Don King Presents: Prizefighter

Prizefighter on July 25, 2008

Let us start with the much ballyhooed career mode. It all transpires through a highly detailed documentary chronicling your rise as a pro fighter. First you create your champion of choice, in which you can pretty much make him look like anything you want. There is also a decent amount of entrance songsand gear to deck him out in. The only thing you cannot change is his weight class (heavyweight) and his nickname, which is 'The Kid,' and yes that is lame. Through interviews with actors portraying fictional characters and actual managers or boxers, the journey is oftentimes a blast to watch. Storyline aside, there are many other features that keep the experience fresh throughout. For instance, at any give time your trainer will sit you down to discuss old fights, at which point you assume the role of a legendary fighter and attempt to change history or repeat it. These classic matches will unlock some of the all-time greats for use in the exhibition mode.

The gameplay is just plain awful. Punches come across sloppy, the hit detection is, to put it mildly, hit or miss, and the animations are rough. You really get the feeling while playing that with just a few more months of fine-tuning this game could have been pretty darn good. Not Fight Night Round 3 good mind you, but at least a worthy hold over title while Round 4 gets developed. The number one hiccup is the blocking, which either does not work or functions in spasms. Despite the blocking snafu, you can still win rather easily. I won nearly every fight just throwing the straight right. That's right; forget the hooks, the signature punches, and working the body, all you need is the power of the almighty straight right. Often you can land three to four in a row before the computer reacts to how cheap you are being. It's okay even if you miss, the crummy hit detection gives you the chance to knock people out as your arm is coming back from the punch you just threw. It's magnificent really, truly entertaining to watch people get hit or react to punches that miss by a mile.