Let's play: Rocky

BBC Sport Online reviewer David Gibbon gets punch-drunk with excitement over the soon-to-be released video game of the Rocky movies .

Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone may never win any awards for clarity of speech, but his appearances in a ring have brought him worldwide acclaim.

Starting off his role as a small-time boxer in the 1976 movie Rocky, his fights with charismatic characters such as Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) turned the movie into a huge success.

It won Oscars for Best Film, Best Director, Best Editing and even Best Song for Eye of the Tiger - which was featured in the second of four sequels spawned by the film.

Now, as Rocky celebrates its 25th anniversary, video game outfit Rage Software are about to bring the monosyllabic boxer to the small screen.

The Liverpool-based firm, which are currently preparing to launch David Beckham Soccer, secured the rights from MGM Interactive.

Now you can give Mr T a good hiding

And the game is set to go on sale for the PlayStation 2, Microsoft X-Box and Game Boy Advance in 2002.

All of the colourful characters from the five Rocky films are there, including Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago and Tommy Gunn.

A variety of single and multi-player modes will be on offer, such as Movie Mode, Knockout Tournament and Exhibition Bout.

A training mode will also be featured, allowing you to enhance your boxer's skill and stamina.

Rage also claim the title will feature a huge range of punches from attacking hooks, jabs and uppercuts to defensive blocks, ducks and weaves.

But it is the graphics that really stand out at the moment.

Thanks to motion capture of real-life boxers, Rage has managed to give this boxing game a truly authentic look and feel.

Of course, this is not the first time a boxing game has been released and, in the past, seldom has this genre sold particularly well.

But the Rocky title will be the first to come with a truly international brand backing it up and - as such -could be very successful when released next year.