Big Rumble Boxing Creed Champions review

Let’s Get Ready To Rumble! If you look through genres of games and a list of titles that are available for you to purchase and play, you will be hard pushed to find a style of game that has not been covered in the last generation of games. Pretty much every avenue has been exhausted, especially in the arcade sport field, well that’s what I thought, until I heard the name Big Rumble Boxing, and it got me thinking?

Just how many boxing games have been released in this last generation on Xbox…. a grand total of zero!

Then I noticed the rest of the title name, Creed champions, and the excitement just reached fever pitch for me. Those that follow myself on twitter and engage in the Complete Xbox discord, will know that I have been banging on about stagnated genres, and the missing movie and TV-tie in element, that seems to have died out over the last 10 years or so of gaming, and then we get Big Rumble Boxing Creed Champions.

This game finds itself in quite the unique market, combining two forgotten genres and fusing them in to one powerful punch of a title. A boxing game and the universe of Rocky and Creed, mind blown. Any fan of the sport and films has just received their Christmas present and its only September.

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions is an arcade boxing game set within the Rocky and Creed universe, with strong ties to the films, classic and new.  Developed by talented teams that brought Creed: Rise to Glory to VR platforms, (so they have previous) Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions is the second collaboration between the Studios Survios and MGM Studios, that brings the gripping intensity of Creed boxing to Xbox for the very first time.

So, without further ado, grab your controller and Step into the ring and show off your boxing skills in a knockout arcade experience! Fight as 20 iconic characters from the Creed and Rocky movies. Take on world-class opponents across a variety of locations or challenge your friends in local head-to-head matches.

Do you have what it takes to be a champion In the Rocky and Creed Universe?

Now’s your chance to prove it, one punch at a time, pound for pound, it’s up to you to rule that ring. With Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions you get the chance to follow the entertaining journey of each character as they challenge familiar foes from the movies and some more unexpected characters, maybe even come face to face with an opponent that only the stars can connect. It’s up to you to win each match, as you play your way through the roster of character’s stories, there are 20 distinctive stories to choose from, 10 initially, with the other 10 becoming unlocked by completing these familiar Icons paths to glory.

Survive and batter your opponents as you live the life of a legend in this pulse raising energetic showcase of boxing legends from the world of film. Fight as Adonis Creed, Rocky Balboa, and a complete roster of legends from the creed and rocky franchise, including Apollo Creed, Ivan & Viktor Drago, and Clubber Lang. Plus there’s the chance to live out classic Creed and Rocky training moments in thematic mini games.

Should you just want to slug it out with friends and family on the sofa, then grab that second controller and prepare to go head-to-head. Choose your character, select the right venue for the bout, with boxing arenas, gyms, bars and the mean back-alley streets to set the scene for an epic battle for the championship of your neighbourhood, will you be crowned king in this fantastic local player versus player mode?

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Legends features intuitive, pick up and play controls, that are very responsive, fun to get to grips with, and difficult to master, as you learn the robust boxing mechanics of the game, the fast fluid movements and the dynamic boxing styles and combos that are available to pull off.

Once you have your opponent on the ropes, its time to unleash the beast, and by that, I mean, a super finisher, fit for any movie picture. Each fighter has a specific cinematic knockout special move, that charges via a power bar in the bottom corner of your fighter’s corner. As you land a punch this bar fills, until your ready to knock your opponent out of his boots.

Presentation wise the game hits the rocky theme perfectly with a fantastic soundtrack that of course includes Survivors Eye of The Tiger, just imagine running up those famous to that song, well you can’t do that, but you can train to the famous iconic rocky soundtrack, and set the atmosphere for classic battle, the rest of the soundtrack on the game fits the bill nicely too.

Menus are simple, yet effectively laid out in order to get you from a to b in the game, there’s informative hints and tips whilst the game loads from section to section.

The game modes on offer in Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, are what you come to expect from an arcade boxing experience, a story mode and a versus option. It’s just a shame that with the later, there’s no option for online play, it’s couch fun all the way, which is somewhat disappointing. The story mode works well, with the chance to play through the backstories of 20 unique characters from the Creed & Rocky universe. During the story mode you get experience character dialogue, training minigames (which work well, but have no real effect on the game itself), and the excitement of a classic boxing matches, with the odd, unexpected match ups, which are a nice touch. My only criticism with the story mode itself, is that the dialogue would have been much better voice acted, as there’s a lot to read and click through, and I fear many will just cycle through the dialogue and the backstory quickly, just to get to the action.

The boxing match itself plays like an arcade machine, fast flowing movement, with pick up and play controls, that can easily turn into a bit of a button mash, but if choose to learn the mechanics and the combos that are available then, there’s a decent boxing game to be had, with options to block and dance around the ring if need be.

Graphicly the game is pleasing on the eye visually, with a classic cartoon-like feel. The colours are bright, vibrant, and the whole colour palette works really well, and is an excellent match for the style and feel of the game’s direction. Add to that some classic Street fighter style insults, and that the characters are true to the likeness of the films, all be it, in a slightly wacky art form, and you really do feel that you have been transported into the universe of Creed & Rocky, via a graphic novel artwork showpiece.

The venues on offer range from arenas, bars and the mean streets, giving variation to the game. However, the fights are exactly the same, and it made me laugh to see good old Rocky Balboa ready for a fight in the back alley of a street, roughing up a character, wearing nothing but his Boxing shorts.

This Rocky game has 3 difficulty modes, and having played in Rookie and Pro difficulty, the game represented a real challenge, so if you are up for the ultimate prize, and fancy a real challenge that is tough as nails, then Champion mode is for you. Sadly, I wasn’t up to the task.

Overall, I have really enjoyed my time playing Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions. It’s refreshing to play a boxing title on Xbox, and have that coiled with a film, to form a decent boxing title. Fans of the films will absolutely adore, those that are after an over-the-top arcade title will enjoy, and to be frank, as a couch play title, the game is very accessible too, with some excellent pick up and play controls and fighting mechanics.

Yes, the game is a bit repetitive, and I would have much preferred to see a little voice acting, rather then scrolling through dialogue cycles, but Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions has a lot to offer with its unique background stories, decent sized roster all with an individual story to tell, and unlockables to be earned along the way.