Hands-on with Fight Night Round 4
The year is 1987. I blow into my Mike Tyson’s PUNCHOUT! NES cartridge and sit down in front of my 3” (yes, 3 inch) portable TV praying to hear that ding-ding-ding-ding, ding-ding-ding-ding. When the game fires up, I enter the infamous 007 373 5963. I love getting punished by Tyson…
As a six year old boy, part of my daily routine consisted of needing Mike Tyson to KO me with that wild decapitating uppercut. He was Kid Dynamite, and I was Little Mac. If I could just make it past the 1st 1:30…I’ll get my revenge someday. Thanks for the training, Doc…
Here it is, 2009. Finally I get to whoop some Tyson behind. How sweet it will be! (Mike Tyson’s Heavyweight Boxing for Xbox doesn’t count, people.) So, I take a seat next to Poetic, and we boot up a pre-alpha build of the highly anticipated Fight Night Round 4. He chooses Tyson, I choose Ali. Revenge time.
We watch each fighter’s ring entrance, admire the visuals and then each take a minute to figure out the controls. Once we were both satisfied, we gave each other the “what up dude” head bob and went to work. Me jab-jabbing to keep Tyson at bay and Poetic bobbing and weaving trying to sting my chin with that famous Tyson uppercut. I didn’t make it past Round 1. Poetic caught me with a wild decapitating Tyson uppercut. Since no one felt the need to tell us that the recovery system had been changed, I was counted out. So much for my revenge…
After getting a feel for the game, or in my case the canvas, I got into the zone and punched out a few wins in a row. In FNR4, every aspect of the game has been tweaked and improved. The punches are smoother and faster than in FNR3. Punches can be thrown from numerous angles and can land or graze faces, arms, gloves, shoulders, chests and abs. Combos are easier to get off. Blocking and dodging look amazing. The detection system was a bit off, but considering we were playing a pre-alpha build and the game was more than 4 months from ship, who the hell cares? Button punching has been removed, and the right stick punching has been modified. No longer can you c0ck your punches and run around the ring looking like you just gave dap to the Fresh Prince. When facing your opponent, a quick 1 or 11 o clock flick results in a jab, a 3 or 9 o clock flick results in a hook, and a 5 or 7 o clock flick results in an uppercut. Parrying and haymakers weren’t in the build we played, although we were told to expect a variation of each.
“Styles make fights” is a huge truth in boxing, and it certainly made for a few interesting battles in Vancouver. The way each boxer moved around the ring added so much realism. And inside fighting was truly impressive. For me, it’s a more than welcome addition since it was a glaring omission in past Fight Nights. (There always seemed to be that mysterious invisible divider between you and your opponent.) Now you can lean on an opponent to get the perfect angle for the perfect punch. For example, when Poetic and I boxed, Ali was the winner over Tyson 8/10 times if Ali was able to keep Tyson away from the inside. When Tyson was able to get inside, the tables turned, and a few well placed uppercuts had Ali reeling backward toward the canvas.
The part of the game that most impressed me was the punching. I guess that makes sense since this is a boxing game, but stay with me here. Boxing has so many variables other than punching, but when it comes down to it, you win by punching out your opponent. By simply increasing the speed of the punches, EA has done a great job of capturing the sweet science’s bread and butter. No longer can you parry-punch, parry-punch (thank goodness), but you have to beat your opponent to the punch. More key additions to the punching system are multi-angle punching and multi-spot punch detection. Have you ever seen a fight where all the punches are thrown from one angle? Have you ever seen a fight where all punches land in the same spot? Didn’t think so. Being able to punch from different angles and also land punches on more than one target ensures that each fight will be different and the replay value remains high.
All in all, I was very pleased with my hands-on experience. Be aware that we only had a few hours of gaming and that we played a very early build. Seeing the recently released gameplay videos only makes me more anxious
And yes, I finally did beat Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punchout! And it remains one of my greatest gaming achievements ever...
The year is 1987. I blow into my Mike Tyson’s PUNCHOUT! NES cartridge and sit down in front of my 3” (yes, 3 inch) portable TV praying to hear that ding-ding-ding-ding, ding-ding-ding-ding. When the game fires up, I enter the infamous 007 373 5963. I love getting punished by Tyson…
As a six year old boy, part of my daily routine consisted of needing Mike Tyson to KO me with that wild decapitating uppercut. He was Kid Dynamite, and I was Little Mac. If I could just make it past the 1st 1:30…I’ll get my revenge someday. Thanks for the training, Doc…
Here it is, 2009. Finally I get to whoop some Tyson behind. How sweet it will be! (Mike Tyson’s Heavyweight Boxing for Xbox doesn’t count, people.) So, I take a seat next to Poetic, and we boot up a pre-alpha build of the highly anticipated Fight Night Round 4. He chooses Tyson, I choose Ali. Revenge time.
We watch each fighter’s ring entrance, admire the visuals and then each take a minute to figure out the controls. Once we were both satisfied, we gave each other the “what up dude” head bob and went to work. Me jab-jabbing to keep Tyson at bay and Poetic bobbing and weaving trying to sting my chin with that famous Tyson uppercut. I didn’t make it past Round 1. Poetic caught me with a wild decapitating Tyson uppercut. Since no one felt the need to tell us that the recovery system had been changed, I was counted out. So much for my revenge…
After getting a feel for the game, or in my case the canvas, I got into the zone and punched out a few wins in a row. In FNR4, every aspect of the game has been tweaked and improved. The punches are smoother and faster than in FNR3. Punches can be thrown from numerous angles and can land or graze faces, arms, gloves, shoulders, chests and abs. Combos are easier to get off. Blocking and dodging look amazing. The detection system was a bit off, but considering we were playing a pre-alpha build and the game was more than 4 months from ship, who the hell cares? Button punching has been removed, and the right stick punching has been modified. No longer can you c0ck your punches and run around the ring looking like you just gave dap to the Fresh Prince. When facing your opponent, a quick 1 or 11 o clock flick results in a jab, a 3 or 9 o clock flick results in a hook, and a 5 or 7 o clock flick results in an uppercut. Parrying and haymakers weren’t in the build we played, although we were told to expect a variation of each.
“Styles make fights” is a huge truth in boxing, and it certainly made for a few interesting battles in Vancouver. The way each boxer moved around the ring added so much realism. And inside fighting was truly impressive. For me, it’s a more than welcome addition since it was a glaring omission in past Fight Nights. (There always seemed to be that mysterious invisible divider between you and your opponent.) Now you can lean on an opponent to get the perfect angle for the perfect punch. For example, when Poetic and I boxed, Ali was the winner over Tyson 8/10 times if Ali was able to keep Tyson away from the inside. When Tyson was able to get inside, the tables turned, and a few well placed uppercuts had Ali reeling backward toward the canvas.
The part of the game that most impressed me was the punching. I guess that makes sense since this is a boxing game, but stay with me here. Boxing has so many variables other than punching, but when it comes down to it, you win by punching out your opponent. By simply increasing the speed of the punches, EA has done a great job of capturing the sweet science’s bread and butter. No longer can you parry-punch, parry-punch (thank goodness), but you have to beat your opponent to the punch. More key additions to the punching system are multi-angle punching and multi-spot punch detection. Have you ever seen a fight where all the punches are thrown from one angle? Have you ever seen a fight where all punches land in the same spot? Didn’t think so. Being able to punch from different angles and also land punches on more than one target ensures that each fight will be different and the replay value remains high.
All in all, I was very pleased with my hands-on experience. Be aware that we only had a few hours of gaming and that we played a very early build. Seeing the recently released gameplay videos only makes me more anxious
And yes, I finally did beat Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punchout! And it remains one of my greatest gaming achievements ever...
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