Fight Night Round 4 Review

I stopped being a boxing fan quite a few years ago. I enjoyed the sport back in the days when every Mike Tyson PPV was an event due to his boxing, and not biting, skills. Plus when my hometown hero Lennox Lewis ruled the roost I obviously paid attention. But the million different title holders in a million different weight classes and the rise of MMA pretty much squashed any enthusiasm I had for the sweet science.

So it was with a little trepidation that I popped in a copy of Fight Night Round 4 on my PS3 to review. The fact that I love the UFC Undisputed game made me even more doubtful that Fight Night would be able to hold my attention for long. As is usually the case, my concerns were unnecessary. Surprisingly, I love Fight Night as much as I love UFC Undisputed, perhaps even more. When I played an earlier version of the game years ago I found it difficult to master using the joystick on the controller to throw punches. Now it seems so natural, I can’t imagine button mashing instead. You want to throw a right jab, you push the controller up and to the right. A right hook, you hook the joystick up and to the right. Pretty simple stuff.

While the graphics aren’t as good as UFC Undisputed, they aren’t bad either. Most of the classic fighters that are in the game look pretty realistic, and if you want to create your own fighter you can even upload photos onto the game – nice touch. As you probably know if you’ve seen the commercials (or from the box for the game) Fight Night allows you to do “dream matchups” pitting some of the sports legends against one another, regardless of weight class or era. So if you’ve always wondered who would win, Tyson or Ali, you can now find out (sort of, in a virtual way).

My favourite part of the game is the legacy mode, where you create your own fighter and try to rise through the ranks to become a champion. Or if you can’t be bothered to create your own pugilist, you can use one of the legends in the game, with their skills stripped down, and try to bring them back to the top.

After playing Fight Night Round 4 for a while you will feel like you’ve actually boxed for 10 rounds. My eyes are bleary and my thumb sore as I attempt to write this post.

Grab yourself a copy here:

Amazon.com – PS3: Fight Night: Round 4

Amazon.com – XBox: Fight Night: Round 4

Amazon.ca – PS3: Fight Night Round 4

Amazon.ca – XBox: Fight Night Round 4