With five movies already sitting in a fancy DVD boxset, the question must be asked whether we really need another Rocky movie? And the simple answer is ‘yes’, of course we do! Everything about Rocky is awesome, but more to the point do we need another Rocky game? Aided by Rage Software, Ubisoft already produced the definitive Rocky game a few years ago on the PS2, so when news reached us of a Ubisoft PSP game to accompany the new film we immediately assumed it would be a straight port from the PS2 with his latest opponent thrown in to give it that contemporary kick and though it shames us to say it, we would have probably been happy with that.

Rocky is all about cartoonish violence, a hundred haymakers per round and absolutely no guard and that’s exactly what that game delivered; Rocky Balboa on the other hand seems to miss the point somewhat. In its efforts to revamp the licence it loses some of the soul that is so vital to the franchise.

That said, Rocky fans are certainly not short-changed here: every pivot moment in the Italian’s Stallion’s career is present and correct – from his first fight with Apollo in Philly to his latest battle with Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon. All the action is spliced with genuine footage from all six movies and there are plenty of options away from the main story mode to get stuck into.

For quick play there are several knockout and survival challenges to champion, as well as exhibition bouts that give you the opportunity to pick your favourite character and throw fist with any contender in the game.

Nevertheless, new modes and an authentic feel mean nothing if the game mechanics are found to be wanting and unfortunately this is our main gripe with the game. Viewing the game from an over-the-shoulder perspective the ‘Fight Night factor’ is evident from the start – punch combos are unnecessarily complex requiring the finger agility of a piano-playing masseuse to execute and then there’s button-bashing, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the days of Track And Field. Whilst attacking is annoying at times, defending is infinitely more so, as the game employs a frustrating ’rebalance’ mechanic to get you back to your feet when you’re down. To rebalance yourself you have to use the Analog nub to hit a sweet spot in the middle of an on-screen meter. While this may sound easy enough, the Analog setting is so over-sensitive that hitting the centre becomes a lottery leading to more needless knockouts than we care to mention.

Whilst we commend Ubisoft for discarding the PS2 blueprints and trying something different with the PSP Rocky, we were hoping for something special and unfortunately due to a hit-and-miss control system and lack of personality, Rocky Balboa is more fumbling foal than Italian Stallion.

Keith Hennessey