Any title that was looking to lead the way in the boxing genre after Fight Night Round 3 was released would have had a mountain to climb. The only contender with any chance at all was PrizeFighter, endorsed by Don King and published by 2k. That game received mixed reviews, and has all but sunk without a trace. So, Fight Night Round 4 is upon us, and has the floor to itself.
Frankly though, even if it was surrounded by wannabes, I’m relatively sure that it would still be head and shoulders above the rest. When you’re as far ahead in the genre as the game has been since the first version was released back on the Xbox and PlayStation 2, you have to be pretty sloppy with your design and coding to lose the crown. Thankfully that hasn’t happened, and the development team have put a lot of time and thought into making Fight Night Round 4 one of the must-have sports titles of the year. There are times when you’ll marvel at the smoothness of the action as you just manage to dodge your opponent’s punch by an inch, before slamming an uppercut right under his chin to take the wind out of his sails. A jab to the gut to make him defend his midsection and then you unleash…jab, cross…jab…and….BOOM…the haymaker! He stumbles…one more will do it…BANG! Down he goes…
And before you know it, you’re hooked. You’ve created your fighter, messed around with the type of font you want to use for your trunks and you’re knee-deep in the much-improved career mode. Sure, things are much the same – you train, fight, train, fight, train some more – but there’s an awful lot more in the way of feedback now. Awards for best round, best knockout, best comeback and the like are there to be won and, should you progress high enough in the ranks, you’ll meet fighters such as “Iron” Mike Tyson, Joe Calzaghe and even Muhammed Ali who have are replicated at their peak and who – with the much, much, much improved CPU AI – will be more than happy to knock seven bells out of you if you don’t learn how to defend.
And that defensive requirement is the main reason that Fight Night Round 4 is so much more playable than the previous title in the series. Before, you could head into the ring and go to town on your opponent, with little regard for your own stamina or the odd punch that you may or may not take. This time around, that attitude will see you eating the canvas time and time again. Counter-punching is more prominent, so a decent defensive manoeuvre to slip away from an incoming glove will be rewarded with a screen flash and more dealt damage should you be able to fire in a shot quickly. This is well balanced too, meaning that every block and every dodge aren’t rewarded – only the clean and obvious ones. The way in which the fighters interact with one another is also impressive, and an instantly noticeable improvement on earlier iterations. Mistimed punches will slide past gloves or get less contact than they should on your foe, leaving you open to attack as your arm goes past your opponent’s head, leaving you with your single trailing arm to block with. The collision detection truly is the most advanced that I’ve seen in any genre of game – and makes Fight Night Round 4 unbelievably playable. If you land a punch, you know that you landed it because of your own skill and timing – and that truly is rewarding.
The “Total Punch Control” method of swinging your gloves is back, and has been refined somewhat. Jabs are pulled off with a simple up-left or up-right diagonal push on the right analog stick, whilst more complex punches such as uppercuts involve a half-circle motion on either side – depending on which arm you want to punch with. The defensive controls are pretty much exactly the same as they are before, although a “weave” option has been added, allowing you to get all Prince Naseem on their ass. It’s a nice addition, but doesn’t really add a great deal to the already-stellar block and dodge controls that you had at your disposal.
It may seem that I’m getting somewhat excited about Fight Night Round 4 and getting ready to say “you really should buy this game now” at the end of the review. If that’s the way it seems, then I’m not about to apologise, since that’s the way it is. The punch controls are better than before – and are somewhat less tiring on the hands – and that can be said for almost every part of the game. It may not seem that much has changed when you’re looking at screenshots and watching videos online, but I can assure you that the proof of this pudding is most definitely in the eating. Fight Night Round 4 features superb AI, amazing collision detection and graphics that’ll make your eyes pop. You brawl your way to the top of the tree in the Legacy Mode and fight against some of the greats. Then, you take it online and realise that you’ve only just begun. Oh, and you really should buy this game now.
