Fight Night Round 4

Where the hell is my face button punching scheme? Typically in sequels to sports games the focus of the dev team is to actually add features, not remove them. As a Fight Night Round 3 fanatic (I've got a copy for both the PS3 and the 360 for mates who wouldn't use one controller or the other) I was pretty... cheesed off that they'd decided to actually restrict me to using the "Total Punch Control" system.

For newcomers, Total Punch Control is a system where punches are delivered using the Right Thumbstick - a left hook to the head is sent by pushing the thumbstick to the left and then looping it up and around to the top. A jab to the body is a quick flick diagonally down-right. A massive right uppercut to the head is executed by flicking down-right and then dragging the stick all the way to the top.

It's not completely new, and it's not something I'm not comfortable with from other games (the fantastic Skate series famously only uses the right thumbstick for tricks). The problem is - I don't like to use the right thumbstick for punching. I prefer to throw a jab with the A button and a hook with the X button. That's how I like to play the game. It seems self-indulgent to spend so much time complaining about this, but the control scheme really is at the core of what Fight Night Round 4 is all about - continuously punching people in the face.

It's strange, because in every other area FNR 4 is the perfect sequel to FNR 3. It looks flat out amazing - the character models are extremely well done, and collision detection is second to none. It's all about what goes down inside the ring - the game focuses on all physics based movement now, so punches hit and boxers react exactly as you would expect. The slow-mo KOs make a return, a staple of the series, but they have some of their atmospheric impact ripped from them thanks to the game's new counter punch system.

With a well timed block or a quick dodge your opponent is set up for a counter, a heavily damaging hit which more times than not will stun your opponent - letting you punish him brutally. It's a great way to switch momentum - throw up a "Perfect Block" when you're backed into a corner and you won't be trying to dodge your way out... You might walk straight over your opponent. A problem lies with the visual effect when you land the counter - the screen flashes and the other boxer is visibly shaken. It robs the KO punch of its power by sharing in it - sure a stunned opponent is an amazing thing to see, but a punch which puts a man on the ground deserves something special.

When the KOs come in the later rounds and it's blood and spit flying in slow-mo - that's still epic. The facial deconstruction in motion is probably the greatest thing about the Fight Night series, and it looks fantastic in FNR4. They actually went the other way this time, making putting your own face in the game even easier. You can use Xbox Live Vision and the PlayStation Eye to map your face directly into the game, or you can upload an image to EA's website if you don't have a camera on your console.



The game will then map your likeness onto a boxer so you can actually step into the ring and see what your face looks like all mushed up. For some reason when I mapped my own mug in the result looked far, far better looking than I do, leading to some reluctance on my part to letting him get punched in the face. Nevertheless Handsome Joaby went 10 rounds with Iron Mike blocking nothing but his guts, and I now have a pretty accurate idea of what I'll look like should I get into a car accident where I use my nose as an airbag.

Once you've mapped yourself out and seen what you look like all beaten up, it's only natural that you'll want to throw yourself into the career mode - or Legacy mode. It might just be me, but with the exception of maybe Don King Presents Prizefighter (a game where the only good thing was the career mode) every career mode for every sports game is basically the same. You have a calendar mode where you book your next fight and organise training (curiously in Fight Night Round 4 your fighter only likes to train once a month or so). You have the email mode, where some guy tells you how you're doing (like you weren't present for the arse-kicking you just suffered). And you have the training mode, where there's always maybe three mini-games you like/are vaguely competent at, and three mini-games which can rot in hell. Fight Night Round 4 throws in stuff like fighter of the year and KO of the year awards, but we're looking at your standard career mode here.

Multiplayer mode is of course where Fight Night Round 4 stands out. You can match up boxers from up to two weight classes away, which means getting Tyson or Ali to beat the snot out of Mundine isn't just possible - it's basically mandatory. It's a great way to enforce a handicap on someone who might have practiced the game a lot (like, say, the guy who owns it) or on another person who has always used the Total Fight Control system. Multiplayer is easily the best way to play FNR4 - the way the game was always really meant to be played.

Fight Night Round 4 is easily the best boxing game out. Graphically and technically it's unbeatable and it's absolutely an achievement. In terms of gameplay - well, just as Tony Hawk pundits all got used to the FlickIt control system, people will learn to deal with Total Punch Control. I don't like it, and I shouldn't have to, but with everything else the game manages it's forgivable. I mean, heck, they let Mike Tyson box again, and he bit a guy's ear off. All they did was rob me of a playable control interface and make my character look too handsome.