In the game the player can take control of Rocky Balboa, Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang or Ivan Drago and witness their early careers before their famous encounters.

Rocky Legends has six different gameplay modes to choose from including Career, Exhibition, Tournament, Survival, Training, and Practice.

Players can also use their in-game winnings to buy and unlock extras.

Career mode allows the player to select one of the major characters of the first four Rocky films.

Training in freeplay can be done both alone and with another player competitively, however this has no effect on the character's stats.