The story of Fight Night 2004 is straight out of a boxing movie. It entered
the ring last year out of nowhere and without a lot of hype, but its excellent
gameplay and innovative control system soon had gamers crowning it the king of
boxing games. And just like a boxer in a sequel, the game has spent some time
bulking up and now returns with more punch than ever in Fight Night Round 2.
OK, enough of the loose analogies to Rocky without mentioning its name (d’oh!),
let’s take a look at what makes the game so good.
One of the major things that set Fight Night 2004 apart from every other
boxing title before it was its Total Control punch system and this innovative
scheme is at the core of Round 2 as well. For those of you new to the series,
the Total Control system makes use of the right stick for punch control. Quick
punches such as jabs are thrown by flicking the stick – move it left to punch
with your left and right to punch with your right. Harder punches require some
movement with the stick that mimic the motion that a fighter must use to throw
each punch. For example, to throw an upper cut you bring the stick down and
then rotate it up. Hold down the left trigger while throwing your punch and
you will throw body blows. Combined your punches with movement of the left
stick and you’re making punches from the sides or up out of a crouch. The
system is simple, elegant, and surprisingly intuitive.
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| The graphics almost bring the pain home. |
New to Round 2 is the haymaker punch. The haymaker lets you use the stick
to wind up and let loose an extra powerful blow. Unfortunately this addition
to the repertoire feels more like a gimmick than an extension of the fighting
system. The haymaker is not a very smart boxing move as it leaves you open to
a faster punch and it doesn’t land often enough to make it effective over the
course of the bout. In Round 2, the punch is a bit too devastating and the
penalty for being beaten to the punch seems too light.
One of the things that makes the punch system in the game so good is that
you actually need to think about which punches to throw and when. If you
simply try to flick the stick around as fast as you can you are going to end
up with your back on the canvas time and time again. You need to know when to
strike and when to block, when to back away and when to clench your opponent.
If you didn’t realize that there was a lot of strategy involved in the sport
of boxing, then you’ll learn that fact really fast. Your opponents in the game
know how to set-up more powerful punches, counter-punch your attacks, and
anticipate punches that you’ve grown to rely upon. It makes for some tough
competition, especially when you start facing the better boxers.
You can take on the persona of any of a number of famous fighters from the
past thirty years or so and battle it out in a full match against another
marquee boxer. You can mix weight classes if you’d like to see how a smaller
boxer would fair against a heavyweight. This match is a lot of fun, but the
heart of the game lies in its career mode. You begin the career mode by
creating a boxer using the game’s extensive set of tools. You have control
over facial features, skin tone, size, and more, so you’ll be able to come up
with a pretty good virtual likeness of yourself if you’d like. You also can
customize your boxer’s style through the distribution of skill points to
different attributes such as speed, power, and agility. If you’d prefer, you
can take on the persona of a famous boxer and see if you can achieve the same
success the fighter did in real life. You can even tweak the stats for famous
fighters to see how they would have faired if things were a little different,
such as creating a Mohammed Ali with no power but all speed.
Not only is the look of your boxer completely customizable, the look will
change as your career progresses. Spend time training and flab will begin to
melt off of your body. Reach the twilight of your career and your boxer will
show some of the typical signs of an aging athlete.
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