Name: Rocky
Item: Rocky
Rating: 4.3
Author: Chris Howlett

Casino Bonuses

Provider	Playtech
Reels	5
Rows	5
Paylines	40
Bonus Rounds	6
Bet Range	0.10 - 500
Volatility	Medium
Max Win	5,000x
Bonus Buy	Yes
RTP	95.88%
Our Rating	4.3

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Game Overview

The original Rocky movie is one of the greatest American sports drama movies ever, despite being produced on a tiny budget of just $950,000. The film was a critical smash hit and raked in more than $225 million at the box office, unsurprisingly leading to the creation of a slew of sequels. In a shocking break from tradition, many of those sequels were actually very good! The new Rocky online slot by Rare Stone on the Playtech platform concentrates mainly on the original quintet but also includes a special feature related to 2006’s Rocky Balboa as well – sorry Creed fans, nothing for you in this one! The game uses 40 fixed paylines, whilst the RTP is confusingly stated as “between 95.88% and 95.91%”. The same help page also says that winnings are subject to a maximum limit but does not reveal what that limit might be; umm, Rare Stone, please can you sort out your vital statistics?!

There are six(!) main features in Rocky, one for each of the movies that, presumably, the developer Rare Stone enjoyed! This sounds great until you realise that you need to get four matching scatters – and there are six different types – in all four corners of the reel set to trigger one of the said features. More on that part later, but to summarise, we have sticky wilds, a pick-me feature, a fight-based free spin mode, a three-spin feature, the wheel of fortune, and a training mode. There’s a bonus buy facility too, but you don’t get to pick your favourite of the six bonuses – one is chosen randomly each time you make the purchase.

So remember folks, it’s not about how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward! And what that has to do with our free Rocky demo slot, I have absolutely no idea.

Rocky Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols

Rocky Slot paytable

Rare Stone seems to be either a division of Playtech or Playtech acts as their publisher. It may just be a coincidence, but Playtech themselves released a licensed Rocky slot over a decade ago, and if I remember correctly, it was a lot more fun than this one! I suspect the license may have expired by now, however, as I couldn’t find a working copy of the game while writing this review. If you’re seeking other beat ’em up slots, then it’s worth taking a look at the Boxing King Game from Jili, the legendary Street Fighter slot from NetEnt, and finally, The Cage from Nolimit City.

Not a great start so far, but perhaps the paytable will offer up some respite for Rare Stone? Rocky is the highest-paying symbol of the bunch and pays 1.5x the total bet for a full payline of five of a kind. This is all about to go wrong, isn’t it? Apollo and Lang share identical returns of 1x for a complete payline, whilst Ivan Drago fares even worse with a payout of just 0.8x for all five of his symbols. Does anybody else feel like they got that the wrong way around? Even the old Sega Master System game had Drago as the final boss. Don’t go play that, though; even nostalgia goggles can’t save that sorry effort! Hey, at least Rocky’s prized dog made the cut – and he shares the same 0.8x return as Drago! There are five low pays, too, represented by the royal symbols Ace, King, Jack, Queen and the Ten, which all of share identical payouts of 0.5x for a five-of-a-kind winning combination.

Low rollers will be happy to see that a minimum bet of €0.10 is available here, and it might be a good idea to stick somewhere close to that if you are hoping to ever see all six bonus rounds! On the other hand, if you like to burn money, the maximum bet of €500.00 will get rid of those pesky bank notes even quicker than setting them on fire.

Rocky Slot Base Game & Modifiers

Rocky slot base game

The base game of Rocky takes place on a 5×5 reel set, more akin to the style used in grid slots than a traditional video slot. The developer has included 40 paylines to cover the enlarged area, which does help to cover most of the more obvious paths across the board.

Symbols appear in stacks which helps you to win on multiple paylines at once, but the lack of any wild symbols until you reach the bonus round significantly counteracts any advantage this gives.

Rocky Slot Bonus Features

Rocky slot bonus round

There are six sets of scatter symbols in Rocky, one for each of the five original movies represented by roman numerals and another for Rocky Balboa, which has an ‘RB’ logo. These symbols can only land in the four corners of the playfield, and you need to match up a full matching set of four to trigger the corresponding bonus round.

Rocky I – Apollo Creed Free Games

Awards eight free spins with new sticky wild symbols added to all five reels. These symbols will remain in place for the duration of the feature after they land, and each completed payline will award 15x the total bet.

Rocky Ii – Heavyweight Feature

Nine gloves are shown on screen, and you are granted free picks to reveal cash prizes. Revealing a gold coin awards an additional three picks. When all picks have been used, the sum of all visible cash prizes is paid.

Rocky Iii – Clubber Lang Free Games

Awards six free spins, with, to quote the paytable: ‘a rectangular symbol area that is guaranteed to reveal all CLUBBER LANG or ROCKY symbols’ … I don’t know why I found this so difficult to understand initially, but after I finally triggered the feature it turns out that you get a block of high paying symbols added to the reels for the duration of the feature. Not sure why you get fewer spins here than you do in the sticky wild mode, however!

Rocky Iv – Ivan Drago Hold & Respins

This three-spin feature initially awards three re-spins that will reset back to three each time a new symbol lands on the reels. The reels contain different symbols in this mode with cash prizes that are much more valuable than the normal line hits offered on the paytable.

Rocky V – Multi-wheel Feature

This is a wheel of fortune style feature with three wheels offering a cash prize, a multiplier, and the chance of a re-spin. The top prize available on the cash wheel is 100x the total bet, which can be multiplied by up to 10x repeatedly, possibly making this the most valuable feature of the bunch.

Rocky Balboa – Training Feature

The final feature is a simple one – multipliers of between 1x and 1,000x are shown, and you press a big red button with the text ‘PUSH HARDER’ until it fails to do anything! It’s a little bit silly, but it’s probably better than the Heavyweight Feature!

Bonus Buy

You can buy a random feature courtesy of the bonus buy from the list above for just 38x the normal price per spin, which suggests to me that some of the features must be near worthless considering that others have such enormous payouts. Unfortunately, the paytable does not state if the odds of winning each feature are truly random, and I can’t help but suspect that they are not.

Pros

There are six features to trigger.

Cons

Low payouts in the base game.
Some of the features are pretty much worthless.

Rocky Slot Review Final Thoughts

Ah, Rare Stone… what have you done. Rocky is a beloved franchise, and this slot simply misses the mark in far too many areas to be worthy of a recommendation here. Fans of the movies will inevitably want to play this game out of curiosity, but keep your bets low if you do – I guarantee you’ll thank me for it.

4.3

Terrible

Game Types:
Sport Slots

Author Bio

Article by Chris Howlett

11 Years Slots Playing Experience

About Chris Howlett

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