Mini Review – Fight Night Champion

Boxing Sim

I’m gonna show you as gently as I can how much you don’t know.

rich

Sigh.  I didn’t just write that.  I actually did it.  Here we go again with the latest installment of EA’s boxing series.  You know there are too many when they drop the numbers from the title (especially when you factor in the original Knockout Kings series) and now we’ve got Fight Night Champion which, as the name suggests, brings in a new mode (Champion, obviously) which despite EA’s bold claims towards it’s originality tells the oft-told story of promising boxer goes to jail (unjustly), rebuilds his career and wins the world championship belt.

Fuck me, they

Playing as Andre Bishop, a wirey middleweight, you begin your boxing career before a stint in prison sees you beating up Schillingers whilst trying not to get bummed.   Five years later you emerge as bearded heavyweight and rebuild your career.  The story is entertaining enough and sees you working as a sparring partner before going pro again.  It’s all quite nicely thought out.  Unfortunately the story aspects lead to certain key fights being scripted.  The reigning champ/resident arsehole is practically lifted straight from Karate Kid 3 just to keep the cliches going.

Also on offer is your standard career mode (now titled Legacy Mode) where you create your own boxer and fight through the ranks.  Both modes employ the usual ‘Total Punch Control’ system which means flicking and rotating the right stick to pull off jabs, crosses, hooks and uppercuts.  The whining cunts that make up the EA community have finally had their shrieks heard and so the facia buttons can also be used.

However, as with Fight Night Round 4, the once precise and enjoyable parrying system is long gone and the blocking system isn’t that useful and so your best chance lies in throwing as many punches as possible.  Also, the punches just aren’t as powerful as you’d like.  It may just be me but Round 3 was pretty much perfect with you being able to fight a smarter fight and utilise cut damage to beat a stronger opponent.  Now it’s just a slugfest.

Also the the overly-hyped knockouts still feel completely wrong with downed fighters falling in all sorts of unpredictable ways.  They also just don’t look as realistic as they used to especially with the rubbish sweat particle effects making everything look ridiculous.  Add to that the same three getting up animations and it’s all just a bit unconvincing and pretty lazy seeing as how the last game did things exactly the same way.

Fight Night Champion is still a very solid boxing game and better than the efforts of other publishers but EA have failed to learn the lessons of boxing history.  A once great champ is now a bloated spectacle, fighting bums and eventually selling small electric grills.  Hang up your gloves, EA.

5/10

Note:  this review does not include the online mode as our review copy didn’t include an online pass and we’re fucked if you think we’re paying extra to play against cheap randoms online.  Especially with the terribly thought-out online achievements and the fact that everyone still cheaps their way to wins with repeated bodyshots.