Black & Bruised

"Put 'em up..."

Having seen this game at the game store and on sale for about twenty bucks, I decided that I’d take a look simply because I always enjoyed Ready to Rumble and that particular boxing series and the humor that it inspired. What I found here was a game that tried hard to give you the humor and the fun of Ready to Rumble while adding in some interesting modes and a cast of off-the-wall boxers. While the game exceeded my hopes with the modes and the way that it looked in the hybrid cel-shading and polygon display, I was a little put off by the way that the game controlled and handled. Regardless of the presentation, what most gamers will probably find is that the control is just a little off and really destroys the flow of the game.

As you progress past the main screen, there is a point where you’ll be looking to see something that will captivate the eyes as well as grab your attention in which characters you can bash your opponent with. While Black & Bruised offers you a healthy selection of boxers that you can use, there is a lack of imagination in the style and the way that they are presented to you. With most boxing games, you have a certain amount of moves that you can do in the ring and during any of the given rounds in a match. Once you’ve figured out that you can do these moves and defend against the incoming punches, you might find that the difficulty isn’t attached to the game, but rather how fast you learned the basic controls.

The modes that are featured here are your standard versus mode and a mode called Boxer’s Life, which serves Black & Bruised as its main story mode. While the versus mode is fun, you’ll find that most of your time is spent in the actual story mode of the game because its much more fulfilling to play through. Where most boxing games throw you into a ring and tell you to start fighting, the story mode here allows you to fulfill certain mission requirements in order to get further into the story of each character. Most of the missions are off-the-wall in terms of what you have to such as fighting your opponent with one hand or {much like Ready 2 Rumble} carry out a grudge against another opponent.

The meat of the game comes in with the combinations that you can throw and the special moves that you can accomplish. While the game itself seems to be technically deep, it quickly falls into a button mashing fest where you have to dodge occasionally in order to keep from getting hit. As you progress through the fights, each successful combination and hit will count towards a meter that resides in the lower corner of the screen. As this meter fills up, you’ll be able to perform outrageous moves such as super attacks, an instant knockout and ultra-fast combinations that require you to hit the button constantly to complete. All of these moves are taken right from the Ready 2 Rumble games, so those of you who are familiar with those titles will find yourselves right at home.

One of my main gripes was that the control was way too slow to really get a good feel and rhythm into the fights that I was undertaking. While I did get the combinations correct, I found that the boxer was still punching in that combination after I had gotten finished ten or twenty seconds prior. Other problems with the control come with the way that the boxer moves so slowly in the ring and there really isn’t much more than a timing game when it came to actual defense of my character. These problems quickly rack up into having an overall effect on how well the game is played and even how much enjoyment can be found when you’re staring at the screen trying to figure out where you are in the combination string.

The presentation of the game is better than I originally thought that it was going to be with the combination of polygon and cel-shaded characters. While I found this to be slightly disorienting, the hybrid of reality and fantasy in all of the character designs was really something that I could sink my teeth into. There are a ton of different styles that the characters use and the way that they dance in the ring as well as the way that they went about their attacks was something that made me grin. The rings themselves really aren’t all that impressive though, because most of your fighting is done up close and personal, leaving you to stare at the fight and not so much the surroundings.

Sounds and otherwise really didn’t do much for the ears and there is nothing that you’ll drop your jaw to when you hear it. As with most games of this ilk, there is a certain amount of fantasy and a certain amount of happy themes that accompany all of the fights. There are little more than your standard quips and cracks from the characters and the ever-present snack of gloves on the skin is what will fill your ears. Although I would have expect more from a game that boasts impressive presentation like this one, I found that there was just enough here to make it serviceable at best, without trying too hard to draw your attention away from the game itself.

Black & Bruised is the next Ready 2 Rumble for the Play Station 2 and doesn’t do a bad job at combining speed, fantasy and even the overall sense that you’re here to have fun and not be serious about it. While the presentation of the game is an interesting hybrid of realism and fantasy, the audio could have used a little work in the selection of music and the control is hard to get used to if you’re not prepared for the delayed reaction of your fighter in the ring. Aside from that and the lack of overall modes, there is enough here to warrant this to be a solid rental and you might be hard pressed to find this as a permanent home in your collection if you like a more technical fight.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/19/03, Updated 03/19/03