"E... A... Sports. It's in the game!"
...Says a lot about the experience of playing Fight Night 4. This is the first boxing game I've played that feels like a sports simulation than a fighting game. There is a genuine strategy to the bouts where being aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the boxers you play (and or create) has a real influence on the game. Yes, a certain amount of progress can be made by treating it as a fighting game and repeatedly whacking buttons like a loon, but a lot of the point of the game would lost in doing so.
Ironically, button mashing would be inappropriate with the game's intuitive control system where the left analog stick controls the boxer’s movement, and the right stick controls the various sorts of punches with the odd shoulder button press for extra moves like blocking, bobbing and weaving. Playing the game, I became enamoured with the neat gameplay features that are not immediately apparent by just seeing the game being played. Between rounds your trainer who is patching you up in your corner awards you points depending on your performance in the round to spend on bonuses to health/damage, or to save up for bigger bonuses later on in the fight. Dodging or blocking a punch and following up with a counter-attack of your own has a slightly greater affect than just punching, and simply holding a blocking stance is not as effective as blocking just as a punch is thrown. All these things help to make the game that little more immersive. The game looking so great also helps. Boxers are recognisable by what they look like and their fighting styles rather than just by looking at the name next to their energy bars on the screen. A roster that includes legends such as; Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Jake Lamotta, Marvin Hagler, “Sugar” Rays Leonard and Robinson, Tommy Hearns, Joe Frazier, Julio Caesar Chavez, Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, Manny Pacquiao, Roberto Duran, Roy Jones Jr. and Joe Calzaghe makes this one of the most champion-laden sports titles of all time.
As can be expected from an EA Sports game, there's a career mode where you can create your own fighter. It was here I developed an understanding of how varying stats and styles can affect the way in which the game can be played. For example, on my first play I created a boxer with an enormous reach who got soundly pummelled in his first match by a boxer with a much shorter reach who kept getting inside with vicious body blows. The career mode is made to feel more substantial than simply a series of consecutive bouts by including a calendar with which to plan prospective fights, to choose who to fight to stay popular with the viewing public, and training.
As can also be expected from an EA Sports game, it revels in the minutiae of the sport with copious stats. If you have a ghoulish curiosity about how many right crosses you threw during round four, and how many connected, you'll be well catered for here. All of this along with various training modes and good Xbox Live support to play people in the real world means there's a lot here to keep you occupied.
As far as negatives are concerned, I'm confused as to how seriously the game takes itself. Yes I know that fighters are not allowed to fight anyone far beyond their weight category, but why can't I have a super heavyweight fighting a lightweight for fun? Why can't I create a midget fighter with silly hair? However, this may be more of an indication of my preferred fun game style, so this is may be an unfair criticism. Despite this, there is still the occasional slow motion sequence when a particularly brutal punch connects, complete with odd bone-crunching noises that owe more to Mortal Kombat than the world of boxing. For a simulation that takes itself quite seriously this is pretty jarring.
From its inception the Fight Night series really upped the ante as far as serious boxing games go, and I'm genuinely surprised by how intense an experience this game has been. It has given me more of an appreciation of the sport of boxing, in the same way Balrog Vs. M Bison in Street Fighter never could.
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