King Of The Virtual Ring (Knock Out Kings 2001 (PS2))

Member Name: Thuggg

Product:	Knock Out Kings 2001 (PS2)
Date:	02/09/01 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Real Boxers, Playability, Commentary & Realness

Disadvantages: No Roy Jones, Naseem Hamed or Mike Tyson

My Lords, Ladies, Gentlemen, welcome to an evening of boxing featuring over 30 real fighters spanning nearly 10 decades squeezed into 3 weight classes & ready to go the 15 round distance, if your fingers can stand the pain!

Yes, the mother of all boxing games, "Knockout Kings 2001" for the PS2 packs more punch than Mike Tyson did in his hey day, unfortunately he's one of the few boxers who do not appear here who you'ld expect to see in a game of this title (something to do with his rape charge I've been lead to believe). That aside you'll hardly miss him as this game also features women boxers, for the first time, & has two arcade style fight modes as well as a carrer mode where you must go through combintions on the pucnh bag, dictated by your virtual trainer, to increase your attributes which include: Power, Speed, Chin, Stamina, Heart & Cuts.

Power:This ones obvious, do you have one punch KO Power, do you need a few rounds to wear your opponent down or ar you a distance fighter who couldn't punch your way out of a paper bag?

Speed:Will you dazzle your opponent with blinding hand speed & latteral movement, sticking & moving like sugar ray in his hayday or are you slow & workman like ala Frank Bruno, telegraphing your punches from another town?

Chin:Can you take a punch or will your knees buckle at the site of your opponents fist coming at you?
Stamina:When your opponents still standidng at the end of the 10th round, will you be gasping for air, will you punches still have zip, will you still have that quicksilver movement or will you be static?

Heart:It's the 15th round, you're ahead on points, there's 2 minutes remaining & your opponent unhinges you with a looping uppercut that sends you windmilling across the ring & onto your back, will you beat the count or will you have the heart to get up & get in his (or her) face?

Cuts:Do you bleed easily? Your opponent may n
ot have K.O. power but his gloves are still made of leather & he can cut you to threads causing the Ref to stop the bout, will your corner man be able to stem the bleeding or will you end up looking like a victim of the St. Valentines day massacre?

Modes:Career - Name your boxer, choose a boxing style & stance, choose your weight class & height, select your look - Hair style & colour(including facial), skin colour, tattoos, gloves, trunks & boots.
You also have a choice of ring walk & taunt for when your giving your opponent a good hiding & want to rub it in a bit!
Then choose your stabel(Gym)Different stables fighters start out with different attributes.

Once all this is done you're on your way to the Champion ship of the world! You must take a look at your selected opponents attributes & style however to ensure you're not in out of your depth!.

Once (or if) you make it to the top you'll then be challenged by various known prvious champions from your weightclass.

Exhibition:
Select your weightclass, your fighter & your opponent from the list of real boxers.
Select the venue you wish to fight in, including:Caesars Place (Las Vegas), Madison Square Garden (New York) Wembley Arena (London) The Colosseum (Rome) amongst others, both real & fictional. Then off you go!

Slugfest:This is somewhat self explanetory, Punch, Kick, Headbutt, Kidneypunch & Elbow & Low blow your opponent into oblivion, but beware they might not give up without a BITE! Yep, you can do that too! A bizarre no holds barred foray into the world of all that is bad but unashamedly does exist in the world of boxing, both legal & illegal!.

Note:In exhibition modes you'll need to pre-define the length of your fights before you choose your fighters & also have a choice of 3 levels of difficulty, Easy, Normal & Hard!

Check it out, even if you're not into boxing, it's a real laugh that'll have your friend
s refusing to leave your home if you give them a good beating or bragging like Naseem Hamed if they win! (He doesn't appear here either I'm afraid, think he was scared of losing his 0 at the time & so went for his own substandard branded game which pales incomparrison).

Summary: