of the world. He wrote the screen play is just over three days, A few weeks later, Stallone was at an audition. Although he didn't get the part, he did tell the casting agents about the script he had wrote. They were interested in his scrptp and wanted to read it.  After the agents read the script, they liked it, and offered Stallone $25,000, but Stallone had to play Rocky, the main character of his story.

Stallone refused. The deal was kicked up into $375,000, but Stallone still refused. Frustrated, the agents told Stallone he would only get $35,00 for the script,  but if he produced the film, he would get less than a million dollars. Stallone finally agreed. Stallone, with $35,000 in hand, went to buy his dog back. After staking it out for 3 days, Stallone met with it's new owner. Stallone offered $100 for the dog, but the owner refused and told Stallone how much the dog meant to him. After slightly increasing prices many times, they finally settled on $15,000 and a part in the film.

The film would be shot on site in Philadelphia, and they would be using hand held camera, including a (at the time) new type of camera called a Steadicam. The camera would stabilized the picture, even if the operator was running. Rocky was also the first film to widely use the Steadicam.  The film had a budget of one million dollars, which even for 1976, was a very small amount. To compare, a film like the Godfather, filmed in 1971, had a budget of $6 million. To save on funds, Stallone even had to use some of his family in the movie to play roles. 

The film was finished shooting in three months and never went over budget. When the film was released in theaters, it was an instant success in it's opening week, earning $5 million dollars. Later on the film earned up to $225 million dollars. At the Academy Awards, Rocky was nominated for 9 Oscars, winning 3 Oscars, including best director, best film editing, and most importantly, best picture.

Rocky was a huge success worldwide, and is often considered the best sports movie of all time, and it's also on of my favorite movies of all time.

Skipping forward, to 1987, Rocky had already received three sequels. and Rocky IV was extremely successful. SEGA had earned a license for a Rocky game. It would be developed and released for the Sega Master System, which wan't a very successful system, considering that the NES was in the USA at this time.

That was a brief (OK, maybe not brief) history lesson about the amazing success of Rocky. Now, it's time for the game.

GRAPHICS, 8. Rocky looks really good, especially for 1987. This game was released the same year as Punch Out, and although Punch Out is a better game, I'd say Rocky looks better.
The ring and the arena looks very good, although it's the same for each fight. The crowd is detailed and each person is very detailed. You can see everyone in the arena. The back rows and the upper deck looks (obviously) less detailed, although you can still see detail there. There's also the occasional camera flash, similar to Punch Out!

The HUD is whats looks like a giant scoreboard. It displays the Round number, how much time is left, and the health bars for Rocky and his opponent.  There's a giant border around the HUD, which multiple stripes and colors.

Looking at Rocky Balboa himself, he looks recognizable. He does wear the same shorts he wore in Rocky (white with red trim). When you fight Lang or Drago, Rocky even wears Apollo's shorts, just like the movie. Each character wears their correct shorts, which is a small detail, but it's cool.

Looking at Balboa's opponents, they're ALL the same exact height as him. The game does reuse sprites (similar to Punch Out!!!), but not even Ivan Drago has his own sprite. Rocky, Apollo, Clubber and Ivan all have the SAME sprite. In Rocky IV, Drago is TALLER than Rocky. In this game, they're the same size! Each sprite in this is the same, and the only differences are the shorts, the stripe on their socks, the hair, and skin color. At least Apollo has his nice 'stache.

At the end of each round, both boxers are in their coroners with their trainers talking to them.  Rocky's corner looks like their desperately hanging on to the ropes.You can recognize Mickey, and in Apollo's corner you can see Tony Evers. Each boxers also receive water and they'll wipe blood of they're faces and heal cuts.

When a fighter is knocked down, it'll trigger a cut scene, where the boxer's coroner tries to get him up and off the ground, and the boxer will try to get up. Usually, they'll shake their heads, put there elbows down, and push themselves up. You'll see this every single time you knock your opponent down, or if you get knocked down. Like the coroner scene, they still look detailed, although the ring looks small.

Before each fight, we see a close up of each boxer, and they look different up close. Each of them are recognizable. You also see this screen post-fight as well. Much like the fight itself, the sprites are the same, but they do look different.

The ending has a court house in the background, with Rocky and Adrian running to each other, and then they hug. It has maybe 7 frames of animation, but at least it looks, well, decent. 

And last, but no least, the dreaded training sequences. Each scene has a heavy bag, and speed bag, and the training mitts, worn my Mickey. As well as a detailed sprite of Rocky, who always wears Apollo's shorts while training (for some reason). The sprite of Mickey also looks very detailed as well. While training, speech bubble appear, which is Mickey telling Rocky what to do. It's usually say, "Jab", "Hook", or in the last training scene, "Good" and along those lines. The ending has a giant bubble that says "The End".

The animations look fluid as well, especially during training. During fights, the punches and steps looks a bit rough, but it does look like they are punching. Animation is alright in this game, as there aren't many.

This game does look very good, and graphics get an 8.

SOUND, 5: As soon as you start the game, you'll expect to hear "Gonna Fly Now', right? Nope, it's just a generic  8-bit song that sounds similar. The training sequence also as it's own song, as well as a near-static sound the plays when Rocky hits the bag. The pre-fight scene has it's own short jingle, as well as a very good bell noise (not as good as Punch Out!!!). Each fight also has it's own song, with the round intervals and knock down scenes having their own songs as well. The songs aren't that exciting to listen to, but they're bad either.

Each punch that lands has a 'swish' sound, that is different than the heavy bag training noise. When a boxer is knock down, a sound that sounds like a thud is played, and after a round is over, the bell sound plays. The ending also has it's own song, too.
That's all this game has to offer, but it' not bad. Sound gets a 5.

ADDICTIVENESS, 5: Although the game may be fun at first, it quickly gets old, especially the training. The training is the WORST part of the game. The fights are fun, though. It's a very short game with little to no depth at all, but the best part of the game, as I've said earlier, are the fights. I wouldn't play this game all the time, but I do occasionally play it. The longest I've ever played it in one sitting was maybe 45 minutes.
It has a lot of flaws and very simple gameplay, but doing the same thing over and over Isn't fun, Rocky is a very repetitious game, so i'll put addictiveness at about 5. The fights are fun, everything else isn't.

STORY, N/A: This game doesn't have a story, but I'll assume it follows the same plot as the Rocky movies, although you don't have to fight Creed or Lang twice. It essentially follows Rocky II, II, and IV, but only the final fight. At least it doesn't have Rocky V.

DEPTH, 2: This is where the review gets easy. This game has only two things to do. Train, then fight. As soon as you start the game, without warning, it automatically throws you into a training scene. The training last about 45 seconds. Then, you fight Apollo. If you lose, you have to train again. If you win, you train again. After that, you fight Clubber Lang. If you win against him, you train AGAIN. After that, You than fight Drago. IIf you lose (you probably will), you have to repeat the training scene, then fight Drago again! If you beat Drago, then you'll see the ending of the game. If can literally beat this game in 10 minutes, if you know exactly what to do.

The game has this pattern: Training, fight. Training, fight. Training, fight. ending. And that's it. That's the only things to do in this game. That's all. There's nothing more. It gets old very fast. Depth only gets a 2.

DIFFICULTY, 6: I'll start the difficulty section with the training scenes.  It'll tell you you have to get 60 hits to qualify for the fight, or you'll have to get  2 punches per second to qualify on the speed bag training. These sections are just button mash sections. All you do is mash buttons here. If you don't get 60 hits, you fight anyway, but it's very hard, and you'll most likely lose. If you lose, you'll have to train again. The training section aren't hard, you'll just have to mash buttons here. Use a turbo controller if you can.

Now, the fights. The controls are very simple. The 1 button ducks, which is useful for avoiding uppercuts, and straights. The 2 button is used for punching. If you land three consecutive punches (jabs), you'll throw an uppercut. If it lands, you'll knock your opponent a few steps back. If their health is low enough, you'll knock them down. If you hold down of the control pad while you punch, you'll punch their chest. You'll also land an uppercut to their chest if you hold down as well.

Your opponent can do the same thing to you as well. If you get knocked down, you can mash buttons like in Punch out, you have to watch an animation of you getting up. It's not interactive at all during that animation. If you under-qualify during training, the fights, especially Land and Drago, will be HARD. They are also harder than Apollo, with Drago being the hardest. If you do qualify, the fights will be easier, but mostly, the fights all come down to some luck.  This can be a difficult game, but if you qualify, it'll be easier. (Tip: don't use turbo during fights, it doesn't work properly).

Difficulty gets a 6.

OVERALL , 6: Rocky isn't a great game, but it's not bad either. It tried to be an ambitious game, but it was released the same year as Punch Out!!!, and that blows Rocky out of the water. It's almost not fair to compare this to Punch Out.

As I said earlier Rocky isn't a bad game either, it's just very repetitious and it's boring if you play if long. If you ever do play this game, just beat it once, and that's my recommendation for Rocky. I do recommend that you play this, just not for a long time.

That's my review for Rocky for the Sega Master System. Thanks for reading my longest ever review, and until next review, bye!

I hope this doesn't come across as rude, but I found the beginning part of the review a little long winded.

Although I found the history of the making of the movie Rocky to be entertaining, I feel like it's a little out of place in front of your review of the game Rocky for SMS. Maybe a more condensed version would be better.

As far as the review itself goes, I enjoyed reading it. I feel like this game is a pretty solid boxing game for when it was released. Although it's not nearly as memorable as a game like Punch Out, it's still a fun game to play against a friend.

The single player mode does grow old quickly though. I agree that it's best served in shorter gameplay sessions.