Victorious Boxers: Revolution review (Wii)

The end result is that you feel as if you have very little control over your boxer's movements, so you just swing wildly and hope for a knockout. It feels as if the developer recognized this because on the easy and normal settings all you have to do to win--at least for most of the story mode--is punch. Even when you do have more control over your movements, such as when you use the classic or GameCube controllers, it's tough to use any real strategy because it's hard to tell when you're hitting your opponent and when you're getting hit. A third control scheme that has you trace lines on the screen to throw punches is even more unwieldy--the Wii just doesn't seem to be able recognize movements accurately enough to make this option playable.

Like the controls, Victorious Boxers' visual style is unique but not necessarily good. It's not the developer's fault that the art style is rather ugly, considering that it's based on the anime series, but it won't be long before you've had your fill of funky-nosed, dark-haired characters that are mostly indistinguishable from one another. The cutscenes aren't in widescreen (the game doesn't even support 480p) and what's worse, they're letterboxed, so they must be viewed in a small box in the center of the screen like an early CD-based game. At least the in-ring action looks decent; everything is crisp, colorful, and cartoonlike. It's tough to say why the visuals work so well when you're fighting and not when in the story mode--they just do. One thing that doesn't work, whether you're watching the story or boxing, is the voice acting. It's downright awful. Think of actors whose first language may or may not be English, and who may or may not have seen the script before the record button was pushed, and you'll get the picture.

If you enjoy the anime, then you'll probably appreciate the game's adherence to the show's story and characters, but it's most likely too quirky for the average person looking for some straightforward boxing on the Wii. Victorious Boxers isn't awful, but it's hampered by a lousy control scheme. Sure, you can play it with a standard controller to make the action a little smoother, but even then it's just an average experience.