Fight Night 2004 (Xbox)

Before purchasing Fight Night 2004 I have previously owned two games from the Knockout Kings series and was immediately quite impressed by the early screen shots I saw in previews. These boasted highly realistic graphics and the total punch control system, which was supposed to be something of a landmark in boxing games.

On playing the game you will find much of it is familiar and, I think, welcome territory. You have the usual choice of settings which determine difficulty/rounds and whether your fighter can be saved by the bell. You can then choose between quick fight or career. In quick fight you can use any of a number of known professional fighters in all the weight categories and are provided a comprehensive list of attributes on your chosen fighter, consisting of power/speed/agility/chin etc... or begin the career mode.

In career you get to select your name, weight and style of fighter along with a nickname before going on to customise his appearance. This is comprehensively done and allows you to alter all facial features in some detail as well as customise your ring attire. All of this, except your physical appearance can be revisited later in your career mode when you have cash available to purchase better attire, entrance effects and special punches etc.

The career mode starts you as the lowest ranked contender and allows you to take on better ranked opponents with training modes sandwiched between every fight. There are four types of training mode which each allow you to assign a maximum of 15 points to two of the eight skill areas, if you score enough points during the training. If you perform poorly during training you will have less points to distribute to your man. These modes clearly act as a means to an end, but nonetheless become quite repetitive, especially since as your career continues, the points required to earn the full 15 points increases which makes getting max points in training quite a challenge. There is the option of auto training, but this will prevent you from getting 100% across the skill areas before retirement as it halves the points available during these modes.

Once in the ring you will find the controls unlike anything yo have tried before. This will probably result in you visiting the canvass a number of times and perhaps even thinking the difficulty is off the chart.

The left stick controls movement around the ring and is non-linear, so you can move in any direction. This stick if combined with a held left shoulder button plants your feet and facilitates upper body movement - allowing you to bob and weave. The right stick does all your punching. Push it forward with a left bias and you get a left jab and vice versa. Push it left or right then circle upwards and you get the hook. Pull it towards you with a left/right bias then circle it up to the top and you get the uppercuts. If you hold down the right shoulder button, the right stick controls your guard. All functions of left and right stick can be combined allowing you to bob and block, or duck and punch. The only limitation is that when bobbing or blocking you are rooted to the spot. This sounds bad but isn't as it allows you to bob and block shots then counter. Once you get the hang of combining all the elements you can become pretty elusive while still dishing out the pain. The fighting itself, once you get the hang of it is something of a revelation. It completely eliminates luck and button mashing, and its highest praise is that player skill will always triumph. Gone are the days of playing a fighting game for weeks, taking on a newcomer and getting wiped out....

The knockout scenes are fantastic and clearly utilise rag doll physics which creates, on 99% of occasions, great effects. You get the occasional glitch where the downed puglilist bounces continually off the bottom rope until the count starts, but this is rare. Facial damage is also taken to a new level and is really well done, it is so well done that its quite a laugh to pick an opponent with a low cut rating and punish him over 15 rounds as the final effect is like Stallone in Rocky 1.

The negatives are few but consist of the following - The ring announcer is a rapper, who wanders around larging it up covered in bling bling....This would not be an issue if EA sports hadn't done such a good job of creating a realistic simulation. Jimmy Lennon Jnr or such like would have been the icing on the cake but the selected announcer takes away from the sense of realism a pre fight build up completely.

Second is the manadatory retirement aspect. You start the career mode aged 20 and must retire at 40. This is sufficient time to become the world champion, with losses and even go on to defend it a few times, but then you retire and thats it. If you scored well during training, your saved man will probably be almost 100 across the board and will be far superior to the known faces, but will still only be available in quick mode. This seems a shame and perhaps could have been done better.

Overall, this is a huge leap forward in boxing games and credit must go to EA for the control concept. It is easily the best boxing game around, despite the minor problems, and even after the initial flurry of play, will see much use.