Don King Presents: Prizefighter

"Finally some competition for EA boxing,"

Finally some competition for EA boxing, Not that much effort is needed for that. Normally 2K seems to be on the arcady side of sporting games. Most of their sports series I won't even play anymore. But this boxing simulation is much more accurate to boxing then its EA competition. (Which isn't saying much)

Single Player Overall: 8.5
There are two choices for Single Player: Exhibition and Career Modes. Exhibition mode is a one time match, pick a fighter and go. Choices range from fighters based off real people or characters you make in the factory.

Story\Career Mode: 9.75
Career mode has you create a fighter in one of the best “create-a-character” modes ever written. In career mode you follow a story of “The Kid” and his rise to fame. The actual story progresses by live action scenes after big fights, done in a documentary style format. Highly entertaining and quite possibly the highlight of this game. Every once and a while they throw a twist in there for you to make the fight a little bit different. Training consists of five different mini-games, not so unlike fight-night

Heavy bag trains strength and stamina. Basically throw combos into a heavy bag, pretty self explanatory. Focus mitts train strength and dexterity. This mini-game consists of hitting the button that pops up around the boxer. Shuttle runs (aka suicides) train stamina and agility and consists of alternating A and B buttons until the fighter gets to the right spot to turn around by pushing LT or RT. Speed bag increases stamina and dexterity. This mini-game is basically the defence mode of another game entitled Guitaroo man. Buttons come from the side of the screen to the center at that point pressing the button is required. The side is the same as the button on the controller. (B from east etc.) Last training mini-game is jump rope. Buttons scroll up to a line at which point you have to hit the corresponding button (think DDR). After you train, comes the fight.

Gameplay: 8.75
The mechanics take some learning and some getting used to. There is no super hay maker to be unleashed whenever your fighter feels like swinging for the fences like an idiot. Also the controls don't depend on the analog stick except to block. The shoulder buttons have 3 modifiers: head\body, lean, and step. In Prizefighter, you can actually aim for the body and move at the same time. Lean allows for dodging out of the way, however you can also lean right into a vicious shot, doing more damage then a normal punch would have inflicted (just like real life) The step modifier allows for movement and punching at the exact same time by holding up or down on the LS and selecting your punch, it will move that direction while performing the punch. Not selecting a direction will perform a lunging attack towards the opponent. The fourth modifier is signature punch. When your adrenaline bar is 1/3 full you can perform a signature punch for massive damage. When it is completely full you can go into an overdrive mode that uses no energy to wail on your opponent. Prizefighter rarely has quick knockdowns, most fights going past the sixth round, some fights going to decision. However, you still seem to be throwing close too 100 punches a round. That plus signature punches basically throw realism out the window.

Graphics: 7.5
Graphics are nothing spectacular, but they're not bad either. The knockdowns don't stagger around for five minutes, rather drop straight down. The face shows swelling if you inflict enough damage. And blood sprays a cheesy blood-mist for every good shot landed. Honestly the spray is so frequent that both fighters would die of blood loss before a decision in a longer fight.

Sound: 1.5
As usual, sound becomes the weakness of most sport games and this one is no exception. The announcers become painfully annoying after about five fights with them on (thankfully you can shut them off). Repeating the same 15 phrases over and over, and you would think that with the time invested in the FMV they would of put some effort into the gameplay announcing. The crowd hollering is also painfully repetitive. As is the hitting of the fighters. No effort in the sound which, if done right, can tell an amazing story in a fight. I suppose I should mention that they spent a bunch of money on tracks for your fighter could walk to the ring too, because no one has music they like on their HD, and need the developers to spend all their sound money on music tracks and not the sounds of the game.


MultiPlayer 6
Multiplayer is just like single player exhibition, only over XBOX live; with several problems. The hit detection is terrible, characters recharge at an amazing rate between rounds, and after every match it dumps you to the main menu. If your getting this game for multiplayer be warned it has some bad issues to it. If you can overlook the superhuman regeneration and the fact that sometimes you don't get credit for your punch. Oh and the fact that some people are going to play cheap and lean backwards way too much. This game isn't smart enough to realize that if you hit someone leaning backwards like that, with a lunging jab or a superman (leaping\lunging hook) they will fall over because they're off balance. Also no single system multiplayer, which is a major disappointment.

Replayability
If you play on XBOX live the replayability totally depends on your enjoyment of punching people in the face. The more you enjoy this game, the longer the replay value. The career mode, after the first time completely through and getting all the achievements, will probably start to dwindle depending on how enjoyable the training segments are for you.

All and all this is a good boxing game. Not spectacular but heading in the right direction. Real boxing fans will probably appreciate this title more then someone looking for massive power punching and spectacular knockouts. The controls are probably too complicated for some. But I still think they're not complicated enough. So rent before you buy, as you should with most games. There is a lot of hate for this game, and I can understand why. Most people hate change even if it has the potential to be better. This is a solid alternative to wailing hay makers. This is not a boxing simulator, which could be part of the hate, too high expectations. Rent Before buying to see if this is your style of game. But give it more then four fights to learn the different fighting system, you may not be used to it.

Final score 7.51 (rounded up to eight)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/08

Game Release: Don King Presents: Prizefighter (US, 06/10/08)