Rocky 3D: Apollo's Fall

Considering he starred in Stop or My Mom Will Shoot and Demolition Man, classics of their genre that they are (snort), it's hard to believe that Sylvester Stallone was responsible for Rocky, a film that won three Oscars and enjoys enduring critical acclaim to this day.

Attempting to make good on that rock solid licence (which has spawned six films and kept Stallone's career ticking over dependably for nigh on 30 years) Rocky 3D: Apollo's Fall is a commendably ambitious boxing sim based loosely on the grudge match between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed in the second movie.

The game is split into two parts: Train, which is a collection of three mini-games; and Championship, where you go up against Creed for the title.

The training section is surprisingly good fun in places. The strength mini-game, for instance, sees you working the punch bag by landing the correct blows as they are called out against a timer. The blows themselves are divided into jab, punch and body, each of which has left and right variants assigned to the '1', '4' and '7' and the '3', '6' and '9' keys, respectively, with the '2' key assigned to uppercuts.

The twist is that the punches are called out by their name instead of their relevant key (i.e. left jab, right body) meaning that you need to know your way around the controls like the back of your boxing glove.

The speed mini-game, on the other hand, isn't quite as much fun, and effectively boils down to having to simply hit the '4' or the '6' key as soon as your sparring partner's guard is down.

The last of the three mini-games, then, is a basic sparring match which sees you going up against a seemingly tireless practice combatant in order to hone your pugilistic skills for the big fight, as well as boosting your endurance. The controls for sparring are the same as in the strength training, with the addition that you can circle your opponent with the thumbstick and block with the '8' key.

Playing any of these training mini-games enables you to work on your attributes so as to make it easier to floor Creed in the Championship mode. As predictable as a Rocky plotlines, the main event itself is exactly the same as the sparring mini-game with the only difference being you're in an arena as opposed to a gym, and you're fighting the far more aggressive Creed.

With regards to visuals, even Stallone's bulldog-like mug isn't capable of bringing down this game's splendor and the 3D characters and backgrounds are carried off with confidence. The animations are not all that they could be in places, perhaps, but considering this is a Java game, it would be churlish to pick faults.

Sharing the blockbuster nature of the later Rocky films, the presentation is good throughout, too, and little details such as Mickey, your trainer, giving you advice such as "You're gonna eat lightnin'; you're gonna crap thunder!", really add to the atmosphere between rounds. Obviously.

The game is let down slightly by turning into a bit of a slugfest at times. It's all too easy to get backed into a corner, as using the thumbstick and the keys for punching simultaneously is a bit tricky. When this happens, bashing out whatever you can get away with on the D-pad is your only option and it lacks finesse.

During more controlled moments, however, the balance between blocking and slugging is fairly succinct and landing a well timed uppercut takes patience and practice, but comes with definite satisfaction.

On the whole then, this is a well built game that's fun to play and gorgeous to look at. With only one fighter to best it's hardly going to keep you playing for long but, like most of the sequels that followed the original film, this is enjoyable while it lasts, even if you won't necessarily feel the need to revisit it in the future.