Game Review: Fight Night Round 4
Douglas Young, Evening Chronicle
Fight Night Round 4
FORMAT: Xbox 360
PUBLISHER: Electronic Arts
PRICE: £49.99
IT seems that when it comes to serious sports games, there’s only one publisher in the market these days.
When you think about it, you have Tiger Woods, Grand Slam Tennis, FIFA, Madden, NHL, NBA and Fight Night.
It’s been a while since Electronic Arts released a Fight Night upon the gaming world, three-and-a-half years to be precise, but it’s still the best boxing game out there.
Not that Fight Night Round 3 was perfect, it had problems with graphics and animations going wrong with glancing blows. The analogue stick control was very awkward and career mode was, well, a joke.
I’m pleased to say that all these are fixed with the release of Fight Night Round 4. Gone are the graphical glitches, now your glancing blows are just that, along with less damage done to your opponent. Analogue stick control works and EA have seen fit to remove the button punches that most players preferred in Round 3. And last but not least, career mode is one hundred percent better.
In fact, there’s precious little wrong in FNR4, I suppose the lack of button- punching and learning curve needed to master analogue stick punching will be the biggest bugbear, but I think it’s a more immersing experience for it.
The graphics in FNR4 are superb – fighters bruise and cut, well, as they would in reality, which I suppose means this is not for the little ones. They can stick to their Wii boxing, as FNR4 is aimed at the boxing/fighting fan and hardcore gamer.
In career or Legacy mode you can box your way to several objectives, win several fights in a row, maintain a high- winning percentage, or fight on TV. The overall aim is to be world champion but it’s not going to be easy.
You need experience to compete with top level opponents, so you’ll need to smack around a few lesser opponents before climbing into the ring with a world champ.
One other pitfall to avoid, and one I’m guilty of, is spamming punches on opponents. It may work in early fights, but take on more experienced opponents and they’ll counter you until your laid out on the canvass.
With Fight Night Round 4, EA have once again taken one of the sport franchises and polished it up to perfection.
