XBOX 360 MOST WANTED GAMES

Fight Night Champion. Review

Fight Night Champion is the most true-to-life game reflecting the real, brutal price boxers have to pay for stepping into the ring. Here this truth is most thoroughly expressed through such details as the imprint of the glove on a boxer’s face after a heavy punch, the cuts (as well as their severity– from light scrapes to deep wounds), and blood that starts running, falling onto the ring and even staining the boxer’s trunks.

The delivery of punches at this game is given a better control. Yet, with the newly added flash knockouts feature the player should look out for his own defense much better, as there is a constant threat of a one-punch KO, which makes the player keep protecting oneself and moving around the ring. Otherwise the estimated outcome will be more than just abuse.

The “flash knockdown” of the Previous Fight Nights meant dropping to the mat with one hit, whereas “flash knockout” means that you will drop unconscious right away and have no chance to get up. This new feature makes you to be alert all through the fight no matter how winning your position is, as things can swing to quite opposite state with even a single lax point in the defense.

The AI fighters the player faces during the game are as smart as real boxers, and they all have a fight tactics of their own. For instance, Tyson and Ali wouldn’t fight the same way. AI fighter also gives quite relevant reactions to different situations. Thus, if losing in the seventh round it may grow more aggressive, or become overly protective of a side of its face is cut.

Fight Night has two modes, Legacy Mode and Champion Mode, the latter being the most successful. In it the player lives out the ascent, failure and rebirth of a made-up boxer Andre Bishop. Serving as a training tool, this mode adds to the game the emotional weight of human drama (largely ignored in previous releases) boxing inevitably implies.

What regards the Legacy Mode, it is a real drag. It is a career mode for the boxer the player creates himself. With the earned sponsorships this boxer can train at better facilities and otherwise plan its career in boxing. Career Mode can be enjoyed only when played online.

This mode allows players to create gyms for others to join, thus creating a   boxing clans with regular online bouts and tournaments at which the player will be fighting not an AI boxer but other online players - something that adds a lot of merit to the Legacy Mode.