Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions

Review

Who could forget the sensational scene of Apollo Creed dancing in front of a packed house at the Grand Hotel to the iconic song from James Brown, "Living in America", while the boxing ring rises from beneath the stage with Ivan Drago in the middle in Rocky IV? A film franchise with 8 movies and the upcoming Creed III (2022), which has sold over 1.7 billion at the box office worldwide. A musical and 9 video games, including the Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions. So, who would you fight with to become the next boxing champion? Rocky, Apollo, Ivan or Adonis! Can you hear the theme? Can you? It's time to get them, tiger!

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions is a boxing arcade game developed and self-published by
Survios Inc, on the 4^th of September 2021 on Steam platform. The game is also available on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

The game features 20 boxers divided into three different boxing styles (General, Slugger, Swarmer), 13 arenas, an arcade, a versus and a training mode. In addition, there are 3 levels of difficulty: Rookie, Pro and Champion. I do recommend selecting the easiest level for your first few fights to get a feel of it before increasing the difficulty. 

As you launch the game for the first time, you will have access to all the modes, but only 10 out of the 20 boxers will be available for selection.  

As many people know, the genre of arcade games is extremely fun if you know how to execute most of the moves, which are combinations, by punching buttons in specific sequences and using the directional stick on your gamepad to perform moves. Some moves are straightforward, while others require a bit of practice to get down pat, so the perfect place to go is the training mode.  You can play a versus game with a mate on the same screen or play against the computer.

The mode I really enjoy is, of course, the arcade mode. As you are on the character screen, you'll see two layouts. On the top, there are the 10 available characters and right beneath them are the other 10 characters you'll need to unlock. I found out that each character has a journey/mini story to complete, which involves 6 fights in total, and depending on the character, 1 or 2 training sessions in between. Each time you complete the journey of one of the boxers from the top layout, you'll unlock 2 skins (shorts) for that boxer as well as the character straight underneath him. By finishing the story of the boxers underneath the main 10 characters, you'll only unlock their additional skins (short).

I couldn't avoid playing my first game as Rocky Balboa, and off I went straight into his journey, reflecting most of his movies' fights (Rocky 1 to 4). After a short introduction of both boxers (you can turn off the intro in the settings), ding…. ding…. ding, and it's time to rumble; well, box! On both sides and at the top of your screen, you have the avatar of both boxers. Two gauges are displayed next to each avatar. The top gauge represents health, and the one beneath is stamina. The Super gauges for both boxers are located at the bottom of your screen on each side.

You really need to K.O. your opponent as fast as possible by knocking him on the floor at least 3 times and not being flattened yourself.  Your stamina gauge will decrease significantly when you execute a special move or block your opponent’s moves (including special moves). So you'll really have to learn how to move and evade your opponent’s punches as much as you can. This will also help to regenerate your stamina. Each punch that properly hits your adversary will increase the super gauge. When it's full, you can unleash your boxer’s unique supermove and boy, it will inflict serious damage to your opponent. Each time I was able to execute that move, I liked the short focus on your boxer and slow-motion movement that followed through. Expect plenty of super moves coming your way in this game. However, you can block it by pressing one of the right buttons on your gamepad or by moving away, but that must be done at a precise time, and if you miss it, you're the one who’ll be blessed by a supermove from your opponent. However, if you block, your stamina will drop dramatically. You can also counter it, but you must have your super gauge full as well to be able to counter it. Again, it will come down to timing.

The training is just like a mini-game really, running on a treadmill, hitting a bag or a rack of beef, and that’s about it. You'll receive points and golden starts, but it won't give you any benefits towards your next fight.    

All the characters look magnificent, and the animations are so well done. Sure, it is not a proper boxing simulation, but it is so much fun. The whole arena looks good and has its own feel, and on top of that, you have some of the most iconic tracks of the movie franchise while fighting.   

One thing I would have loved in this game is seeing the boxers' faces with cuts and swollen cheeks after going down and progressively being worse. That would have been fun! Unfortunately, it’s not the case in this game. Apart from that, the game ran smoothly in each of my sessions.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Steam Store Page