E.A. Sports Fight Night 2004


Written By: Mike J. DeLisa

Game Rank (out of 10): 8.5 Replay-ability: 6

I have photos and video of the capture of the game, Click here

  On April 5th, 2004, E.A. Sports released a new boxing video game with a, (supposedly), extraordinary new control system entitled "Total Punch Control". This new system uses the Analog control sticks on the Playstation 2 or Xbox to control almost all of the gameplay, which gets very confusing. For example: In the game to throw a left hook, press the control stick to the left, then swing it up. For a jab, to the upper left, for a right uppercut, Down to the right, and swing upwards to the right. It may sound easy now, but try throwing punches right after each other, remembering what movements to move the stick, when to start blocking and weaving, (which is also an extremely difficult maneuver), where your opponent is, moving about the ring, and ducking. All this together using both analog sticks and 1 trigger button gets very confusing. To bob and weave, you use the other analog stick, with the L1 button. Without the L1 button the stick moves the character. Now how do you duck, and move away from your opponent?! You can't! Although I have been playing the game for a little over a week now, I assume after a few weeks, these movements will become 2nd nature to you, and I can only hope for the best. Besides these small flaws the game is stunning. There is an extremely deep create-your-own-boxer section, which lets you create, and tweak, which allows you to create a character looking exactly like you.
  E.A. Sports has crossed the line with the manner in which boxing is narrated. Rather than a traditional narrator, such as those in E.A. Sports MLB or NHL games, they chose to use a character named "Big T" which is short for -- well Tigger. He narrates in the same fashion as the narrator of NBA street, which is very unorthodox for a traditional boxing narrator. For example: Rather than stating - "OH, and Jones takes a hard left hook to the body!" Tigger would say "Lewis brrrrrringin' on the pain baby!". This gets excessive, and becomes very annoying.
  A very cool feature of the game is that the console assesses how you have been playing, and in-between rounds, your manager gives you advice on how to play the rest of the match. This also gives you a chance to see how much damage you've given each other, considering that the character's face gets beat up more and more through the rounds. Also, you can play online and verse people around the world!
  The only glitch I noticed in the game was in the "Create-a-boxer" section. When creating your character, it enables you to set the statistics. Normally you get a certain number of points to distribute where you please. In the regular form of the game this is true, but when creating your own boxer (which can be used in the career mode) you can set the stats as high as you want, which makes the game very easy. This stat will most likely be used on internet players, which I fear will make the games not fun :-(. Other than a few minor problems with the games makeup and portrayal, this is a very good game.

Game Rank (out of 10): 8.5 Replay-ability: 6

I have photos and video of the capture of the game, Click here

Written by: Mike J. DeLisa