Don King Presents: Prizefighter (Xbox 360) Review

Posted by Ramon Aranda on 07.04.2008

Does this latest offering to the sport of boxing offer a championship game or a journeyman effort? Read on and find out!



Title: Don King Presents Prizefighter
Publisher: 2K Sports
Type: Boxing
Players 1-2

With Fight Night Round 3 still sitting dormant as the king of the boxing games, 2K Sports enters the realm with Don King Presents: Prizefighter. This being developed by the team who created Rocky Legends, I was glad to see that a team who is familiar with boxing games was working on the new title. But does DKP land a knockout blow to FNR 3’s dominance or does Prizefighter end up on the losing side of a TKO?

Let’s find out!

Gameplay

On the surface, there are a myriad of options in the game. For starters, there’s a single player story mode, exhibition, online and offline multiplayer, create a boxer and more. I’ll start with the single player aspect of the game first. When you begin, you create a fighter from scratch, similar to what we’ve seen with EA’s Game Face, where you can control various aspects of your characters face, along with features, attire and fighting style. You’ll also select a hometown but the nickname cannot be changed for the story mode. You’ll be stuck with “The Kid” as the cutscenes and such already have that nickname preprogrammed and recorded. One other issue I had was that you could only choose a heavyweight. Again, the story mode consists of rising to the top to win the heavyweight championship so you can’t be fighting in a different division. Once the game gets going, you’re treated to a documentary style narrative about your early beginnings which seems like a breath of fresh air. You get real life cutscenes from various people that were associated with you throughout your career. This works very well and it’s something that I had been wishing for in a boxing game for a long time. You’ll also talk to fictional characters along the way who try to steer your career in one area while temptations along the way will pull you in another direction. You may decide you want to skip training one week to attend a nightclub with a hot chick, which raises your media profile (makes you more visible to the media/public and boosts your marketability and money). Doing so however means you miss out on precious training time so specific stats will be lowered. You’ll have to learn to balance that out if you want to be successful – good stuff.

The interface is pretty cool too, in that you’re in your own little office inside the gym. You have a PDA for calls, and invitations which may include trainers looking to come in and teach you something new that boosts up your stats significantly. This however, is usually at the risk of losing points on other stats and it takes up 2 weeks of training. Also you can get on the computer to look at possible opponents and get advice from your promoter as well as sign to fight. You can at anytime go into the locker room to change your look or look at your achievements, awards and overall career.

When you’re in training, each workout is like a mini-game just as you’d expect. There’s a good amount of variety in the regiments which include jumping rope, hitting the mitts, working on the punching bag, running and hitting the speedbag. The types of workouts in my opinion are more realistic and trump Fight Night. On the other hand, the workouts themselves can be pretty difficult which may piss off casual players. I on the other hand appreciate the difficulty as training isn’t supposed to be easy so those that complain that it isn’t simple enough – suck it up! The lone workout that I don’t like is hitting the punching bag. There will be circled areas to hit the bag and you have to maneuver yourself around the entire bag at time to find the spot which is a pain since your fighter usually moves too slow to get off but one punch by the time he sets up. Heavybag aside, the training works for me. Plus every workout gives you a score which ends up on the leaderboards so it motivates you to improve.

Again, the overall presentation is excellent and you feel like you’re watching a movie at time. As for the controls, that’s something different all together. Though the analog stick has been used before, the developers decided that the face buttons would be mapped to your punches. Seems like a bit of a backwards step but I could over look it. The problem though is that once you’re in the heat of the battle, the controls seem very clunky. It’s pretty easy to get confused while you are in the middle of a combination, trying to remember which button does what. Another problem I have is that the game has some pretty bad collision detection. At times, you think you just landed a perfect one-two only to realize that your punch went right through your opponent. Also you may land a swift kidney shot but your opponent reacts like he’s been hit in the mouth. When you’re on defense, things can get a bit awkward too. As a boxing fan and journalist, not to mention someone who used to make his way to the gym, I like to have excellent control of my defense as it’s a very important aspect of the sport. Unfortunately, you’ll find yourself getting tagged even though you’re clearly blocking a punch and when ducking and dodging, someone a punch will still enter, rendering the defense almost useless.

One thing I do like though is that you can build up adrenaline throughout a fight and be able to make a haymaker swing or get into a rage mode when your meter fills up. You’ll momentarily be able to take punches while inflicting heavier damage on your foe. This can be cool as in boxing, one punch can certainly change the tide of the fight and I found myself being able to do just that on a few occasions – or be on the receiving end of one.

As you progress through your career, you also will get a chance to relive some classic boxing fights from Baer-Braddock to Braddock-Louis. You’ll be given a specific challenge and should you complete it, you’ll unlock one of the fighters. For boxing aficionados, you’ll also appreciate a recap of what really happened in the historic fight. This is an excellent way of unlocking new fighters while at the same time, learning a little something about the sport, though some of the challenges can be pretty damn hard.

As for multiplayer, well of course you can select from any division and go head to head with friends or online. When you’re online, you can also have a stable of fighters each with their own records which is a nice tough. I didn’t notice much lag online as it played relatively smooth though sometimes it was hard to actually find someone to play against.

Graphics

Is the game as polished looking as Fight Night Round 3? The answer is no. But does it still look pretty good? Yes. The fighters and the venues look pretty good and you do get so see a fighter’s face become deformed during a fight. There is blood in the game though it never streams down your face, as it simply splats out after getting punched - kind of a downer. Also you don’t get to work on your fighter’s facial injuries between rounds. You’ll just see that there is some swelling which doesn’t really matter since you can’t do anything about it. The round card girls look pretty good as I’m sure you all are wondering so no worries there.

As you fighter begins to sweat, you can see it dripping off his back and when a fighter gets dropped, there are various animations that look pretty good unlike other games where the fighter looks like he’s being electrocuted. The licensed fighters are also plentiful though some of them such as Kelly Pavlik and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. just don’t resemble their real life counterparts. Some of them look like the same fighter, only slightly tweaked. Others such as Samuel Peter and Shannon Briggs look spot on.

Sound

One of the best aspects of the game is the dual commentary from HBO commentator Jim Lampley and color commentator and hall of fame trainer Emmanuel Steward. I was excited to learn that they were both in the game and though the commentary isn’t as fluid as I’d like it to be, they still work very well. You don’t get to hear them right off the bat in story mode as you’ll have to progress far enough that they’ll be televising your fight which makes perfect sense. Sound effects from punching as well as grunts and movements around the ring are pretty spot on – even when leaning against the ropes. My big problem however is that in between rounds, your trainer, along with your opponent’s trainer, will spew out the most worthless advice I’ve ever heard and I’ve heard some bad ones in my time. You may be in a close slugfest and your trainer will simply say things like “Use your feet.” If I’m fighting and I go back to my corner only to be told to use my feet or that it was a close round, I’d fire him right on the spot. No joke. With the in-game commentary being so well done, I’m amazed that the trainers give you one liners that are about as helpful as a stick of gum in a prizefight.

I will point out though that the acting job of the “characters” or personalities if you will during the game’s documentary-style cutscenes is excellent. It’s all very believable and having been and still being around many different personalities in boxing, it was very well done. It’s clear the folks at 2K Sports did their homework in that aspect.

Lasting Appeal

There’s an unfortunate catch-22 with the game. On the one hand, the story mode is very well written out and enjoyable, while being only able to select a heavyweight and going through the exact same documentary makes it difficult to want to play through more than once. Luckily, there is online multiplayer as I mentioned before and if you have friends to play with then you have plenty of reason to play.

Fun Factor

I had a great time going through the story in career mode but with the controls needing some help, I was also frustrated at time. The A.I. can be difficult to deal with at time, but more so when you know you should be wiping the mat with your opponent. The first go around will be enjoyable though.

The 411

Don King Presents: Prizefighter does some things right and other things very wrong. As a boxing purist, I appreciated things like training, the career mode which gave you a look into what a fighter deals with outside the ring and even inside the ring such as injuries. The controls however were my biggest caveat and something that made the overall experience somewhat of a drag. If I was a magician, I’d mix some of the great aspects of this game such as those I mentioned already along with the great commentary to the prettier looking and more fluid control scheme of EA’s Fight Night Round 3. If we can somehow combine these two games, we may have the most perfect boxing game ever created. Of course that’s wishful thinking but perhaps the developers can build off of what was right with this game and fix some of the issues that plagued it. I’d recommend you rent before you buy but definitely give this game a try just to appreciate the well done aspects of the sport.

Graphics	7.5	Overall they look pretty good though some boxers don't look right.
Gameplay	5.0	The controls really bring this down. Unintuitive and clunky. Collision detection issues are problematic too.
Sound	7.5	Lampley and Steward make a great team and the voice-acting is great. Trainers need to get the pink slip though.
Lasting Appeal	6.5	Tough to play though more than once but multiplayer is there to keep it afloat.
Fun Factor	4.5	Career mode is fun to go through but the actual fights can be a drag. Things can get frustrating.
Overall	6.2   [ Average ]

Screenshots
All 16 Don King Presents: Prizefighter Screenshots