It’s not often a boxing game comes along and a good one at that, Ready to Rumble was the last decent boxing game that I came across. Although it was slightly comical it was quite an overall good game. Knockout Kings 2002 is a fairly new boxing simulation from EA, will it be a knockout of a game or will it simply be a washout?

Gameplay:
Knockout Kings 2002 has only a few modes to play with; quick fight, exhibition, tournament and career. Quick fight allows you to simple pick 2 fighters and a ring and start kicking instant ass, sadly exhibition mode is no different from quick fight so there isn’t any point of it being there really. Tournament mode offers the chance to play a tournament quite simply, and then there’s the career mode allowing you to choose a boxer or even create your own and take them to the top. It’s all very well having a variety of different modes but when they start to serve little or no function you feel like part of the £40 you’ve paid has been stolen from you in some way, exhibition and career mode feel like the have little point to them as exhibition offers no more than quick fight mode and career mode is seriously repetitive as all you do after you’ve picked/created your boxer is fight, then add some stats to your player (If you win!) and then have another fight until you get to the top, which doesn’t leave us gamers with much variety as most of the boxers hardly change in difficulty.
The game itself also has some nasty parts to it, mainly the controls as there are 4 basic punch buttons, a guard and uppercut ‘modifier’ button and two totally irrelevant buttons which, if used disqualify you from a fight. Honestly EA it would have been better to leave the buttons unassigned and learning the buttons would have been far easier. Moving around an arena is very nice and easy to do with the camera always in a good angle for you to see what you’re doing, but having to make combat is far harder as without using the uppercut modifier you are completely stuffed, along with the fact that there is no easy way to dodge you opponent. Soon the game becomes a case of button bashing and after a while using the Xbox control pad s can really start to hurt your hands. There are one or two parts of the game that do look impressive, on knockout a slow-motion Matrix type effect kicks in and facial expressions and sweat are visible. Real life fighters are also included in the game from Mohammad Ali (The star of the game) to Lennox Lewis, EA once again giving the ‘official’ treatment to their games.
But the gameplay seems to have been made for the die-hard fans of boxing really, as there isn’t anything here that would attract the casual gamer, real devotion needs to be made to this game to get anywhere even if you like watching boxing on TV, this is a not the best of boxing games to play.

Graphics:
The graphics in the game look quite incredible from within the ring as all the fighters are very accurately modelled, with the physics of the game all working very well with hits registering correctly and fighters corresponding with them. Some of the most impressive parts of the graphics are the sweat and slow-motion effects used which do look very nice every time you see them, along with the ability to see fighter’s reactions, you can even see the gum shield fall out from time to time – there’s detail. In game menus all look extremely nice and of high quality, making navigating your way around the menus simple. The graphics look quite nice and have many distinctive features to them which overall give a very realistic look to the game.

Sound:
Sound isn’t overly impressive in the game, there are only 3 elements you come across in the whole game and that’s background music, sound effects and commentary. The commentary is the best out of the three with the commentary never ever repeating itself and also sounding like real life commentary too, which does give the impression that if you could only hear the game you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the game and real life. Sound effects are all good enough for boxing matches with taunts and punches all sounding pretty nice. Only the music is a slight let down here as there is only music in the in game menus, with only 2 or 3 tracks available to hear. The sound is pretty good in places but with a couple of alterations here and there the game could have added up to a lot more with a well thought out soundtrack.

Longevity:
Sadly the game doesn’t offer as much as it should really, there are only a few modes available to play some of which are the same as each other. Career mode, which is supposed to be the main mode n the whole game, is a very simplistic structure to it as there is no training involved only fights. The career mode is based upon fights and gets very repetitive. There aren’t many options in the game that can extend you playing time either, the only thing that might even be worth keeping the game for some time is the multiplayer ability which only allows two players maximum in most modes, which is good enough as you can’t really have more than 2 players in a ring at once in boxing.
Overall the game won’t last very long and will start to get repetitive mainly through the controls and gameplay that make the game difficult to get into and finish.

Round Up:
This is a game that has it’s share of good points and bad points, unfortunately most of the bad points are where it effects the game the most – the gameplay and longetivity mainly. If it were up to me I would only buy the game if I was really into boxing, which I’m not meaning it wouldn’t be worth my time and money, there have been better boxing games whether they have been simulations or not. Bottom line is don’t invest in a purchase, stick to a rental first unless you’re a boxing fan or intend to spend some time digging away at the game, which at the end of the day isn’t overly that enjoyable.

Pros:

• Nice graphics, along with great effects
  
• Great if you want to pound the crap out of something
  

  Cons:
  

  • Not much to do in the whole of the game
    
  • Only for boxing fanatics really
    
  • Controls don’t feel right, can be frustrating and a little painful after a while