Knockout Kings 2002

"EA Had an excellent game in the making"

Having been a knockout king fan since the first title, I was excited at the prospect of getting the new title for both ps2 and the x box.

The graphics are great in my opinion, facial expressions were not expected but produce much fun when you're beating a friend. Why EA elected to reduce the career mode options I'm not sure, and some of the options they changed left me a little puzzled.

The change in defense, from blocking high and low to blocking both with one button is at first a good idea except the left trigger button doesn't always do it's job. Also the 3 losses and you're out is strange. I was frustrated with the bobbing and weaving, even with practice and different sensitivity settings on the xbox, trying to duck under is not as easy as it is for your opponent in particular if you're playing the computer.

This seems a little less of boxing as it does an arcade slugfest. My major complaint is the roving camera, didn't anyone from EA play this game? The camera angles move in so many different ways that it actually produces blind spots. I've noticed that in career or exhibition mode, if you have the computer opponent hurt they will retreat to a corner, and if you follow the camera is at your back and then lowers so you can't see what the opponent is doing. Actually I've noticed whenever you have your opponent seriously hurt the camera switches to block your view of the person. This is really frustrating when trying to go undefeated.

I would suggest people rent this game first, I know I'll rent the next one before buying. They had a great game and some good ideas, it just needs some tweaking for next year. They can use me for proper camera angle suggestions.

They might also consider improving the blocking ability, bringing back the upper and lower body blocking, or making the trigger button more responsive.

I hope that they also make the next game more realistic in terms of real boxing, if real boxers tossed the number of punches that these boxers can they would exhaust themselves long before the later rounds. Maybe they can include the current mode as an arcade motion.

I will admit that the play station version has a little better response as far as ducking and such, however I found that the camera angles are much the same.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/02/02, Updated 05/02/02