I'm an unabashed boxing fan. My family raised me on the sport and it was always a family event when our favorite fighters were scheduled to meet in the ring. The PPV would be ordered, friends and relatives were invited, and we all bonded over the sweet science. Boxing was revered in my home, it still is, and I always looked for a pure experience in my boxing games.
Because of this, I found most games were either unrealistic or made mistakes in trying to translate the sport to the medium of video games. With Fight Night Round 4, EA Canada has possibly made the most realistic boxing game ever, and a fun one at that.
Fight Night Round 4 feels like a evolutionary step forward from Round 3. Round 3 was a great game, but it had some flaws which stopped it from being a game that serious pugilists can adore. The bare-bones career mode left something to be desired and while graphically impressive, the physics were poor.
Round 4 fixes all these issues with its new physics based engine. Fighters no longer clip into each other and their punches don't float through bodies. Punches will slide off bodies and get caught in between arms. Fighters will also bound off the ropes when cornered and their bodies don't react like they are having a seizure when knocked out. This engine is beautifully made and is leaps and bounds better looking than Round 3.
Returned from Round 3 though, is the Total Punch Control. Sadly, this is the only control option, but EA Canada took the scheme and improved it. It feels much more natural to use and throw punches with, but has a steep learning curve. It's not as precise as button control, I would thrown the wrong punches occasionally, but it is a fun way to play after you learn the ins and outs.
Along with the control retooling, the counter system has been revamped. Instead of putting up a counter block and batting away your opponents arm like in Round 3, you can either block right before the punch connects or try and dodge the punch. If successful, the camera does a tiny zoom in, and you can counter with a more powerful punch. It's a satisfying system that makes you feel like you really threw a hard punch and makes knockouts much more satisfying then the knockout heavy Round 3.
The career mode also received a face lift and is now called Legacy Mode. Instead of climbing a generic ladder of opponents, you'll now play fighter and manager. You can schedule matches on your calender against any number of opponents ranked higher than you. After this, you can then embark on a training exercise to raise your stats. You don't want to schedule a fighter ranked too high though, as you'll be vastly inexperienced. There would be times where I would have to fight guys lower ranked than me to grind experience, but this didn't happen too often to be a nuisance. Along with scheduling matches, you'll be challenged by popular fighters. You can put your rank on the line and if you win, you gain a huge popularity boost, which opens up new fighters and gets you closer to be named the Greatest of All Time.
Rounding out the features is the superb Xbox Live mode World Championship. You can enter you created boxer into one of three weight classes where you are put in a ladder with other players. You can then setup a fight with the players in your ladder to rank up. The more you win, the closer you are to winning the belt. It's a nice dash of persistance that makes you want to come back to keep challenging more players. I liked fighting other people knowing that I was getting one step closer to a championship instead of just a static win/loss record.
All of this comes together in a boxing game that nails down the realism of the sport while still being fun to play. I know boxing is getting pushed into stands by the more action packed UFC, but Fight Night Round 4 truly masters the sweet science and for a boxing purists such as myself, the game is a joyful ode to a fantastic sport.
Fight Night Round 4 swings its final punch, as online servers will be taken down next year according to a press release from EA.
Guess we won't see another Fight Night until next gen at the soonest. Did any notable boxing games come out this gen at all?
Fight night round 4 is still the best boxing game at the moment.
I still pop it in my old Xbox from time to time and nothing beats the feeling of a close fight in the late rounds.
I liked round 3 better myself, it gave you a lot more controll especially when it came to defense, which really allowed you to develop your own style and finesse to things.
I loved Round 3 but it was nearly impossible to win as a technical boxer.
The game heavily focused on the counterpunch Philly stance and Ko made winning a match by points nearly impossible.
Also, the losing boxer on a scorecard would get a boost of Stamina later on (lousy catch-up logic) was not something I was fond of.
I could also add the Headbutt that made cutting easy.
But I loved the corners mini-games or the dept of working on bruises and cuts.
The animation was also fantastic.
cut the UFC Servers too , some of those grapples look awkward when people would walk in and see 2 guys straddling each other, i tried soo hard to make it not look weird
Tbh the actual matches look awkward when passerbys walk in and see the straddling party. I constantly think get up and fight.
Round 4 was the best the franchise had to offer. You could find success playing to each fighters strengths and anytime somone wanted to spam a particular cheese i could always find a realistic boxing strategy to counter it. Champion started off pretty good but the game was very exploitable and became a cheese fest. The auto block severely hurt the game as well. If they ever make a new game i hope they look at how they achieved competitve balance in the gameplay of Round 4.
Chances are, your video game collection probably has at least one EA Sports title in it. From the latest Madden, FIFA, and NHL releases of today to the MVP Baseball and NCAA Football releases of yesteryear, EA Sports has long held the gold standard for sports video games, and continues to dominate the market.
Judging from the list, EA's best days are behind them and I'm inclined to agree. And now that I think about it, EA only holds the "gold standard" because there aren't any other developers around their sports monopoly.
As for NHL '94... I loved that game. It seemed every time I headed over to my friend's place we would have to play his copy eventually. Now I kinda wanna play it since I haven't in... well, a long time.
FIFA 13 was the last EA Sports game i enjoyed. Everything has been rubbish since then.
True, but the fudged up the controls in the last one so they were already on the road to ruin.
This week Lou(@Herobyclicking) from #Extralife , BigHeartedGamer and 100DaysofGaming joins Tiny (@Tiny415), Mike(@AssaultSuit) and Aaron(@Ind1fference) to talk about: Man of Steel, Official Extra Life Stream Team, Master of None, Aziz Ansari, Dr. Who, Sense 8, garbage disposal, Star Trek Discovery, Max Payne, Knights of the Old Republic, Fight Night, No One Lives Forever, Crimsons Skies, Clive Barker’s Undying, Road Rash, Road Redemption, Shining Force, Legacy of Kane, Contra, Vandal Hearts, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Portrain of Ruin, Otagi, Punch-Out!!, ARMS, Mass Effect, SkySkipper, Voodoo Vince, Brute Force, Advent Rising, Too Human, Silicon Knights, 2DS XL, Squadd.io, Horizon Zero Dawn, Breath of the Wild, Binary Domain, Injustice 2, Polybius, Skylar & Plux, Tokyo 42, Hover: Revolt of Gamers, Reservoir Dogs Bloody Days, Flat Heroes, Demon’s Crystals, Thumper, Phantom Dust, Nintendo Direct ARMS, Rap Rabbit, South Park Fractured Butt Whole, Overwatch, The Witcher, The Gifted, Black Panther and the Crew, Agents of Shield, The Inhumans, Hyperkin Retron HD, Extra Life and more.
Good review, even if you are an Xboxist (Jokes). Given that I have a bit of time and money on my hands, this could be a purchase for me over the holidays.