Don King Presents: Prizefighter user reviews (Xbox 360)

Pros most realistic boxing game you'll ever play

Cons some awkward animations, multiplayer is cheese

Summary Let me first get the bad out of the way. The multiplayer is a cheese fest, mainly due to the lousy scoring system that only takes into consideration the number of punches land. If you land 50 uppercuts and your opponent lands 60 jabs, guess who wins the round? This has resulted in players just using a leaning tactic from which one could easily hit his opponent. This could've been remedied by the fact that moving around the leaning opponent gives you the angles needed to unleash more powerful blows; however the flurry of jabs you would've been hit by counts more than the 3 or 4 heavy blows that you landed. The damage online is almost non-existent so it's almost impossible to mount a late-fight comeback KO win.

Now for the good. You have a huge arsenal of punches that add depth to your strategy. With the use of step-in and step-around punches you could literally box circles around your opponents in a calculated manner. The punches have weight and inertia and involves weight transfer, which accounts for what some people may deem as "unresponsiveness." In real life, there are laws of physics that prevent one from throwing punches as fast as they would want to. There is no animation-canceling in Prizefighter, so naturally one punch animation must be completed before the next punch could be thrown. Also, there's the stamina factor. Many times players will try to mash the buttons even when their stamina bar is empty. The result is a delayed execution of the punches. You need to use sound boxing fundamentals to beat the CPU opponents in the exhibition mode, where the sweet spot of Prizefighter truly lies. Your CPU opponents will take advantage of every opportunity and will catch you cold if you're not paying attention. Yes, there are one-punch KO's. You must develop the habit of always putting up your guard after you throw a punch and must pay attention to your stamina. A flurry of punches is sometimes enough to drain your stamina, which refills after a few seconds if you stop punching. The idea is to fight at a realistic, deliberate pace as opposed to mindless button mashing. The connect rates are very realistic, around 40% as opposed to the70% avg in FNR3.

The bottom line is that if you're a real boxing fan, you know, the type who'll stay up late to watch nameless fighters go at it oat YouTube or watch some unknowns trade leather at Telemundo, Prizefighter is the game for you. It has an EXTREMELY steep learning curve that will frustrate most gamers. But if you're a true fan of the sweet science and understand its finer points, I guarantee that you will agree that Prizefighter isabsolutely the best boxing game available today.