Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road to Glory

"From comics to anime to it's own Video Game, perhaps a good formula for a boxing game."

If you're able to catch it's comics/Anime called Hajime No Ippo or something like that that is famously known here in my country as K.O. or knockout perhaps a game of it's own would make you love it even more. Who could resist Ippo's determination to keep on standing up how hard his opponent would be or like how could he perform his boxing under a pressure. Anyway, we're here not to talk about the comics/anime but to talk about his own boxing game.

Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road to Victory is a boxing game that features the anime characters that Ippo and his friends faced in the anime/comics. Though the game is very promising I myself didn't noticed a game like this is up on the shelves a year ago already and just noticed it as my cousing brought it home and started playing it. As you play, you'll certainly noticed a whole lot of new things from it rather than the usually guaged fighting. Read on and let's go deeper!

Let's start off with the story. You start off playing as Ippo Makunouchi, a young boy who has been a usuall person to be insulted in school, he's rather a weakling there and would usually get pushed around. Growing up alone under her mom, she had supported the family alone with their Fishing Bussiness. Ippo then discovered his dynamite like blow when he entered Kamogawa Gym there he began his conquest to be the #1 Boxer in his division and of the world. As you take on the story mode you'll be facing series of challengers as well as champions and really annoying opponents with their annoying boxing styles. As you complete one story mode another one would open up and another challenge for you. Boxing games has never had stories so I'm not sure how to grade such but I believe stories shouldn't be counted in for sports/fighting games unless it mainly focusses on fighting. Anyway the stories are really based on the comics(manga) itself and if you've been reading through it you won't be surprised with what will happen next. Okay, for a boxing game the story is quite refreshing and some are actually funny. Perhaps the video game is another way to tell Ippo's story.

Gameplay time! About the gameplay, you'll notice very quickly that the game doesn't have any super skills that could wipe an opponent down once the guage is full but VB doesn't have such nor life/stamina bars or life/stamina guages. The game is quite refreshing and somewhat really challenging as you'll defintely have to control most areas of boxing itself, complete from swaying/dodging/ducking or sidestepping and dancing around. You're free to throw in your combinations and try to master them quick as the controls in the game is not that hard. The controls are very friendly and the first-timers won't find it hard to master such keys. You'll basically be in a boxing arena and you'll simply box it out against your opponent. The game has no guages what-so-ever so you'll barely know if he's getting weak or not. This new system here is quite refreshing as it simply gives the players a real chance to play mind games against their opponents. The game also features up to 18 different controls and each would give a different view/perspective in your boxing match. About the game's difficulty it would really depend on the player's skill level as to how hard boxing against differnet opponents would be. A flexible palyer could find it really easy and some would find it tough. So I couldn't really say the difficulty of the game. Also, if you'll try to unlock everything which only needs you to complete the whole story mode it wouldn't take you the whole day to perform but a mere 2 to 4 hours would definitely end it for you.

The game features 2 modes to play, A versus mode and a Story Mode. The Story mode let's you be that certain main character(since it has a couple actually) and live through their boxing career as their stories unfold. Some opponents here could be tough and some are really not a challenge. The other mode is the Versus mode. You could box here with your friend or against a Computer for practice. The game is quite fun and indeed could get you like boxing game as teh realism is quite close. Here I guess gameplay scores high again.

About the Video of the game. The game is in full 3d rendered environent as well as it's stories. The characters are designed pretty well to match their anime/manga counterparts. Their boxing attacks are really the same as the anime/manga so no problems there. The arena is rather smooth though you'll notice the audience to be merely cheering cardboard boxes cut outs =P. The menu designed is really easily to be defined as it has a few and very simple ones. Though the downside here is that at times you'll notice that when you fall in the very edge of the ring your character and the rope would intersect each other. Hehehe It'll look as if your character's been pierced with a rope. Anyway, anything else there aren't any other flows here as you'll really see a hit when it connected (Even sweat flies when a successful blow is given) as well as how badly your character looks when he's really made into a punching bag.

The Audio is rather simple. The voice you'll here from the very beginning of every round and when decalring the winner is very much like the tone of those in a real boxing match. Also, when you throw punches you'll definitely here it when it connects, been blocked or misses as well as the pain of your opponent when successfully hit or when it falls down. Overall I didn't noticed any more sound than thise though I guess it's because that it's a boxing match so I guess you won't really managed to notice that because of the action packed drama in it.

The game has quite a replayability in here as you could unlock over 40+ boxers and a couple of stadiums as you progress with the story mode. Every character has a different fighting style and a different way of boxing so it'll definitely be fun to be boxing around with your friend at home as well as the usuall hooting or trash-talking alongside it.

I recomment this to all those who are really a boxing-fan out there as this makes a good collection to your shelf. Also, this is a very refreshing boxing game so it's defintely a unique game to be played not to mention how cool the actuall anime is. Defintely a must have to both boxing fan and K.O.(Knock out) Fan out there.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/30/03, Updated 04/30/03