I personally sought out to review Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions primarily because I grew being a huge Rocky fan my entire life. On the original Xbox and PS2, I owned the Ubisoft released Rocky and Rocky Legends video games, which I still hold very dear to my heart. Consider me ecstatic when I randomly saw a new trailer show up in my YouTube feed that there was a new game in the Rocky universe.
Developed by Survios, the same company to release Creed: Rise to Glory for VR, decided to take a shot at making a non-virtual reality game for the first time. After playing several hours of Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, I can’t help but feel very mixed on it. It is very clear the people behind the game are fans of the franchise. But I don’t know if it was a budget issue or what, because I felt the quality outside the gameplay itself felt very basic.
Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions does get a lot right. The gameplay is very arcade like and not so realistic like most sports games are nowadays. While it’s fairly simple, it’s also kind of why I like it. Almost anyone can hop in and play it without too much of a learning curve. There is a decent sized roster and each fighter has a slightly different fighting technique. I had a friend over and we fought one another and I hadn’t had this much fun playing with someone in the same room for quite a while. Having said that though, it’s a huge omission and I think a big mistake to not include online play. The game calls for it and unfortunately, it isn’t here.
Back to the roster of characters, while there is a fair amount, I was disappointed that there were some fighters from the Rocky franchise omitted from the selection. Instead, they filled the roster with some weird brand-new characters that feel more like cartoon characters. Another issue I have is the dialogue in the game; it’s true, most players who would be into playing a boxing game probably won’t care at all about the dialogue, but for me, as a Rocky fan, I was very interested in reading it all. Most of what I read was fairly goofy, and feels more parody rather than homage. The “cutscenes” are also just two figures on each side of the screen with text in the middle, with the occasional grunt type reaction noise from one of the characters. That harkens back to the cheap vibe I was getting at. I would have been happier if they at least sometimes used cutscenes from the films to help set up the next fight.
Many of my complaints could come off as nitpicks to some, and that’s alright. At the end of the day, Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions is enjoyable to play. While the replay value isn’t there as far as unlockables (just some fighters and alternate clothing), the value comes with its arcade like fight matches. Depending how close you are with the film franchise I would recommend to check expectations and do your best to accept it for what it is. A fun little game.
7/10
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Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions is available for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam.
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Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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