I didn’t like Fight Night Round 3 and have never been fan of boxing games despite being a fan of the sport, i always felt they were too stiff and unrealistic, the same wooden animations being thrown around with knockouts being handed out to anyone and everyone and it seemingly disregarded the condition, stance of the boxer and most of the boxers felt the same. They just didn’t get that boxing feel right, until now.

Fight Night Round 4 had my eye since I first watched a developer interview about the game, they banged on about their new engine that ran at 60 frames per second during gameplay. Which is good, yeah – but what interested me was the fact the gameplay was that it was all physics based and the developers also talked about how that made the game more unpredictable and realistic.

So yeah, the whole new engine, the new way they were handling the gameplay and the fact boxers all had their own distinct style which you could recognise and connect with all driven me to buy this game on release. After having this game for around 5 days and have played all the modes for a good amount of time each, i think i’m ready to review it.

Presentation:
The first noticeable improvement over the last game is the graphics, they look amazing and I’ll say it now, it is probably one of the best looking multiplatform games to date. The game incredibly smoothly at 60 frames, the boxers look great, you can see the muscles flex as the boxers lean into a punch, the sweat gradually builds up and drips off the boxers and spit and blood is thrown around after head-shots.

One thing that really impressed me too, was the crowd, they all repeat the same canned animation over and over, they are all full 3d models that move, which is pretty rare in these sports games, anyway – you’re not supposed to be looking at the crowds! One little flaw which isn’t huge, is that the unique signature moves are not really unique, even Ali’s shuffle is used by other boxers! Arena’s are varied, detailed and all hold different atmospheres, each arena can arguably create a different experience.

Sound/Audio:
This one part of the game is something i have actually been really impressed by. I’ll start with the soundtrack, most of the songs are of a hip-hop theme with some remixes specifically made for the game. On to the sound effects, they make the game such fun to play, hearing the punches connect, going into that stunned state and hearing everything in that distorted sound is great, and like i said – adds to the enjoyment a whole lot.

The commentators are great, the lines are everything you would expect to hear during a boxing match and the actual voices behind them are fantastic, however the lines are overused too much, you sometimes hear the same line 5 or 6 times during the same match, it really does get annoying. Other than that though, the audio quality is great, not much to complain about.

Gameplay:
The biggest improvement to the series, and in-fact the genre is in Fight Night Round 4’s gameplay. All the punching has been moved to the right analogue stick, which i know some people don’t like, but i do, i don’t see a problem with it at all and actually gives the game a more realistic feel – oh, and means people can’t just mash their way through the game as easily.

As i talked about above, they have created a whole new game engine, with that engine came all new fully physics based gameplay, which has been the best thing to come to the genre, now i know this isn’t an entirely new thing, it has been done in other boxing games, however not on this level.

So, this new physics engine is great, how does it effect the gameplay? Well, first of all, the punches will do damage realistically based on the speed, momentum and location of the punch. Knock down punches will send the other boxer in direction of the punch, so even boxer falling on down is based on physics, a big uppercut to the chin will send the opposing boxer backwards, they may bounce off the rope and then on to the floor, or they may just fall straight onto their back.

The gameplay basically revolves around four things, counter-punches, hay-makers, the general punches (jabs, uppercuts, hooks, etc) and blocking, counter-punches depend on you being able to bob and weave to dodge punches or block just at the right time, THEN it opens up a gap for you to send a punch to the other player, if that punch connects it does more damage than a regular punch and the screen will flash to tell you the counter-punch was successful. You can use haymakers for counter-punches too, but depending on how you set it up, you may not have enough time to pull it off.

Another big thing that has impressed me with the gameplay, the boxing styles, each boxer you play has their own style and you can really feel it when you play them, don’t play your boxer how he is supposed to be played like and you won’t get anywhere. Find a boxer that suits your style, stick with them and learn how to use them as best as you can.

Anyway, to put it simply, the gameplay has been refined to the point where -in my opinion- boxing games are now worth playing. The gameplay is surprisingly deep and the term “Easy to play, hard to master” applies here.

Story/Single player:
There isn’t really a set story to this game, as with almost every sports game, however there is the legacy mode which gives you the chance to either create your own boxer or use an existing, real life boxer, which you then take them from “Bum” to “Greatest of all time”. During this time, you have to go through tournaments, train your boxer, and take on other boxers to make your way through the ranks.

It is all very well thought out and built, great fun for those that like this sort of mode in their games, one big negative to it though, is the training, it is hard and you only get one training session for each fight! It takes ages to get your boxer anywhere through training, especially since it is so hard, with no second chances, but once you get going it is pretty good.

Online:
The online modes have a few problems, I’ve already pretty much sorted most of them myself but there is one within the championships within the online portion of the game where the current champion is passing around the belt to his multiple accounts which is stopping other people from getting the belt, I’m sure this will be sorted soon enough, but is still a problem at the time of reviewing.

I have only had a few laggy games but they have always sorted them self out after a round or two, was never that bad that the game was unplayable, so I’m fairly happy with it.

Conclusion:
The best boxing game i have ever played and one of the best sports games, this is what you call real progression in a sports franchise, this is what i would love to see for other sports games. If you’re a boxing fan and liked how the demo played, then i strongly recommend this game. I’m loving it both offline and online, been playing it almost exclusively since i received the game. Buy it, support real progression in sports games.