Few may remember when Fight Night took a step forward to becoming top dog when it comes to boxing games. The one that started it all was Fight Night 2004. This is when EA decided to go away from the standard punching controls and went with the right analog stick controls. Since then every new Fight Night has brought just a little more innovation. Round 2 brought us the EA Cutman mini-game and Round 3 brought us a first glimpse at what next-gen graphics can give us. With EA Chicago closing during the early stages of Round 4 many people feared that it would not be able to live up to the predecessors standards. Thankfully Fight Night Round 4 is an improvement but seeing as it’s been 3 years since the last one, how much of an improvement is it?

Let me start by saying Fight Night Round 4 gives gamers a true boxing experience. No game before has put so much emphasis on a boxer’s reach and speed. With the changes made to the new title, gamers will now have to think before throwing a punch, much like in real life. The new Fight Night brings in new punching mechanics, a new physics based system, a new career mode, a new online World Championship mode and over 50 boxers.

The first thing you will notice when playing FN Round 4 is the stunning visuals. The graphics are the best I’ve seen when it comes to a sports game. With the exception of a few boxers, they all look amazingly close to their real life counterparts. The movement and animation of the boxers are also incredibly realistic. The frame rate has been upped and it makes a big difference. The reactions of the boxers when they get hit or throw a punch is so realistic you feel the pain of an upper cut and the sensation of landing a powerful hook.

Visuals aside, the biggest change is in the controls and the new physics engine. EA decided to put all their effort into refining the stick controls and took button controls completely out of the game. A controversial decision indeed, but one that I approve of. Fighting with the right analog stick is what sets this game apart from all the other fighting and boxing games out there; so putting more work into tightening those controls only makes sense. The basic controls remain the same, flicking the right stick up and to the right or left will give you a jab or straight punch, rotating a quarter circle will throw a hook and a half circle throws an upper cut. The difference now is that the haymakers are thrown by hitting the shoulder buttons and throwing a normal hook or uppercut. You can also now throw quick body punches by flicking the stick in any direction, so you no longer have to hold down the lean button to throw a body punch. Although I like the new body punch controls, I liked the old controls for haymakers. In the past you would have to wind up the punch using the stick and it gave you the real feeling of throwing a haymaker.  Blocking has also been simplified so now you only have to worry about blocking high or low instead of having to also block right or left. In Round 3, if you were to block exactly where the punch was going you would parry the punch and could throw a counter punch. With the new blocking controls you can still get a counter punch in, but you will have to block right before the punch lands or dodge the punch at the right time. The next additions to the controls coincide with the new physics engine.

The physics engine makes the biggest difference in how you will fight. Punches may land, but they might be glancing blows, so unlike previous Fight Night’s not every punch is going to have the same impact. Along with this, if you are a boxer with longer reach, your punches do more damage when you are further from your opponent. On the opposite end, if your boxer has shorter reach then you’ll want to get in tight because your punches do most damage when you are up close and personal. Because of this the way you play the game has changed. You’ll want to either use jabs to keep your opponent away or find ways to get inside. Doing that can be tough but with a new weave mechanic since you can easily avoid punches while trying to get up close. To weave it’s a simple quarter circle rotation of the left stick. The new controls and physics engine create more realistic fights and sometimes if you catch an opponent with a strong punch and they aren’t blocking or they are tired you can get a flash K.O or stun them with one punch.

The new style of play also goes with the new trainer mini-game in between rounds. You will now get points depending on your performance in the previous round and you can use those points to boost your health or stamina and repair some cuts or swelling. The points are given based on the percentage of punches landed or blocked, stunting an opponent, knocking out your opponent or getting back up from a knockout. I like the new system better than the old one but it does seem a bit flawed. In some fights I would do more damage to the opponent in a round, but would have a lower percentage landed, giving them more points to recover some attributes. Even though I might eventually knock him out, I couldn’t help but wish they would give me points for dealing more damage.

The gameplay and controls aren’t the only things to get a facelift. The career mode, called Legacy mode, has also been tweaked and takes gamers on a long journey to becoming the Greatest Of All Time. In the new career mode you can take a created character or any of the 50 boxers already in the game and take them from bum status to legendary status. Getting to the top will take a very long time and is something fans of Round 3 wanted in their career mode. To hit the status of Greatest Of All Time, you will have to maintain a winning percentage of 95% in over 50 fights while achieving a Pound for Pound (P4P) rank of higher than 5, hold at least 3 belts and defend your belts at least 8 times. All of which is a very daunting task. You can go into it at any weight class and move up classes to capture other belts if you want to. This gives you the opportunity to face new boxers and brings a little more life back into the mode. Your character will get older as you progress and your stats will begin to fall. Lose enough matches and you can be brought down from a champion back to a prospect.

The fights are now in your hands as you can schedule your own fights with the new calendar system. The longer you have in between fights the more training sessions you can have, but the longer you go without fighting, the further you can slip in the ranks and the older you get. The new calendar system is great but having to sit there and wait while useless dates are simulated is incredibly annoying. I don’t mind it in a football or baseball game but in a boxing game where really you are only worried about your fight it makes no sense to have that in there. The other issue I have with the new career mode is you can’t hire managers, promoters or get sponsorship deals. Seeing as this is a huge part of boxing it should have been apart of this career mode. The training sessions, other than the sparring, seem to be unrealistic when it comes to adding to your stats. They’re tedious and after a couple of times playing them I found it better to hit the auto-train button.

The issues with Legacy mode aside, it’s still much better than the career mode in Round 3. To reach the point of getting your first belt will take you around 25 fights and for me that took about 10 hours of gameplay. So you can see that Legacy mode offers up countless hours of gameplay. To add to the appeal of the Legacy mode you can now use Photo Game Face to import your own picture and truly bring yourself into Fight Night. Being able to create yourself in the game is great and Round 4 has placed an incredible amount of customization into the player’s hands.

Playing against the AI can be a lot of fun and frustrating at the same time. It seems at times that the AI can easily counter your punches and easily avoid some of your counter punches. The AI’s stamina also seems a bit off, as they will lose stamina slower than you even if your punches are about the same. This will force you to play in a more realistic style but with the new flash K.O’s and easier stunts, it’s incredibly frustrating when you go down in the first round after only throwing 10 punches. If you are too frustrated to play against the AI you can always duke it out online or offline against a friend.

Although online multiplayer remains almost the same, a new World Championship mode was introduced. In this mode you take a created character in three different weight classes and fight for belts and rankings. Every fighter is on an even playing field with equal stats. Being able to use only user created characters further immerses you into this new mode. With photo game face you can create characters like Borat, President Obama, boxers that aren’t in the game and my personal favorite Ron Burgundy. This mode works well if everyone plays the way they are supposed to, which doesn’t happen. People constantly quit early, wiping any stats you achieved prior to them quitting. Regular matchmaking is pretty much the same and you can still use a created character if you wish to do so.  There’s really no lag in the games I played but people tend to quit a lot more due to flash K.O’s or if you are trying to make it into a more realistic match. Still if online doesn’t suit you, offline is just as fun as ever especially when you can import your friend’s face into the game. Adding to this, EA has added an extensive replay system allowing to you save and upload a replay with tons of customizable options. Now you can send a clip of you knocking out your friend and watch it over and over again. Check out this video of replays I put together using EA’s new highlight reel tool.

EA Sports: Preview of Highlight reel

When it comes down to it Fight Night Round 4 is a really good boxing game. The soundtrack is great if you enjoy hip hop, with the exception of a few songs. The new physics engine brings more realism to the game especially when you can see the ripple effect of a punch. You’ll have to tweak the way you play this game since you can no longer just run in and start throwing punches but all the control changes and mechanics eases you into the change. Although this is a really good boxing game, having to wait three years and seeing slight improvements to the ESPN presentation, commentary and the career mode is very disappointing. My only concern is that this franchise will fall into the Madden routine of basically bringing out the same game with updated rosters. Even with its faults if you are a fan of any of the Fight Night games, you’ll want to pick this one up and if you are new to the series there’s no better time than now to get into it.

Doin It RIGHT: -    New physics engine is incredible. -    Runs at a smooth 60 frames per second. -    No more button controls. -    Graphics are simply amazing. -    Improved career mode adds countless hours of replayability. -    Photo Game Face rocks! -    Hip hop soundtrack is great. -    New replay system allows you to save and upload all your favorite clips. -    The most realistic boxing game I’ve ever played.

Doin It RONG: -    Calendar simulations are seemingly useless. -    Long load times when creating a character. -    Legacy mode lacks managers and promoters. -    AI seems a bit cheap sometimes. -    Need more online modes. -    Commentary still stinks and the ESPN presentation seems almost the same from Round 3. -    EA servers have a tendency to go down a lot.

FINAL SCORE: 8 / 10

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Tags: EA, Fight Night, Fight Night Round 4, PS3, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 8:45 pm and is filed under Featured, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.