Reviewed: May 19, 2004
Reviewed by: Blake Kenny

Publisher
Electronic Arts

Developer
Electronic Arts

Released: April 5, 2004
Genre: Sports
Players: 2
ESRB: Teen

9
9
8
8
9.2

Supported Features

Anyway, my second favourite sport is undeniably boxing – and while I don’t get to see fighting anywhere near as often as I would like, I’m captivated by it when I do. Boxing, much like oval track racing doesn’t appeal to a lot of people because they don’t think there’s really anything to it. Oval racing is more than just a bunch of left turns, and boxing is more than just throwing punches and hoping to get lucky. It’s the subtlety of these sports that I enjoy. That knowledge that the outcome of either and race or a professional fight can change in an instant, that nothing is ever certain until the cars cross the finish line or the final bell is rung. I love the uncertainty and the unpredictability. I mean, who knew Tyson was gonna bite Holyfield’s ear off? I sure didn’t!

While boxing videogames are certainly one of my favourite sports to play - less serious titles like Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, and even the arcade original (while both fantastic!) obviously didn’t come close to capturing the true essence of the sport. In fact, few boxing titles in my opinion have even come close. I think the first one that seemed to finally be getting close in my mind was Foes of Ali for the 3DO System. I know, no-one actually owned that system besides me and a few other hardcore gamers, but I loved it. The boxing was fun, reasonably fast paced and bloody as hell, what wasn’t there to like? Aside from that, it’s one of the few boxing games I recall that had full-length fights, as opposed to that 3 round nonsense. It even had a cool first person perspective. The only problem was; if you were getting you’re bell rung - you couldn’t see anything, so it basically proved to be quite useless.

Anyway, here we are with EA’s latest pugilist offering – and while I enjoyed Knockout Kings last time around, I expected Fight Night 2004 to blow it away. Sure, the name might have changed, but it’s still an EA boxing title and with that, I admittedly had high expectations.

Push the stick up and to the left and you’ll throw a left jab. Pull it straight across to the left and then arc it up, you throw a left hook. Pull the stick down to the left and then arc it up for a left uppercut. Do the same movement to the right and you perform the same punches with your right hand. Hold the trigger down and you’ll perform the body blow variation of those punches. Pretty basic really, besides that the manual and the game both come with some great and easy to follow diagrams to get you going.

As I mentioned, it’s a little awkward in the beginning, but truth be told, after a few hours I started to wonder why they didn’t think of this control method years ago. It’s quick, it’s easy and more importantly, it’s totally functional.

As for the game itself, there’s little room for complaint. While you can simply pick the Play Now option to jump right into a fight, the real meat of the game is in the Career Mode. From here you can play as any one of the game’s many real world fighters, or you can choose to load up your own, custom created fighter. The Create Boxer options allows the player to alter pretty much every facet of your character’s physical appearance. Everything from the weight class you want to fight in, you’re hairstyle and color, nose shape, eye set and color, you name it. In the end you can usually create a character very similar in appearance to yourself. Then, after picking your physical appearance and attire, you can distribute 50 credits between your characters 8 different attributes; such as power, speed, agility, stamina and heart.

Once you’ve selected your fighter you can begin your long and challenging journey to become the champion of the world in the Career Mode. This isn't easy since you begin your career at the bottom of a 50-fighter tier. You start off by agreeing to a scheduled fight against an opponent. After the date of the bout has been set, it’s time to begin your training.

The training in the game is essentially and excuse to earn a few more point to distribute among your various attributes. By hitting your trainer’s mitts, the heavy bag or sparring with a partner, you can quickly become a stronger and faster man. If you lose a fight you can reschedule another match and train once again. Eventually, with more and more training you can return to beat an adversary who may have stopped you earlier. Losing is part of the game - and while other boxing games have allowed you to reload a career prior to getting your butt kicked (to restore your perfect record, am I the only one who ever did this?) - in this game it actually pays to accept your lose and get those extra training credits.

With each passing battle you move farther up the rankings, earn more prize money and more prestige. With all you’re winnings you can buy different trunks and gloves. Assemble a female entourage of hotties to accompany you into the ring and purchase special effects like fireworks and lasers. You can even purchase you’re ring entry music. All of this serves very little purpose on the game, but helps to flesh this title out and make it a tad deeper. Besides that, it’s just plain cool and entering the ring with a little flair actually helps to make you feel like a big shot contender.

The fighting itself, thanks in part to the new control scheme is a blast. I’ve had matches during my career that were nothing short of epic. I had fights where I was losing round after round as far as the points were concerned, and then I’d score a great combo that would turn the tide of the fight in my favor. Other times I would simply mop the floor with my opponent and destroy them within a couple of rounds. All the fights, whether long or short - were fun – and it has to be said, even if you know you’re losing, don’t ever count yourself out. Finish each fight, because you’ll be surprised how some of them can turn out. To be simple and straightforward, the fighting in this game is incredible and highly entertaining. I’ve never had more fun with a boxing game in my life – and that’s saying a lot.

The fighting venues are also great. You fight many of your early bouts in dilapidated buildings that seem to be on the verge of falling down. Eventually you end up at huge locations that are just wall-to-wall people. Some of the locations like Westerholz Arena in Germany are simply enormous and almost has to be seen to be appreciated. In addition, the backgrounds are littered with activity, from waiters walking through the crowd serving drinks to cars and subway trains passing by the windows outside. It’s all great stuff that really adds to the overall appeal.

Probably the best thing about the graphics has to be EA’s awesome use of rag doll physics for the knockouts. Each and every knockout is different from the last. Fighters react and fall realistically, stumbling and buckling differently depending on whether or not they were in a middle of a punch when you knocked them out. Occasionally the KO’s look a little odd and unnatural when the fighters get tangled up in the ropes, but overall the effect is great and each knockout becomes something you yearn to see. Often devastating and sometimes hilarious, but always enjoyable. Add to that the fact that the fighter’s react facially to the hits and you have something that just never gets old.

As mentioned earlier, you can choose to buy any of these songs to accompany you when you enter the ring. The price to purchase these songs is ridiculously high in the beginning, but eventually you’ll have more money than you can possibly spend. It’s unfortunate that the game didn’t allow you to buy ring entry tunes from your own custom soundtrack. I think it would have been cool to be able to enter the ring to songs like Welcome to the Jungle or Eye of the Tiger - assuming you had them of course. Still, this is a minor gripe at best.

As for the sound effects- they’re great. Each and every punch resonates with an appropriate thud. Punches seem to have a lot of weight behind them and certainly convey the heavy handed power you would expect. In addition, the sound of dead weight hitting the canvas when a fighter gets knocked out is equally impressive.

Last but not least, the voice acting. The ring announcer and the corner men are also well done, the only downside being that after you hear them say the same lines a thousand times it starts to get a little drawn out and repetitive. Still it ultimately doesn’t matter because after the novelty of watching the round intermission wears thin, you’ll be hitting the button to advance to the action again anyway.

On top of the lengthy career mode, the game extends it’s life expectancy by having lots of items to unlock from the Fight Store. The unfortunate thing is, that even once you have unlocked these items, they’re not accessible to anyone but the fighter who earned them. Still, earning all the special punches, let alone discovering what you have to do to get them, will take diligent players quite a long time.

The main thing, and we all know it - is the value of the 2-player mode. While the career mode is great, the true measure of a game’s longevity lies in the multiplayer. Fortunately the 2 player mode is just as much fun as the rest of the game. Oh, and the sick pleasure you get out of knocking your buddies flat on their ass – it’s unparalleled thanks to the Rag Doll Physics. Who could possibly get tired of dropping a friend like a ton of bricks?

In fact, the one thing that I miss in Fight Night 2004 is something that was used in Knockout Kings 2003. During a multiplayer match, the 2 players were totally unaware of their opponents’ remaining power. There were no gauges on the screen, so you never knew how close you were to taking out your rival. A players' heartbeat was emulated through their controller’s vibration function - so the only thing you were certain of was how close you yourself were to going down. It was very realistic, and made fights far less predictable. Somehow knowing that an enemy is almost out of life takes the fun out of those surprise knockouts. Still, it’s not a big deal and doesn’t hurt the overall package.

Add to the gameplay some fantastic graphics and sound, a fairly deep career mode, and some good old-fashioned fun beating the tar out of your friends - and I’m sure you’ll also find little room for complaint. Granted, I miss things like the clinches, and fights being stopped on the account of facial lacerations, but I can live with it. I just don’t think it’s right for EA sports to claim: “It’s in the game!” if its not. It’s just an observation.

Still, when all is said and done there’s only one thing left to be said. If you consider yourself a boxing fan, pick this one up - because you won’t regret it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with destiny.