Developed and published by Coleco Industries in 1983, Rocky Super-Action Boxing is based on the 1982 film, Rocky III, and was the first licensed video game based on the smash-hit series.

You can play as either Rocky Balboa, or his rival (played by Mr. T in the film) Clubber Lang, in either single-player mode, or head-to-head against another player.

In single-player mode there are four skill levels to choose from, consisting of two, five, ten, or fifteen rounds, lasting one minute each. There’s also a demo mode, so you can sit back and watch the computer slug it out if you want to.

Rocky Super-Action Boxing was one of the few games to support Coleco‘s Super Action Controller – a unique ‘knuckle-duster-style’ joystick that allowed players to punch and block using the four coloured action buttons, while moving around the ring using the top-mounted joystick.

Victory can be achieved in two ways: either by knockout, or on points if the fight goes all the way to the end. The winner of the match celebrates to Survivor‘s classic “Eye of the Tiger“, the theme song from the film.

Rocky Super-Action Boxing was heralded as a “masterpiece” by some critics at the time of its original release, and in 1983 the game was something of a revelation.

Graphically, Rocky Super-Action Boxing still looks pretty good today, and the game still plays reasonably well (considering its age – it’s forty years old now, at the time of writing).

More: Rocky Super Action Boxing on Wikipedia