You’re a bum Rock!

Boxing is known as the sweet science, mostly because as much as the sport is hitting the opponent as hard as you can its just as much about outthinking your adversary. So, while the spectacle of seeing someone throw big, hard punches is fun; there is a lot more to the overall sport. A whole lot more. That is where Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions misses the jab entirely.

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions is an arcade boxing game from the developers at Survios. While the team there have released VR games, including one based on the Creed film franchise; this marks their first release outside of the medium. While the game is based on boxing, it plays like a regular fighting game. Even so much as including a “one button” super move that players get once They build up enough meter. Big Rumble Boxing offers players the chance to select a fighter from the Rocky/Creed film universe and step into the ring to prove their metal. The selection is quite sparse at the outset, Rocky Balboa and of course Adonis Johnson (Creed) are the few legends that are available. In order to unlock fighters, players are forced to play in ‘versus’ matches and as they win, they will fill an experience bar to get the chance to fight the next character. Taking a page from Super Smash Bros, once I unlocked the fighter I would have to battle them in order to add them to my roster.

MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99

This isn’t a really big deal until players realize that they have no way of choosing who to unlock, and the game has generic fighters thrown in the mix. So after fighting more and more matches to fill up the bar, they may or may not get the fighter they have been waiting for…(looking at you Apollo Creed who I am still waiting to unlock). The unlock system is even more puzzling when factoring in that the other mode available for play, which is the Arcade mode also gives unlocks but only costumes. As players complete each fighter’s story in the Arcade mode they will receive a few color swaps for them, mostly just changing the color of trunks, or adding the fighters name to the waistband. Its not much, but with a game as sparse as this one it helps to add to the replay value.

And heaven knows Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions needs all the help it can get when it comes to being replay-able. In the year of our Lord 2021, why a developer would choose to make a fighting game that is only local co-op is so confusing to me. While it may be a matter of the finances needed for servers, whatever it may be the choice hurts this particular game unless you have lots of friends on hand to play with. Its really a shame too, because the gameplay is quite enjoyable, it’s not really a boxing game but more like a fighting game that just has boxers.

While Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions has the usual staples of a boxing game; the way the developers put it all together is much less realistic boxing like EA’s Fight Night series and much more Midway’s old Ready 2 Rumble series. Initially when playing of course my approach was to “stick and move” really use the ring and well, box. Quickly I found that is not the way to play this, but instead approach it like Microsoft’s Killer Instinct. Much like KI, this game uses combo openers and enders. While I don’t pretend to be a fighting game expert, and honestly most of my knowledge comes from a friend of mine, however, I will do my best to explain.

While players can just mash the jab button and throw basic combos they will find that success in the game comes from using the openers and closers successfully. They are all pretty much easy to pull off as most openers just require a directional press in addition to the jab button, during the combo before it ends players will add in the other buttons to finish the string. If successful, the fighter’s fist will glow with a color indicating the type of damage done which will influence the follow up attack. Each fighter also falls into a different type, while these differences are not noticeable it will change the combos that are available per fighter. While this is advertised as an arcade take on boxing, it really should just be marketed as a fighting game because anyone who buys this expecting any sense of traditional boxing will be very disappointed. It is entirely possible to win by spamming the heavy attack button, there is no stamina bar and nothing to keep anyone from trying this technique. The only thing that the player is beholden to is the animation length, as the game doesn’t have the more traditional “cancel” moves seen in the usual fighters.

Graphically Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions isn’t anything to write home about. The fighters themselves are more influenced by the actors who made them famous rather than being modeled after them. That’s not to say that they look bad at all, but if you begin to look too closely you will notice that they aren’t the real deal. Also, for some reason all of the fighters start each fight covered in sweat. Perhaps the ring-walk which happens off camera was perilous and that is why they are showing signs of exhaustion before the first punch has been thrown.

Environments are varied enough for what it’s worth, each arena and ring area are all well-lit and modeled. None of them appeared to be based on any real venues like Caesar’s Palace in Vegas but they range from empty warehouse’s to sold out arenas with all the pomp and circumstance that you would see at the Palace. The animations in Big Rumble Boxing are actually quite awesome, most fights look like they were pulled directly from the film series. The end of the original Rocky film, where Apollo throws all his weight into a wildly thrown punch (that you would never see in a real boxing match) and it connects with Rocky’s face and he falls to the ground on one knee. That animation is in the game. In fact, when players control the legend characters they all have moves that can be seen in the movies. And the music – oh man, the soundtrack is fire! While idling on the menu, or even fighting in a match the soundtrack is full of great songs that has appeared in the films. While most of the soundtrack leans towards hip-hop, you will find some fantastic covers of Fighting Hard Now, and of course Eye of the Tiger. Honestly, I can’t express how amazing the soundtrack is. I am idling at the main menu listening to the music while writing this review, it’s THAT GOOD.

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions isn’t a bad game it just feels like an incomplete one. With only three real modes to play the game (one of which is the training) it just feels empty. The training mode is not mandatory and unlike most games you don’t receive a tutorial while playing the Arcade mode. The lack of online multiplayer is a HUGE oversight in this reviewer’s humble opinion, as this game is really a blast when playing against a human. Clearly aimed at the fans of the Rocky/Creed film series, Big Rumble Boxing perfectly emulates the finale scenes in the aforementioned films. Each fight with its flashy moves and animations encapsulates the edge of your seat thrills that one gets from the movies, but in this case the outcome is not predetermined. If you aren’t a huge fan of the films but can get past the egregious decision to only include a sparse amount of playable modes and endure the grind to unlock the other fighters; then Big Rumble Boxing can be a solid and fun fighting game to play.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Amazing Soundtrack
  • Fun, arcade fighting
Bad
  • Character models are overly sweaty
  • No online multiplayer
  • Takes too long to unlock fighters
6.5
Decent
Written by
Terrence spends his time going where no one has gone before mostly. But when not planning to take over the galaxy, he spends his time raising Chocobo and trying to figure out just how the sarlaac could pull Boba Fett’s ship with its engines firing FULL BLAST into it’s maw with relative ease; yet it struggled with Han Solo who was gripping *checks notes* SAND!