"Sure, there have been deaths and injuries in boxing, but none of them serious." (Fight Night Round 2 (Xbox))

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	Fight Night Round 2 (Xbox)
Date:	08/06/09 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Boxing, Fun, innovative, better than the previous game

Disadvantages: Dated, poor judging, fights dont last

Boxing is to me, what football is to your normal guy, what shopping for shoes was to my ex and what drug addicts feel their chosen substance is. Boxing is my drug, from watching it to writing about it, from reading about it to looking at videos and now thanks to EA pretending I'm actually involved.

I'd had previously completed Fight Night 2004 (well won the belt and made about 10 defences) before realising the game had no replay value on single player mode, so I needed something new. I tried Rocky Legends which I totally loved, amazing game, with lots of depth and the Rocky license what more could you ask for? Well even with the Rocky game in my library I still needed my boxing fix, so whilst looking around Gamestation before last Christmas I saw this as part of a 2 for £10 deal they were doing and snapped it up.

The games art work/cover is different depending on which version you buy, the US version having Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins on the cover, whilst the British version had Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton on the cover. I, as I'm British picked up on with the Hatton cover, which was released in March 2005. The game was the second in the "Fight night" series, which was effectively a rebranding of the Knockout Kings series, which was released from 2000-2003.
The major difference was the introduction in Fight Night 2004 of a revolutionary control method called Total Punch Control, which saw punches no longer thrown with the typical face buttons on the control, but instead thrown with the spare analogue stick on the control (right stick) which allowed you to throw jabs, hooks and uppercuts with relative ease. Although the system was relatively raw (and by Round 2 it still wasn't fully intuitive) it was easy and a clever method, that took the games from being button bashers into being quite tactical.

The controls were slightly altered in the upgrade to allow Hayemakers, which were more powerful punches, but they did effectively ruin parts of the game (as explained later one). As well as that holding was added to allow your fighter to clear their head when there was a KO moment an addition that I'm a huge fan of.

The game is a typical boxing game, with a brilliant multiplayer, a training mode (never played it, don't intend to), a career mode (more about this later) and a special type of match (I cant remember the name off hand) in which a round was finished when a fighter was knocked down.

So the career mode, where you will spend most of your time in single player see's you either create a character from scratch or restart the career of a character from the game (listed at the bottom of this review). You start your career fighting in 4 round amateur contests (a new addition to this game) then move onto the professional mode whilst going through a few tutorials. Whilst fighting as a pro you make your way up the rankings until you can challenge for the title of the weight category you're in. With the ability to fight in a weight category either side of your original one (barring the Heavyweight and Featherweight categories, which only have one direction to move to). This allows you to be a 3 weight champion something the previous game didn't allow and is another nice addition.

Whilst talking of new additions, cuts now actually play a real factor in the game, with the EA cuts-man, a mini game in which you play as a corner man trying to tidy up your fighters bust up face. A rather good addition that breaks up the fighting with a technical side to it as you can clean up the cuts, or put down the swelling.

Ok back to the first gripe I made, the hayemakers, for those that have played the previous version of the game. How many times do you actually see a fight go the distance? Rarely right? In fact I can't remember the last time I went further than the 7th round, the addition of Hayemakers have made going the distance impossible as you end up either knocking out the opponent or being knocked out.
Though I'll admit it's a good thing as I have a serious annoyance with the scoring of the game, which is often as bad as the judging Sven Ottke was lucky to receive. The judges rarely seem to be consistent except in thinking the computer won the round (after the fight even if it ends by KO, you see the score card), whether you land more, throw more, have a better landed % anything.

The fighters in the game include:
Marco Antonio Barera
Diego Corrales
Derek Gainer
Kevin Kelley
Juan Manuel Marquez
Rafael Marquez
Erik Morales
Manny Pacquioa
Roberto Duran
Aturo Gatti
Floyd Mayweather Jnr
Shane Mosley
Miguel Cotto
Ricky Hatton
Ray Leonard
Ray Robinson
Bernard Hopkins
Jake Lamotta
Ronald Wright
Evander Holyfield
Jeff Lacy
Roy Jones Jnr
Antonio Tarver
James Toney
Muhammad Ali
Joe Frazier
Sonny Liston
Rocky Marciano
Ken Norton

Arguably an absence of European boxers was a shame (rectified in Fight Night Round 4) whilst the inclusion of Ken Norton and Jeff Lacy could also be seen as slightly peculiar. But over all a good cast of fighters new and old.

The games music is rap music, which often means I end up playing in silence or with the radio on in the background as I don't particularly like rap music. Whilst the graphics are decent, it's easy to tell who's meant to be who (though looking at fight night round 4 pics, some of them are barely recognisable).

The game is a good arcade feeling boxing game, though not with out it's flaws in the judging and fighting. The game has aged as well, with all sports games it's inevitable that they'll age, and after 4 years fighters like Morales, Kelley and Gatti have gone well past there sell by date. Where as Adamek, Dawson and Kessler have all shot to real life super stardom, and despite the ability to create them in game, it's still proof the game is relatively out of date.

For around £5 the game is a brilliant bargain, though it does need to be seen as bit of light hearted fun, rather than anything too serious.


Note:
The title of the article is a quote from former world middleweight champion Alan Minter, which I thought was funny. The review is like all of mine, on a host of other sites, but this is under a different title.

Summary: Worth a buy at second hand prices, but wait for Round 4 if you can.