Fight Night Round 3

"I reject your haymaker, and substitute my own."

"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other."
~ Jack Handey

EA sports really has an easy situation on their hands. Their Fight Night series is the only real boxing sim around right about now. Really, EA could stick a copy of Big Rigs in the box and slap a boxer on the cover, and it would sell like crazy, if only because there was nothing better. However, EA apparently isn't content with shoddy worksmanship though...

Fight Night Round 3 is just a fancy term for Fight Night 3, but what you'll soon realize is that Fight Night is anything but fancy. Boxing is naturally just beating the hell out of the other person to give the crowd some entertainment, but in this game, you are the entertainment. You'll start out as the young boxer with a lot to prove, fighting in bars and gyms with two dozen drunken fans swearing at you. You'll have to engineer a rise to the top, going from a bar full of drunk boxing fans to an entire stadium full of drunk boxing fans, all the while winning as many matches as possible.

But even the environment can't stop the fact that every match is painfully similar. You have a nickname, your opponent has a nickname, and you fight. The problem is, most of the boxers you'll face have the same boxing style, and sometimes... the same nickname. In between every match, you'll get a few weeks to train and get work out. The problem is, you only get one chance to work out through the entire span of three weeks. How do you work out? Mini-games of course! For training, you can either take a quick spin on a bowflex, or get some punching training. It's lucky that these are short, because they're very boring and tedious.

Thank god that most of the time will still be spent duking it out in the ring, which is by far the game's best feature. Total punch control is back, so fans of the previous fight night titles will find it easy to jump right back into. New players to the series will find it difficult at first, but once you get used to it, you'll never want to go back to mashing buttons again. Most punches are controlled by the right analog stick, which can be used to do quick jabs and jarring haymakers. You can make hooks and uppercuts depending on how far you bend the stick. There's also signature moves, and it's always fun to see Muhammed Ali auto-dodge a punch and then smash your opponent's face.

But the action doesn't stop with just those punches, there are now special haymakers, so that you can rearrange your opponent's face in even more creative ways. You can send them into flash K.O. mode, which will get them ready for a quick knockdown, or you can send them into stun mode, which puts your view into a second person perspective and lets you watch yourself punch the defenseless foe.

But no matter how much fun punching people is, you'll have to defend yourself at some point. Thankfully, Fight Night has it down to a science, and the blocking and dodging controls are as simple and fun as punching is. Simply hold down the block or dodge (or both) and pick a direction. You'll immediately be ready to counter the enemy's punches and substitute your own. No matter what match you're fighting, you'll find this to be the best strategy.

But the real joy of Fight Night: Round 3 is the multiplayer, and it doesn't disappoint. This game is one of the best to play against strangers online, and even better when squaring off against your best friend in local multiplayer. As far as local multiplayer goes, this game is right up there on par with Super Smash Brothers: Melee and Guitar Hero. The trash talking is great, and nothing beats putting some of the best boxers of all time against eachother, because you can put whoever you want into the ring. Problem is, some boxers are missing, like Mike Tyson. It's a real shame, becuase a signature move of biting the other boxer's ear off would have been an excellent addition. The games can get intense, but that's only because they look so great.

The graphics in Fight Night are photo-realistic. They're nothing short of fantastic, and it'll make you cringe when your boxer takes a shot to the face if only to get taken down a notch again right away. There's instant replays, which occasionally show nothing, but most of the time will show a close up of leather smacking face, with sweat, blood and saliva flying off of said face, and face then smacking mat for a knockdown. It's brilliant and epic at the same time; it's brepeleptic!

But all the graphics in the universe can't make up for the fact that the career mode is very sub-par, and that many people will be picking this game up just for the easy 1,000 GS. Either way, anybody who loves local multiplayer or boxing should pick this game up. It's a fantastic addition to any 360 owner's library.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/07